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57 Comments
- xBDVx, on 06/06/2008, -1/+20Look up in the sky, you see the galaxy. Now if the earth was clear....and there was no sun, you should look in the opposite direction and see the other spiral arm. For example, in the summer you can see a bright bulge and a lot of stars because you are looking into the center of the galaxy. In the winter, we're looking at the Perseus Arm, which isn't back-lit, so it's a lot darker. However, it's impossible to see both at the same time because of out point of view.
- xBDVx, on 06/06/2008, -1/+16I think this is amazing and I wish I could get that in poster form. I love historical maps...and to think, now we have a map of our galaxy. In a few millennia there will be much more accurate maps and they will look back at this moment, chuckle, and say, 'how could they have thought this?'
- inactive, on 06/06/2008, -1/+9A big round of praise for the Spitzer team!
To be residents of the Milky Way, for years we knew very little about the morphology or structure of the our own galaxy.
We have suspected for a long time that our galaxy was a barred spiral but only recently with tools like the Hubble and Spitzer have astronomers and physicists been able to prove it.
If you want to see what a barred spiral galaxy looks like, search for a picture of NGC1300. It has a looser spiral than our galaxy but it is quite striking and is a good example of the type. - inactive, on 06/06/2008, -2/+7I enjoy seeing them, but if it's not within my daily flow of news-gathering activities...it probably won't happen. I could change my routine or i could just keep digging it...hoping others do the same. I choose the latter.
- Zipko, on 06/06/2008, -1/+6You're weird, and I bet all the kids at school make fun of you for it.
- davidhallstrom, on 06/06/2008, -2/+7One word. Fantastic. Thank you.
- rationalist, on 06/06/2008, -1/+5Dugg for a great example of how the scientific method can teach us new things about the universe without the need for magical thinking.
- Zippo, on 06/06/2008, -2/+5Our galaxy is so huge... the universe is even bigger... and man has yet to even step foot on another planet in our own solar system.
Guess that's why I'm such a fan of Star Trek... I'd love to explore the cosmos. - inactive, on 06/06/2008, -1/+4damn, mind can't compute the size our own galaxy and to think there are billions of them..bastards!
- jason210, on 06/06/2008, -0/+2"It is known that there are an infinite number of worlds, simply because there is an infinite amount of space for them to be in. However, not every one of them is inhabited. Therefore, there must be a finite number of inhabited worlds. Any finite number divided by infinity is as near to nothing as makes no odds, so the average population of all planets in the universe can be said to be zero. From this it follows that the population of the whole universe is zero, and that all people that you may meet from time to time are merely the products of a deranged imagination."
- zeebo, on 06/07/2008, -0/+2Anyone else wondered since seeing this if the reason that we've had trouble locating other intelligent species is that we're in this little insignificant wisp between the arms? Maybe there is a major galactic civilization located in them and we just haven't mattered because we're way out here.
Of course, sooner or later they're going to decide to connect up the two arms with a bypass... - DarkSpartan, on 06/06/2008, -0/+2Is anyone but me bugged by the fact that the coordinate system is centered on the sun, and not on the...gee, I don't know, center?
- drlha, on 06/06/2008, -1/+3We're looking at the Milky Way edge on (as we're inside it), hence why it looks like a band that stretches around the whole sky to us. I'm not sure why you think we'd see 2 milky ways because we're in between 2 spiral arms?
- designerutah, on 06/06/2008, -0/+2Nice visualization. Now picture this. 100 million suns in the Milky Way Galaxy. Multiply that by millions of Galaxies and 20 billion years of existence.
What are the odds that intelligent life only developed here on Earth? Personally, I think it's pretty good odds that there are other planets with intelligent life.
Assume over the entire universe we can grasp that 1 million species of intelligent life have so far evolved.
What are the odds that this life developed space faring capability? Probably not as good as the odds of developing intelligent life, but still significant. Say, about 10 percent of them, or 100,000 species can travel between the stars.
What are the odds that these races exist at a time and near enough location that their space travel would allow them to get to us while we're still around as a species? Not very good, given the amount of time and sheer distances involved. Which is why is seems so impossible that intelligent life exists elsewhere to most people. I assume it does exist, but it's just so far away that it might as well not exist. - cutchyacokov, on 06/06/2008, -0/+2Not nearly as cool as "The Big Bang Burger Bar" but definitely worth a visit, none the less.
- Cubeforce, on 06/06/2008, -0/+2Yet, even in Star Trek they don't venture out of our own milky way. The universe is ginormous!
- ELee, on 06/06/2008, -1/+3Here is a link to the two versions of the image (with and without overlay) and in multiple formats/sizes..
Artists impression of Milky Way Galaxy (links to two versions)
http://www.spitzer.caltech.edu/Media/releases/ssc2 ...
Artists impression of Milky Way Galaxy (links to image without annotation overlay)
http://www.spitzer.caltech.edu/Media/releases/ssc2 ...
Artists impression of Milky Way Galaxy (3 MB jpg)
http://ipac.jpl.nasa.gov/media_images/ssc2008-10a. ... - xBDVx, on 06/07/2008, -0/+1Don't Digg him down. It's a valid question.
That depends on your latitude. I'm assuming you're not living on the equator? That would make it directly above you (assuming that the milky way is right on the celestial equator...anyone know?). - DragonCharmer84, on 06/06/2008, -2/+3You are here (Arrow pointing to the tiny speck that is our sun).
- ChocChunkOaties, on 06/06/2008, -1/+2How come the Milky Way is always at an angle and not 90 degrees to our horizon? I know it's not the tilt of the earth as the angle never changes.
