AVOIDANCE, ZONE OF

region characterized by an apparent absence of galaxies near the plane of the Milky Way Galaxy and caused by the obscuring effect of interstellar dust. It was so called by the American astronomer Edwin P. Hubble. The zone of avoidance can be penetrated only by observations made in the far infrared end of the electromagnetic spectrum. It is entirely a local Milky Way effect. Millions of external galaxies are thought to lie beyond it.