Interstellar Cirrus Clouds!!!

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Interstellar Cirrus Clouds: Composed of microscopic dust particles throughout our galaxy.
Note that this image is a panoramic shot looking out at the Milky Way from Earth. The bright streak in the middle is the plane of our galaxy and the wispy cirrus clouds are clearly visible above and below the plane.

I just read about interstellar cirrus clouds in our galaxy for the first time and I love that the name for the wispy high-altitude clouds we have in our very own terrestrial atmosphere is used to describe wispy gigantic structures of interstellar dust which obscure our view out of the Milky Way!! They DO look very similar, so I think it's a very appropriate name. They were only discovered in the 1960s. Check out this website to learn more! And, of course, Wikipedia.


Cirrus Clouds on Earth: Composed of ice crystals high in the atmosphere. Now that you've read this blog post I bet you'll start noticing Cirrus clouds in the sky all the time! Just look up!

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