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We can't see the entire Milky Way galaxy but we can see the stars in it. It's similar to being in a forest and seeing the trees.

2006-07-08 12:03:10 · answer #1 · answered by April C 3 · 7 3

First off, everything you can see in the night sky is in the Milky Way Galaxy, except in the southern hemispheres you can see the large and small Magellanic Clouds (satellite irregular galaxies) and in the northern hemisphere, if you know where to look and on a clear night, you can see the Andromeda Galaxy, a neighbor galaxy 2.4 million light years away, part of the local group of about 12 galaxies. The Andromeda contains about 200 billion suns, while our Milky Way contains about half that many. We can infer what our galaxy looks like through such things as radiotelesope images of the core of our galaxay, and with other means too lengthy to go into in this forum, but we know that our galaxy is what is known as a barred spiral. We can see other examples of barred spiral galaxies in deep space, so we have an idea of what our galaxy looks like. Moreover, through mapping of the band of the Milky Way's disk that encircles the Earth, which you can see with the naked eye and from where we get the name "Milky Way," we can project that 360 degree field of view onto a flat photgraphic plate and we can get a pretty good idea of the makup of the spiral arms of the galaxy. We are located in the Orion Arm of the Milky Way, by the way. The arms of a galaxy are really interesting too. It's not that the "arms" of the galaxy rotate, it is that the star fields that aren't as noticeable right now form the "dark " parts of our galaxy. Those dark areas aren't as lit up as the arms because they haven't rotated through the gravitational field lines that shape our galaxy. When they do, gravitational forces causes the interstellar molecular clouds within these dark areas to collapse, triggering starbusts along those field lines, and then you can see an "arm" of starfields that make our galaxy's structure look like the blades on a windmill. Our local group of about 12 galaxies, a group of galaxies spanning a few million light years, is gravitationally attracted by and moving towards a large cluster of galaxies (the Virgo cluster) composed of thousands of galaxies, which are in turn gravitating towards a very large assembly of galaxies (tens of thousands) called the Virgo Supercluster. That supercluster in turn seems to be moving towards some huge stretch of galaxies, like a wall, called the Great Wall or Great Attractor. It doesn't stop there, and perhaps not even after 14 billion light years, since light from beyond that distance hasn't had time to reach us yet. Allright, too much information. I just love thinking about this stuff though.

2006-07-08 12:26:56 · answer #2 · answered by Anonymous · 0 0

No, the photograph hasn't been faked. in the process the summer season, in case you get faraway from city lighting fixtures, you are able to particularly view a element (no longer all) of the Milky way. to work out the finished Milky way galaxy, you may must be outdoors of it, & our sunlight (and subsequently the Earth and the photograph voltaic gadget) could be chanced on close to to the internal rim of the galaxy's Orion Arm. The Milky way is a barred spiral galaxy a hundred,000–a hundred and twenty,000 gentle-years in diameter containing two hundred–4 hundred billion stars. in case you go with to renowned what a sort of looks like, look at photos of the Andromeda Galaxy, which we can quickly photograph.

2016-12-14 05:42:09 · answer #3 · answered by ? 4 · 0 0

Although it's impossible to see the entire galaxy from "a birds-eye view" we can see a very high percentage of it throughout the span of a year as the night sky changes with the tilting of the Earth on it's axis. On very clear nights in areas of the world where there is little interfering light from cities or other sources one can get a large and spectacular view of the galactic center by locating the denser star patterns.

2006-07-08 12:13:06 · answer #4 · answered by Winter Wolf 2 · 0 0

Yeah. Most of the stars we see in the night sky are probably from the Milky Way. It's not like we're on the edge of the galaxy and always facing away from it so we can't see anything. We're part of one of the arms of the pinwheel-shape of the galaxy. We're surrounded by other stars in the same galaxy. We can't see the entire galaxy, but we can see part of it.

2006-07-08 12:06:13 · answer #5 · answered by hermione_bjc_06 4 · 0 0

No. You can only see parts of it. It's like being downtown at night and looking at all of the street lights versus seeing the city lit-up at night in a satelite photo.

2006-07-08 12:17:37 · answer #6 · answered by Anonymous · 0 0

I don't think so.

2006-07-08 12:19:56 · answer #7 · answered by Anonymous · 0 0

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