Milky Way
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Milky Way
The galaxy that contains our solar system. From Earth, it appears as a bright, milky band in the night sky.
In einer klaren Nacht auf dem Land kann man das Band der Milchstrasse mit blossem Auge erkennen.
On a clear night in the countryside, you can see the band of the Milky Way with the naked eye.
The word is made up of 'Milch' (milk) and 'Straße' (street/road). The name arose because the bright band in the night sky looks like a spilled, milky trail or road.
Astronomen erforschen die Struktur unserer Milchstraße.
Astronomers study the structure of our Milky Way.
People often speak of the 'Band der Milchstraße' (band of the Milky Way). Typical verbs in this context are 'sehen' (to see), 'beobachten' (to observe), or 'fotografieren' (to photograph).
Mit einem guten Teleskop kann man viele Details der Milchstraße beobachten.
With a good telescope, you can observe many details of the Milky Way.
'Die Milchstraße' (the Milky Way) is used both in the scientific language of astronomy and in everyday language when talking about the starry sky.
Schau mal, heute Nacht sieht man die Milchstraße besonders gut!
Look, you can see the Milky Way especially well tonight!
universe
'das Universum' and 'die Milchstrasse' both belong to the topic of outer space, but they do not refer to the same thing. 'Das Universum' means everything: space, time, stars, galaxies, matter, and energy. 'Die Milchstrasse' is only one specific galaxy, namely the galaxy in which our solar system is located. The words can be confused because both seem very large and often appear together in astronomy contexts. The important point is: the Milchstrasse is part of the universe, not the whole universe.
In einer klaren Nacht kann man die Milchstrasse als helles Band am Himmel sehen.
On a clear night, you can see the Milky Way as a bright band in the sky.
Im Unterricht haben wir gelernt, dass das Universum sich ständig ausdehnt.
In class, we learned that the universe is constantly expanding.