Great Rift


Great Rift

A chainlike complex of large dark nebulae that more or less obscures the light from a narrow but extensive band of the Milky Way between the constellations Cygnus and Sagittarius.

Great Rift

[′grāt ′rift] (astronomy) An apparent break in the Milky Way between Cygnus and Sagittarius caused by a series of large, dark overlapping clouds about 100 parsecs (2×1015 miles or 3×1015 kilometers) distant in the equatorial plane of the Galaxy.