The Milky way refers to a bright milky band across the starry sky. The Milky Way intersects the celestial equator in the constellation Aquila and is in the northern hemisphere. The Milky Way delineates a belt with different widths in the celestial sphere, called the Galactic belt. Its widest part is 30 °, the narrowest part is only 4 ° ~ 5 °, with an average of about 20 °. This is only a part of the galaxy.

Since ancient times, the magnificent Milky way has been the object of observation and research. Thousands of years ago, people had all kinds of conjectures about the Milky way. In Chinese myths and legends, the Milky way is a river in the sky; In ancient Greek mythology, people believed that the Milky way was paved with the milk of Hera. It was not until Galileo first pointed the barrel of the telescope at the Milky way that he found that the Milky way was composed of countless stars.

Around the world, many creation myths have developed around the Milky way.

In ancient Greece, there were two fairy tales explaining how the Milky way was formed. Some myths combine the Milky way with constellations, while others believe that they’re herds of cattle whitening the dark blue sky. In East Asia, it is believed that the misty belt between the stars in the sky is a silver river, the Milky way.

In Finnish mythology, the Milky way is called the bird's path because they notice that migratory birds rely on the Milky way to guide them when they migrate to the south. They also believe that the Milky way is the real residence of birds. Scientists have confirmed that this observation is correct. Migratory birds do rely on the Milky way to guide them to live in the warm southern land in winter.

In Sweden, the Milky way is considered the winter road, because in Scandinavia, the winter Milky way is the easiest to see in a year. Ancient Armenian mythology called the Milky way the way of straw thieves. It describes a God who tried to escape heaven with a wooden truck after stealing straw but dropped some straw on the way.