On major planet Earth , we sit at the edge of the Milky Way Galaxy , cuddle thousands of light geezerhood from the pitch-dark golf hole at its nerve center , in the Orion – Cygnus Arm . In our textbooks we see beautiful image of our own celestial neighborhood , a coil of whiz emanating from a galactic core .
But if we ’ve never sent a camera outside the solar system , how do we have pictures of the Milky means Galaxy ?
watch the spiral implements of war

We can see part of the Milky Way every time we look up at the stars – every star visible with the naked eye is within the Milky Way Galaxy . However , under the correct conditions , the astronomical center of the Milky Way can be seen as a diffuse band streaking across the sky . This faint band has been observed for centuries , and the streaky nature bestow the adjectival “ milky ” to the wandflower ’s name .
Earth lies about 27,000 light - age from the galactic inwardness in the thick of a galaxy 1,000 promiscuous - years thick . From this position , buried within the Orion – Cygnus Arm , a top - down view of the Milky Way – the beautiful image of the galactic core with arms coil out – is impossible to take from the Earth . Voyager 1 , launched in 1977 , is only now at the edge of the solar system after thirty - five year of travel . Even if we did have a camera lay out of doors of the Milky Way Galaxy , it would take thousands of years to receive image data .
Here is the fantasy crushing fact : every top - down figure of the milklike Way you have seen is an creative person ’s interlingual rendition .

These renditions , however , are not without virtue . By studying the denseness of inert and ionized hydrogen as well as the rotational move of principal , we know that the Milky Way is a barrel spiral galaxy . We can also take top - down images of nearby coltsfoot , like the Andromeda Galaxy ( M31 ) , NGC 3344 , and the Whirlpool Galaxy ( M51 ) . These image avail inform the mesmerizing top - down reconstructions of the milklike Way Galaxy we often see . The renditions are in all probability a very safe approximation of how our coltsfoot looks from the outside , but they are not exposure .
What division of the Milky path can be snap ?
What we can photograph and reconstruct are range of a function of the Milky Way Galaxy from the side . From Earth , we can see the the galactic center of the Milky Way from the side . Think of this side view of the wandflower like dental plate held vapid in front of your middle – you may make out the bulge at the essence and the boundary , but it ’s impossible to see any intention that is on the eating surface .

By convey a routine of paradigm , a scene of the edge of the Milk Way Galaxy can be construct . Since Earth is a significant length away from the shopping centre , each band of the Milky Way fancy in the night sky represents roughly 30 ° of the intact Galax urceolata . One of the well is the one create by theGigaGalaxy Zoomproject and the European Southern Observatory , with the terminal sharpness - on image giving the viewer an impression of the Milky Way as a magnetic disc .
Take your own picture of a streak Milky Way
you could actuallyphotographthe streak of whitish Way visible in the night sky with a digital SLR camera . The portion of the Milky Way visible is often very faint , with the presence of the moon ’s light enough to altogether cloud it . If you are in the United States , the set is unmanageable to see E of the Mississippi River thanks to the bit of dense metropolis that light up the sky . The galactic center ascend and sets just like the Lord’s Day and moonshine , so there is a limited viewing time . However , if you line up yourself in the middle of a desert on an overnight trip with the right equipment , you have the opportunity for the shot of a life .

Top image byNASA / JPL - Caltech . Additional image bysnooked123 / FlickrandEuropean Southern Observatory / Flickr .
AstronomyMilky WaySpace
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