2006-09-06 19:41:04 · 8 answers · asked by Ashmita 1 in Science & Mathematics ➔ Astronomy & Space
The galaxy isn't spherical. And we have no pictures that were taken from the outside.
2006-09-06 19:43:16 · answer #1 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
It wasn't until the developement of telescopes that astronomers began to have an ideal of what our galaxy's shape was like, or it's size and structure. In 1610, Galileo was the first to observe the Milky Way in detail and discover it was a vast tract of stars (although he didn't know it was our home galaxy). It wasn't until 1755 that Immanuel Kant surmised that it was a much larger mass of stars. Astronomers such as William Herschel attempted to measure our galaxy by actually counting observable stars in different regions of the sky (kind of like polling).
It wasn't until the 1920's that astronomy got a large boost. Edwin Hubble was able to prove that distant spiral nebula were in fact distant galaxies. Also another astronomer, Harlow Shapley, used the cataloging of globular clusters. This observation led to the first rough guestimate of our galaxy's size and makeup (it was pretty close too...by about 75%). Based on Shapley's research, Robert Julius Trumpler refined errors caused by light absorption by dust in the galactic plane, and by studying open star clusters, the present picture of our galaxy was pretty much complete.
Later in 1944, Hendrik van de Hulst used microwave radiation studies to determine our galaxy had a bar structure at its center. Further studies of our galaxy's rotation revealed the presence of dark matter, making our galaxy more complex than what would be normally observed. And with the Hubble Space Telescope and other instruments, we're finding more facets of our galaxy than we could have imagined.
2006-09-07 04:22:24 · answer #2 · answered by swilliamrex 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Our galaxy, the Milky Way Galaxy, is anything but spherical. It is a spiral and our planet is way out on one of the arms of that spiral. Out in the boonies, so to speak. That's why you can see what we call the Milky Way. You are actually looking at the main body of our galaxy when you observe the Milky Way, that thick band of stars that traces across the night sky.
2006-09-07 02:47:53 · answer #3 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
This is a very hypothetical situation. We assume that our galaxy is spherical because in general that is how stars, planets, moons, and other space objects tend to form, and it isn't really spherical, it is more or less oblong and spirally. as for photos of the galaxy...what photos, sure there are artist renderings based on speculative information, but to my knowledge no photo taking missions have reached much past the middle of our solar system, and even those were a little shaky.
2006-09-07 02:49:49 · answer #4 · answered by asmul8ed 5 · 0⤊ 1⤋
our galaxy is a flat spiral not spherical. we are about 2/3 of the way along one of the spiral arms. we can take pictures of our own galaxy only from inside the galaxy itself. we do have many pictures of spiral and elliptical galaxies, these are all pictures of other galaxies in our universe, most have been taken by the hubble space telescope.
2006-09-07 07:08:05 · answer #5 · answered by jen_82_m 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
First of all our galaxy is oval.The scientific reasoning for the collision of planets has not been solved hence we have no other go but to believe that our galaxy is oval.
2006-09-07 09:59:29 · answer #6 · answered by SABHA A 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Check our galaxy in the following.
http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/0501/milkyway_garlick_big.jpg
2006-09-07 06:26:15 · answer #7 · answered by dinu 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
some questions have no answers
hust dont wonder about such things
;-)
2006-09-07 02:43:42 · answer #8 · answered by jay Z 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