The Milky Way is the galaxy that contains our Solar System, with the name describing the galaxy's appearance from Earth: a hazy band of light seen in the night sky formed from stars that cannot be individually distinguished by the naked eye. The term Milky Way is a translation of the Latin via lactea, from the Greek γαλαξίας κύκλος. From Earth, the Milky Way appears as a band. Galileo Galilei first resolved the band of light into individual stars with his telescope in 1610; until the early 1920s, most astronomers thought that the Milky Way contained all the stars in the Universe. Following the 1920 Great Debate between the astronomers Harlow Shapley and Heber Curtis, observations by Edwin Hubble showed that the Milky Way is just one of many galaxies; the Milky Way is a barred spiral galaxy with a diameter between 200,000 light-years. It is estimated to contain 100 -- more than 100 billion planets; the Solar System is located at a radius of about 27,000 light-years from the Galactic Center, on the inner edge of the Orion Arm, one of the spiral-shaped concentrations of gas and dust.

The stars in the innermost 10,000 light-years form a bulge and one or more bars that radiate from the bulge. The galactic center is an intense radio source known as Sagittarius A*, assumed to be a supermassive black hole of 4.100 million solar masses. Stars and gases at a wide range of distances from the Galactic Center orbit at 220 kilometers per second; the constant rotation speed contradicts the laws of Keplerian dynamics and suggests that much of the mass of the Milky Way is invisible to telescopes, neither emitting nor absorbing electromagnetic radiation. This conjectural mass has been termed "dark matter"; the rotational period is about 240 million years at the radius of the Sun. The Milky Way as a whole is moving at a velocity of 600 km per second with respect to extragalactic frames of reference; the oldest stars in the Milky Way are nearly as old as the Universe itself and thus formed shortly after the Dark Ages of the Big Bang. The Milky Way has several satellite galaxies and is part of the Local Group of galaxies, which form part of the Virgo Supercluster, itself a component of the Laniakea Supercluster.

The Milky Way is visible from Earth as a hazy band of white light, some 30° wide, arching across the night sky. In night sky observing, although all the individual naked-eye stars in the entire sky are part of the Milky Way, the term "Milky Way" is limited to this band of light; the light originates from the accumulation of unresolved stars and other material located in the direction of the galactic plane. Dark regions within the band, such as the Great Rift and the Coalsack, are areas where interstellar dust blocks light from distant stars; the area of sky that the Milky Way obscures is called the Zone of Avoidance. The Milky Way has a low surface brightness, its visibility can be reduced by background light, such as light pollution or moonlight. The sky needs to be darker than about 20.2 magnitude per square arcsecond in order for the Milky Way to be visible. It should be visible if the limiting magnitude is +5.1 or better and shows a great deal of detail at +6.1. This makes the Milky Way difficult to see from brightly lit urban or suburban areas, but prominent when viewed from rural areas when the Moon is below the horizon.

Maps of artificial night sky brightness show that more than one-third of Earth's population cannot see the Milky Way from their homes due to light pollution. As viewed from Earth, the visible region of the Milky Way's galactic plane occupies an area of the sky that includes 30 constellations; the Galactic Center lies in the direction of Sagittarius. From Sagittarius, the hazy band of white light appears to pass around to the galactic anticenter in Auriga; the band continues the rest of the way around the sky, back to Sagittarius, dividing the sky into two equal hemispheres. The galactic plane is inclined by about 60° to the ecliptic. Relative to the celestial equator, it passes as far north as the constellation of Cassiopeia and as far south as the constellation of Crux, indicating the high inclination of Earth's equatorial plane and the plane of the ecliptic, relative to the galactic plane; the north galactic pole is situated at right ascension 12h 49m, declination +27.4° near β Comae Berenices, the south galactic pole is near α Sculptoris.

Because of this high inclination, depending on the time of night and year, the arch of the Milky Way may appear low or high in the sky. For observers from latitudes 65° north to 65° south, the Milky Way passes directly overhead twice a day; the Milky Way is the second-largest galaxy in the Local Group, with its stellar disk 100,000 ly in diameter and, on average 1,000 ly thick. The Milky Way is 890 billion times the mass of the Sun. To compare the relative physical scale of the Milky Way, if the Solar System out to Neptune were the size of a US quarter, the Milky Way would be the size of the contiguous United States. There is a ring-like filament of stars rippling above and below the flat galactic plane, wrapping around the Milky Way at a diameter of 150,000–180,000 light-years, which may be part of the Milky Way itself. Estimates of the mass of the Milky Way vary, depending upon the method and data used; the low end of the estimate range is 5.8×1011 solar masses, somewhat less than that of the Andromeda Galaxy.

