You've almost certainly seen photos of the Milky Way , usually taken by photographers who travel way out into the middle of nowhere to get them. They're cosmically beautiful, colorful and timeless. Now, for a brief period, it's possible for you to catch a direct glimpse of the Milky Way.
The Milky Way -- no, not the candy bar -- is Earth's home galaxy. NASA describes it as "a spiral galaxy with a disk of stars spanning more than 100,000 light years," and the space agency notes that Earth is located along one of the galaxy's spiral arms, about halfway from the center. Our solar system takes about 240 million years to complete a single orbit of the Milky Way.
Even though we're part of the Milky Way, we can sometimes see the central disk of it arcing across the sky, looking like a "faint, milky band of light," NASA notes. Earth is right in the thick of the proverbial action , which means the Milky Way is visible between February and October, or most of the year. However, the majority of the US has a chance to see it only for a grand total of about a dozen days across four months, depending on one's location.
The first two weeks of July are a prime time to catch a glimpse of our cosmic neighborhood. Once July 13 comes and goes, you'll have to wait until early August to try again. Spotting the Milky Way isn't nearly as rare as spotting solar eclipses or planet parades , but it's arguably harder in most ways.
Where eclipses and planet parades are fairly visible from the backyard of.
