14.7: The Milky Way Galaxy’s Shape
In his 1755 work Allgemeine Naturgeschichte und Theorie des Himmels , Immanuel Kant (1724-1804) correctly hypothesized that the Milky Way Galaxy might be a rotating body of an innumerous number of stars that were held together by gravitational forces, much like our Solar System yet on a more-grand scale. Kant based his work on that of Thomas Wright.
Here, you see a prepared sketch by William Herschel of the Milky Way Galaxy’s shape based on his 1785 star counts. Herschel believed the Solar System was at or near the center of his sketch.