Page "Thomas Wright (astronomer)" Paragraph 3

Wright is best known for his publication An original theory or new hypothesis of the Universe ( 1750 ), in which he explains the appearance of the Milky Way as " an optical effect due to our immersion in what locally approximates to a flat layer of stars.

" This idea was taken up and elaborated by Immanuel Kant in his Universal Natural History and Theory of Heaven.

Another of Thomas Wright's ideas, which is also often attributed to Kant, was that many faint nebulae are actually incredibly distant galaxies.

Thomas Wright wrote: