Why don't we see a spiral shape when we look up at the Milky Way?

Answer 1

Because we are inside it. When we look at the milky way we are looking along the plane of the galaxy. If you were in a crowd of people all around you and that crowd had a spiral shape, you could not see in from your position on the ground; all you would see is a mass of people. That is why when we look at the milky way all we see is a mass of stars.

Answer 2

We're in the Milky Way. The only way we could see its spiral shape is if we left it and looked down on it from millions of light-years away.

Answer 3

Sorry but the Milky way has never been in a spiral. It is more of a wave.

Answer 4

We are in one of the arms of the Milky Way so we can't see the entire shape of the galaxy.

Answer 5

We should change our observation point to see the shape of our spiral galaxy, a good point would be someplace perpendicular to the galactic plain, maybe 100000 light years away.

Answer 6

because we are in the spiral if you look at other galaxies you can see the spiral. Light pollution is all so no help

Answer 7

IT DOESN'T LOOK SPIRAL BECAUSE WE ARE IN THE SPIRAL, NOT ABOVE OR SOMEWHERE NEAR IT. ONLY THE OTHER GALAXIES LOOK SPIRAL BECAUSE WE CAN SEE THEM FROM A DISTANCE.

Answer 8

Because we're in the middle of it ☺

All we can 'see' are the stars between us and the core, and between us and the rim. And that distance is so large (compared to the distance from us to either of the 'faces'), and contains so many stars, that it appears to be a dense 'line' of stars across the sky.


Doug

Answer 9

ya have to spin around.

Answer 10

We are in it.