View of the Milky Way from above.
When viewed from above the Milky Way looks like a spiral galaxy.
Click on image for full size
Milky Way
Mayans seem to have thought of the
Milky Way as the mystic road along which
souls walk into the underworld. Crossing the Milky Way at the constellation
Scorpio is the ecliptic, the apparent path of the
sun,
moon, and
planets as
they move against the background of
stars.
The ecliptic was depicted as a
two-headed sky-serpent with its body marked with astronomical signs. Mayans
tracked their creation stories in relation to the movement of the stars across
the heavens.
They believed that the point at which the Milky way appeared as a
vertical band in the night sky represented both the growth of the maize stalk
and the moment of creation.
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