Who and how did we get a picture of the milkyway and our position in it?

Question

looking through old science books i ran across a photo stating the name and origin of our own galaxy. And the position of our solarsystem. who do we have to thank for this info?

Answer 1

There are actual images of the entire galaxy, but from our position within the disk, it looks a lot like an edge on thin disk with a galactic bulge. The earliest image of our galaxy that I know of was assembled from IRAS data. The DIRBE experiment aboard COBE also produces a some nice ones (COBE was a mission to explore the microwave background radiation left over from the big bang. DIRBE was aboard that spacecraft to characterize the diffuse infrared foreground, namely our galaxy, so its contribution could be removed from the microwave measurements).

DIRBEs shorter wavelength infrared channels trace the stars in the galaxy nicely so you can see the bulge:http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap000130.html

The longer wavelength channels are more sensitive to dust:http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap000517.html

Note that these are all sky images probably using a Molleweide projection. The centers look towards the center of the galaxy, but the edges look directly out (away) from the center. This is a "wraparound" view.

Answer 2

What you saw in your science book must have been an artist's depiction of what we believe the Milky Way looks like. There are no photographs showing the entire Milky Way because no man-made object has ever left it.

Astronomers have mapped much of the Milky Way from our position inside it by carefully plotting the density of stars and interstellar gases in all directions and combining these data with what we can see of the Milky Way's core.

Answer 3

There are at least 3 gigantic telescopes that I know of. The most recent one was placed in South America. There is also one in Mexico and I believe there is also one in California. The last one in South America was made in Germany and I believe that is how they find the newest planets and moons. I cannot think of the names of any of them though. Someone else has to help.

Answer 4

Telescopes do the job