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The Milky Way is one of the billions of galaxies in the universe. A galaxy consists of billions of stars slowly orbiting the central region of the galaxy, which has so many stars and so much mass that it forms a gravity potential where all stars and gas orbit around, just like the Earth orbits the sun. Were it not for black dust clouds scattered throughout our galaxy, we would see our Galaxy (especially the central region near the constellation Sagittarius) as a very bright light source, or band, of nebulae and stars. Time-exposures of the Milky Way reveal the dark dust clouds blocking most of the light from the center of the galaxy.

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