is the picture of the galaxy real??

Question

if it is real,how do astronomers got the idea of its shape and what about the universe??how do they found out?like how do these astronomers know that the milky way is disc-shaped with spirals?

Answer 1

The picture is real....
Scientists were firstly confused for shape of our galaxy like scientist herschel but as we got powerful telescopes,
We found that all galaxies evolve from an elliptical galaxy (which were found small) to a spiral galaxy...

If we consider human, for example,
If an alien comes to earth for a day and he observed a baby for the whole day,
He will not find any changes in it.. BUt at the same time, if he obsserves other men, old men, young men etc, He can know the adaptation of human....
Same thing we done about galaxies......

Now about milky way,
scientists made the following image of milky way from simple sky
http://www.richardbell.net/Astrophotos/Images/milkyway.jpg
If you look at the image carefully, you will find that there is a central bludge, one black line is seen passing through it....
Hence, With referance with andromeda galaxy,
http://imagecache2.allposters.com/images/pic/SPA/1341~Andromeda-Galaxy-Print-Posters.jpg

Scientists predicted the structure of milky way like this::::
http://www.wwu.edu/depts/skywise/a101/milkyway.jpg

Answer 2

Yes and no.

There are numerous photographs of OTHER galaxies. See the first source. Those are actual photographs of real galaxies.

There are photographs of the Milky way. See the second source. This is what our own galaxy looks like from the inside. You can just look up and see it if you have a dark enough sky. Because of street lights, no city has a dark enough sky; you need to go far from the city lights to see it. Before electric lights were invented, everyone had seen it, but 90% of modern people have never seen it because they never look at the sky from a dark rural place.

By painstakingly measuring the distances to different stars and dust clouds and gas clouds in the Milky Way, astronomers have constructed maps or artistic representations of what the Milky Way galaxy might look like from outside. These are not photographs, but they are real in the sense that a map is real. See the 3rd source.

Answer 3

Astronomers have done enough research to have a general idea of the shape of the galaxy, including the distribution of stars in the various spiral arms. They started by seeing OTHER spiral galaxies and then noticing that the distribution of stars in our own galaxy fit the same pattern.

Pictures that have been published of the spiral pattern of the Milky Way galaxy are computer generated, based on knowledge of the positions of many stars, and the general star density of other regions of the galaxy. Clearly, no vessel has left earth and traveled to a vantage point where such a photograph could be taken. Even if a vessel WERE at such a vantage point, it would be hundreds of thousands of light years from earth, and the image would take those hundreds of thousands of years to be transmitted back to us.

Answer 4

Scientists have seen many galaxies through Telescopes. The HST (Hubble Space Telescope) has shown scientists and astronomers marvelous pictures of distant galaxies. All the galaxies they have observed basically are disc shaped and why should the milky way galaxy be the only exception. Most of the pictures though of the milky way are just imaginative and created. It is not possible to see the milky way because we are in it, so its not possible to take a picture of it.

Answer 5

We know of the shape of the Galaxy by measuring a lot of things about it. For example, we measure star densities in all directions and we notice that there are more stars in some directions than in other directions.
We then measure the distribution of star distances in all directions and we note that in some directions (away from the Galactic disk) most stars are close to us, with very little distant stars, while in other direction (in the direction of the disk's plane), the distances are more generally distributed until we can't see further because of dust clouds.

The dust clouds themselves are also a good indication. We can study them with radio telescopes and we can determine how they move relative to us. By mapping the orbital speed of dust clouds around the Galactic centre, we get the distribution of dust AND the distribution of gravity (by getting the distribution of orbital speeds in relation to positions).

It is the plotting of these clouds (position, speed, distance, etc.) that gave the image of a spiral shaped Milky-Way Galaxy.

Harlow Shapley noticed that the globular clusters (which are distributed all around the Galaxy, not just in the disk) were all bunched up in one direction. He supposed that they should be equally distributed around the centre of the Galaxy and calculated that we were not at the centre of the Galaxy but quite a bit away.

There exist pictures of the Milky-Way as seen from the inside (and, of course, we cannot see the entire Galaxy because the dust gets in our way). These pictures are real (even if sometimes enhanced for contrast or color or whatever else).

Images of the Milky Way Galaxy as a spiral seen from the outside are reconstructions from all the various data (including radio telescope data), with lots of "filling in" by computer for the regions we can't detect. We use other similar spirals as models.

Answer 6

The picture of the milky way? That's not real because we are in it so how can we take a picture of it, its an artists interpretation. They know its spiral because of various techniques using sensitive equipment and complex mathematics. Go to www.astronomy.com if you want to know more.

Answer 7

Yes.

They have photographed the galaxy from numerous places on Earth and from outer space telescopes and all pictures show the same thing. Also, our galaxy is not the only disk shaped galaxy with spiral arms inside of it. At least 9 others exist and can be seen with large telescopes.

The Universe is large, so large that most people cannot comprehend its magnitude because their experiences on Earth have not provided them with any frame of reference to associate the numbers with.

For example: Astronomers who are using the world's best optical telescopes can see objects in Deep Space at distances up to 13 Billion Light Years away in all directions from Earth. Beyond that the telescope fails to give them any useable information...a failing of the telescope, not the ending of space...

Scientists using Radio Telescopes have detected objects in Deep Space at distances of up to 40 Billion Light Years away from Earth in all directions.

Those distances are simply huge.

To see some photos of Deep Space go to:

www.takahashiamerica.com

and look at their galleries of photos

Answer 8

Its real. Proved by calculation and theorys.

Answer 9

From all the pictures sent back from space. Some of them are colorized though. I think mathematicians get involved with fancy equations.

Answer 10

yes! its real.