How do they take pictures of the Milky Way Galaxy?

Question

Are they artists renderings? No space craft has traveled out that far. How can they take a picture of the galaxy that we are in?

Answer 1

You might see an image, such as one like this > http://www.utahskies.org/image_library/deepsky/messier/m031/M31-RobertGendler.jpg , which might be referred to as an image of our galaxy, however, it is not. Yes, that is a real galaxy (the M31 galaxy), which lies millions of light years away from our galaxy.



Basically, our Milky Way Galaxy is a Barred spiral galaxy type galaxy. All Barred spiral galaxies look basically the same - so we can use other Barred spiral galaxies to get an idea what our Milky Way Galaxy looks like.



The only images we have of our galaxy are ones like this > http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/9e/Milky_Way_IR_Spitzer.jpg , which is an infrared image of the center of our galaxy.

Answer 2

You can certainly see photographs of the Milky Way as we can see it from a dark location. There are some stunning images that show the bright central region with the spiral arms stretching across our sky - just like we can see it on a nice summer night - from the inside of that spiral. There are also photographs of the same regions with higher magnification taken through telescopes that may show thousands of stars packed into the frame of the image. That's what we would see if our eyes were sufficiently large to collect all that light at once - like a telescope.



But if you see an image depicting the entire Milky Way Galaxy - or even a portion of it - as seen from a vantage point outside the galaxy, then that image is indeed an artists rendering and not a photograph. We have taken no photos from any location that is substantially external to our own solar system, much less our own galaxy.

Answer 3

The television series "Cosmos" had brilliant visuals. Most of which were animations, as I recall, and were not represented as actual photographs. Pictures of actual galaxies aren't that hard to come by. There is this thing called the Hubble space telescope. It sits in orbit around the Earth, and is dedicated to taking fantastic pictures of deep space objects. I don't know why you seem so skeptical about such things. If the series "Cosmos" had featured a sequence showing that space telescopes can take spy pictures of your neighbors for a government conspiracy to keep alien visitations secret, I imagine you'd have no problem believing the lot of it. And how is it that the Mars rover sending pictures wirelessly to Earth is unbelievable, while 10 year old kids sending pictures wirelessly from cell phones seems mundane? And why is it that people think that the government does evil, conspiratorial things to perfection, while at the same time believing that government is incompetent to do even simple things like taking an innocent photograph?

Answer 4

If you see a picture of the milky way that looks like a spiral galaxy from a vantage point outside the galaxy it is an artist's rendering. It is possible to know the shape of our galaxy and our position in it by taking multiple observations from different vantage points as the earth rotates on its axis and around the sun.

Answer 5

Two ways. First with a wide angle lens from Earth. Although taken from inside the Galaxy, it gives a good representation of what the galaxy would look like if seen edge-on from another galaxy. Secondly, artists renderings based on the known location of our Galaxy's spiral arms, determined by radio astronomy using the 20-cm hydrogen line. Close to the Sun we can map stars and nebulae in three dimensions.

Answer 6

Any image you see of the Milky Way is an artist's rendering; there are no photographs since like you say we've never ventured outside the Milky Way. There are actual photos of the nearby Andromeda Galaxy that are often used to show what we believe the Milky Way looks like.

Answer 7

You answered your own question. Most pictures of the galaxy are artist renderings. Others, those from within the galaxy, are pictures from Hubble or other telescopes.



The renderings are still pretty accurate. They are made using references of other galaxies we can see, which match our own's patterns.



Also, sometimes, the images used are just those pictures of other spiral galaxies.

Answer 8

There are no pictures of the Milky Way except from our own vantage point inside it. The spiral structure is not directly visible. You're either seeing paintings, computer-generated images, or pictures of other galaxies.

Answer 9

Scientists use the Hubble Space Telescope. They've used it to capture the "Hubble Deep Field" image.

Answer 10

pictures from satellites, generated images from waves received, there are lots of ways to visualize what "telescopes" capture whether they are visible or radio waves, etc.

Answer 11

using very hi-end telescope probe or satellite i suppose

Answer 12

i think they have a special camera made.

Answer 13

with a really really really really really really really really really really powerful camera.