Plurality of worlds in Wright's theory of the universe, 1750. The illustration shows the hypothesis that there are many solar systems and galaxies like ours throughout the universe. This page is from 'An original theory or new hypothesis of the Universe' (1750) by English astronomer Thomas Wright (1711-1786). In this book Wright gave the first explanation of the appearance of the Milky Way as being due to our immersion in a layer of stars. He proposed that the Sun is one of many stars orbiting around a Divine Centre and that the stars are distributed either in annuli (rings) or in thin, concentric, spherical shells. Here, he depicts numerous galaxies, each with the Eye of Providence at its centre, filling an infinite universe.