OUR MILKY WAY GALAXY

26 000 light-years

The most inspiring naked-eye object in the sky is our own galaxy, the Milky Way. This mosaic of photographs taken in Germany and Namibia shows some of the billions of stars that make up our galactic neighbourhood, along with reddish clouds of hydrogen gas and a dark obscuring lane of interstellar dust.

Credit: Eckhard Slawik.