The Cow & The Milky Way In a dark farm field of New Hampshire Stephen Ippolito was photographing the Milky Way's brilliant starry glow when a herd of cows trotted by him. After several tries he snapped a photo of the Milky Way right above a cow. Once my 8-year-old niece asked me "Why is our galaxy called Milky Way?" I didn't know and bluffed an answer— "There's a cow up in heaven making milk, next to the constellation Taurus the Bull, the Zodiac sign when your Mom was born." Now I learn my guess was not so far fetched— The word "galaxy" came from the Greek "Galaxias Kuklos" meaning "Milky Circle" associated with a herd of dairy cattle. In Greek myth, Zeus placed baby Hercules on his sleeping wife Hera's breast to suckle. When she woke, she pushed the baby away and the spilt milk became the Milky Way. Chinese legend tells of Niu Lang & Zhu Nu— two lovers separated by the Milky Way's Silver River, who met on a magpies bridge on the seventh day of the seventh month. The Milky Way is known to Estonians, Finnish & Latvians as "Way of the Birds", Norwegian & Swedish as "The Winter Way", Irish as "Great Fence of Stars" & "Fair Cow's Path". To Egyptians, our galaxy is a pool of cow's milk, and the Hindu god Krishna is a cow herder, god Vishnu churned a milk ocean for nectar. Perhaps this universe is inside a Cosmic Cow.   — Peter Y. Chou       Mountain View, 12-16-2015

Stephen Ippolito, "The Cow & The Milky Way" photographed in New Hampshire, 9-11-2015 Space.com, November 10, 2015