- jonasblue, on 06/06/2008, -4/+5Do we really need a front page link to the same "of the day" site EVERY DAY?
- schnikies79, on 06/06/2008, -1/+2I'll take my chances.
- inactive, on 06/06/2008, -0/+1Most stars you see in the night sky with naked eyes are those in Milky Way. You don't see one, you don't see two, because Milky Way is everywhere in 360 degree.
If you have astronomy binocular or telescope, you can see a long band of bright stars across the sky. That is the center, densest part of Milky Way, which is commonly referred to the "Milky Way". - inactive, on 06/06/2008, -1/+2Yes, but Milky Way illustrations fall into a different category. I think we all want to know what our galaxy would look like from a distance. It's likely this is the only way we'll be able to see it in our lifetimes.
- inactive, on 06/06/2008, -0/+1Don't forgot to hover your mouse pointer on the picture. You'll get light years, degrees, and especially the location of the Sun. But anyway, the pic itself is a drawing, either by a human artist or a simulation program. Possibly it is photoshopped off [name erased] galaxy.
- Sparky2112, on 06/06/2008, -1/+2Am I the only one who thinks artist illustrations of space are wonderful and a letdown at the same time? Pictures, or it didn't happen!
- meltingwax, on 06/06/2008, -0/+1I MAY BE ON EARTH NOW, BUT IT'S ONLY A MATTER OF TIME BEFORE I RETURN HOME
- george1001, on 06/10/2008, -0/+1Advanced life is probably very rare in the universe, and the distances are huge. The first radio signals from earth won't reach the other end of the galaxy for a hundred thousand years (If they're not completely blocked).
The odds of encountering any signal seem pretty low. - sdub, on 06/06/2008, -0/+1For some reason, looking at this picture, it struck me as how crazy that we refer to this as the "milky way", after milk, a byproduct of an tiny animal that lives on a tiny planet orbiting a tiny star in a tiny solar system in this tiny galaxy.
What are the odds that someone gets that view from outside the galaxy and says, "hey, looks like milk." - inactive, on 06/06/2008, -0/+1iPod = iPod.
APOD = APOD.
Unless NASA makes a iPod clone player out of it, Apple can't do a thing. - george1001, on 06/10/2008, -0/+1It was named the Milky Way because from earth to the naked eye it looks like a continuous white band across the sky. The name just stuck.
- ChocChunkOaties, on 06/06/2008, -1/+2I think i read this too, was it the Sagittarius dwarf? But I thought that that was just a theory. I thought the Milky Way should be 90 degrees to our horizon not horizontal as if we stood near our equator we would be 90 degrees to the axis of the earth. Or is it all because our axis is tilted?
- Blooper4912, on 06/07/2008, -0/+1There is another article submitted to Digg that talks about that. Here's the link:
http://digg.com/general_sciences/Scientists_Now_Sa ... - WRXFiles, on 06/06/2008, -0/+1ok..., YOU figure out how to get the camera in position for the photo, ok?
- the6thReplicant, on 06/06/2008, -2/+2Try to think in 3 dimensions and you'll get it.
- Hitchhiker57, on 06/13/2008, -0/+0We are all centered around our own navel, as a base starting point. So to place the Sun as a center or starting point just helps our tiny stone age brains get around the idea that space is BIG really BIG. As for the Catholic point of view this was designed to keep the ignorant in check and rob them of their money and self will to think!! Also the idea wasn't first off Christian, but came from Byzantine philosophy
- velvethead, on 06/06/2008, -2/+2Wish I could see the image without the overlay...
- Hitchhiker57, on 06/13/2008, -0/+0Regretably, for intelligent life (as we vainly call ourselves) can only seem to advance by making war on it's own kind. Is the sacrifice of millions worth this so called progress, in the hope that one day we may truly progress to advancement and peace?
- jubalj, on 06/07/2008, -0/+0or you could just mouse off, the overlay is only present when your mouse is over the picure
- Hitchhiker57, on 06/13/2008, -0/+0At a rough guess you'd need to be about 2 million light years away so for anyone to still be alive when you say "Hey that's the Milky Way isn't? Looks more like washing in a washing machine used too look, back in the 21st century." We shall never really know, shall we. But it's fun to imagine, all part of thinking, therefore I am.
So lets rename our home galaxy from this point of view. I'll go for Shaky - Baronvontito1, on 06/06/2008, -1/+1Wow. That's unreal. The milky way can totally kick your galaxy's ass.
- pitchblack16, on 06/06/2008, -2/+2looks cool
- Aeroslin, on 06/06/2008, -2/+2A beautiful melding of imagination and science.
- dmkirt, on 06/06/2008, -2/+2Awesome!
- freelancerb, on 06/09/2008, -0/+0We are so not alone! Look what a tiny, unpopulated (few stars) corner of the universe we occupy. No one could provide me with a compelling argument why the rest of the universe doesn't support intelligent life. I wonder if other civilisations out there somewhere have spread beyond their own galaxy yet?
- Hitchhiker57, on 06/13/2008, -0/+0I salute Gene Rodenberry, just watch out for species 8472
- jgwinner, on 06/06/2008, -2/+1This is your Galaxy.
This is your Galaxy on Dark Energy.
Just say no!
Seriously, it's very cool to see where we live.
== John == - Coolmatt49, on 06/06/2008, -3/+2Dugg for "Galactic Bar".
Never drink and drive in the universe. - Sc4v3ng3r, on 06/06/2008, -1/+0Thats because Christianity was right. WE are at the center of the universe. Pr4is3 da lawwrd!
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