Editing Zone of Avoidance (section)

{{Short description|Area of sky obscured by the Milky Way}}
[[File:Milky_Way_infrared.jpg|thumb|300x300px|The Milky Way creates a Zone of Avoidance for local observers.]]
The '''Zone of Avoidance''' ('''ZOA''', '''ZoA'''), or '''Zone of Galactic Obscuration''' ('''ZGO'''),<ref name="VC-20221103">{{cite news |last=Ferreira |first=Becky |title=Scientists Discover Huge 'Extragalactic Structure' in Hidden Region of Space - The obscured "zone of avoidance" in space is a place of mystery, and scientists are peering at what's inside it. |url=https://www.vice.com/en/article/scie-discover-huge-extragalactic-structure-in-zone-of-avoidance/ |date=3 November 2022 |work=[[Vice (magazine)|Vice]] |access-date=3 November 2022 }}</ref><ref name="SA-20200714">{{cite news |last=Starr |first=Michelle |title=A Giant 'Wall' of Galaxies Has Been Found Stretching Across The Universe |url=https://www.sciencealert.com/a-giant-wall-of-galaxies-has-been-found-stretching-across-the-universe |date=14 July 2020 |work=ScienceAlert.com |access-date=19 July 2020 }}</ref> is the area of the sky that is obscured by the [[Milky Way]].<ref>{{Cite book|title=Astronomy encyclopedia|last1=Robinson|first1=L. J.|last2=Tirion|first2=W.|last3=Moore|first3=P.|publisher=Philip's|year=2002|location=London, UK|via=Credo Reference}}</ref>

The Zone of Avoidance was originally called the '''Zone of Few Nebulae''' in an 1878 paper by English astronomer [[Richard Proctor]] that referred to the distribution of "[[nebula]]e" in [[John Herschel]]'s ''[[Catalogue of Nebulae and Clusters of Stars|General Catalogue of Nebulae]]''.<ref name="Kraan-Korteweg">Kraan-Korteweg & Lahav. 2000, p. 2</ref>