Measurements using the Very Long Baseline Array in 2009 fou

Finhaut is a municipality in the district of Saint-Maurice in the canton of Valais in Switzerland. Finhaut is first mentioned in 1293 as Finyaux. Finhaut has an area, as of 2011, of 22.8 square kilometers. Of this area, 3.2 % is used for agricultural purposes. Of the rest of the land, 2.6% is settled and 67.8% is unproductive land. The municipality is located in the Saint-Maurice district, in the upper Trient valley on the French border, it consists of the hamlets of Giétroz and Le Châtelard. Lac d'Émosson is a reservoir located in the municipality; the 17th stage of the 2016 Tour de France ended near the dam. The blazon of the municipal coat of arms is Gules, a Castle Argent embattled with three towers windowed Sable middle one roofed in chief two Arrows Or in saltire. Finhaut has a population of 379; as of 2008, 17.2% of the population are resident foreign nationals. Over the last 10 years the population has changed at a rate of 6.4%. It has changed at a rate of 0 % due to births and deaths. Most of the population speaks French as their first language, German is the second most common and Italian is the third.

As of 2008, the population was 46.9 % female. The population was made up of 47 non-Swiss men. There were 143 29 non-Swiss women. Of the population in the municipality, 175 or about 55.0% were born in Finhaut and lived there in 2000. There were 52 or 16.4% who were born in the same canton, while 43 or 13.5% were born somewhere else in Switzerland, 35 or 11.0% were born outside of Switzerland. As of 2000, children and teenagers make up 23.3% of the population, while adults make up 57.5% and seniors make up 19.2%. As of 2000, there were 134 people who never married in the municipality. There were 12 individuals who are divorced; as of 2000, there were 130 private households in the municipality, an average of 2.4 persons per household. There were 46 households that consist of 11 households with five or more people. In 2000, a total of 129 apartments were permanently occupied, while 172 apartments were seasonally occupied and 69 apartments were empty; as of 2009, the construction rate of new housing units was 2.7 new units per 1000 residents.

The entire Finhaut area is designated as part of the Inventory of Swiss Heritage Sites In the 2007 federal election the most popular party was the CVP which received 55.09% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were the FDP, the SP and the SVP. In the federal election, a total of 183 votes were cast, the voter turnout was 66.3%. In the 2009 Conseil d'État/Staatsrat election a total of 165 votes were cast, of which 8 or about 4.8% were invalid. The voter participation was 64.5%, much more than the cantonal average of 54.67%. In the 2007 Swiss Council of States election a total of 178 votes were cast, of which 12 or about 6.7% were invalid. The voter participation was 65.4%, much more than the cantonal average of 59.88%. As of 2010, Finhaut had an unemployment rate of 2%; as of 2008, there were 7 people employed in the primary economic sector and about 3 businesses involved in this sector. No one was employed in the secondary sector. 106 people were employed with 29 businesses in this sector.

There were 157 residents of the municipality who were employed in some capacity, of which females made up 40.1% of the workforce. In 2008 the total number of full-time equivalent jobs was 80; the number of jobs in the primary sector was 2. There were no jobs in the secondary sector; the number of jobs in the tertiary sector was 78. In the tertiary sector. In 2000, there were 28 workers who commuted into 64 workers who commuted away; the municipality is a net exporter of workers, with about 2.3 workers leaving the municipality for every one entering. Of the working population, 14.6% used public transportation to get to work, 42.7% used a private car. From the 2000 census, 275 or 86.5% were Roman Catholic, while 14 or 4.4% belonged to the Swiss Reformed Church. 14 belonged to no church, are agnostic or atheist, 15 individuals did not answer the question. In Finhaut about 121 or of the population have completed non-mandatory upper secondary education, 26 or have completed additional higher education.

Of the 26 who completed tertiary schooling, 50.0% were Swiss men, 23.1% were Swiss women. As of 2000, there were 30 students in Finhaut who came from another municipality, while 24 residents attended schools outside the municipality. Chemin de Fer de Martigny au Châtelard Col de la Forclaz Le Châtelard Official website Finhaut in German and Italian in the online Historical Dictionary of Switzerland

La Plata is an Amtrak train station in La Plata, United States and is a passenger stop for Amtrak's Southwest Chief long-distance route between Chicago and Los Angeles. It was built in 1945 by the Atchison and Santa Fe Railway as a replacement for an 1887 passenger and freight depot, in deteriorating condition. Efforts to replace the station were stalled by a lack of construction material during World War II; the 1945 replacement was built in Art Deco style, was restored between 1996 and 2001 by local preservationists, a model railroad club, a garden club. It hosts a Virtual Railfan camera. Truman State University, north 12.5 miles in Kirksville. A. T. Still University, north 13.7 miles in Kirksville. Moberly Area Community College, south 45.9 miles in Moberly. La Plata, MO – Amtrak La Plata Amtrak Station La Plata, MO Trails and Rails