Galaxies???

[Rustmonkey]

This is probably a real newb question but i was once told that the only silly question is a question unasked.

i have just been looking at some of your amazing astrophotography and was wondering about the galaxy images. As far as I am aware we are in the Milky way which itself has millions, if not billions of stars and that if we could view it from the outside would look similar to Andromeda or other similar galaxies??

assuming that we are between 1/2 to 2/3 of the way from the centre of our galaxy why can't we see the huge light mass that can be seen in centre of the Andromeda. I assume it is a huge cluster of stars where the central axis resides. Seeing how big this cluster looks......how come we can't see the cente of our Galaxy.

Sorry if that question is too deep but I'm renowned for obscure questions and answers.

Regards:icon_scratch:

[West End Wendy]

The centre of our galaxy is in Sagittarius. This constellation can be seen in the Summer but rarely gets very high from Britain, so it's not ideally placed.

The centre of the galaxy is, in any case, hidden from view by clouds of dust and can only be "seen" in wavelengths outside the visible spectrum.

Tim

[slowhand]

Hi Rustmonkey

I think because we are seeing galaxies millions of light years away they are condensed so you see all the components compressed together. If for example you see a copse of trees in the distance they can appear dense but as you get closer, even to the point of being amongst them, they can infact be quite open.

Not sure if this is what you are getting at?

Slowhand

[Syntarsus]

Good question so keep 'em coming. The deeper the better as far as I'm concerned. I had no idea of the answer so learned something here.

[Chris H]

You can but the galactic core is best viewed from the southern hemisphere. Google Milky Way from southern hemisphere and look at the images the centre of the galaxy is very obvious.

[proflight2000]

Just on the issues of numbers of stars. It is said that there are more stars than there are grains of sand on earth.

[dynamo]

here's a panorama of our milky way galaxy from the european southern observatory in Chile.

ESO - eso0932a - The Milky Way panorama

This magnificent 360-degree panoramic image, covering the entire southern and northern celestial sphere, reveals the cosmic landscape that surrounds our tiny blue planet. This gorgeous starscape serves as the first of three extremely high-resolution images featured in the GigaGalaxy Zoom project, launched by ESO within the framework of the International Year of Astronomy 2009 (IYA2009). The plane of our Milky Way Galaxy, which we see edge-on from our perspective on Earth, cuts a luminous swath across the image. The projection used in GigaGalaxy Zoom place the viewer in front of our Galaxy with the Galactic Plane running horizontally through the image — almost as if we were looking at the Milky Way from the outside. From this vantage point, the general components of our spiral galaxy come clearly into view, including its disc, marbled with both dark and glowing nebulae, which harbours bright, young stars, as well as the Galaxy’s central bulge and its satellite galaxies. As filming extended over several months, objects from the Solar System came and went through the star fields, with bright planets such as Venus and Jupiter. For copyright reasons, we cannot provide here the full 800-million-pixel original image, which can be requested from Serge Brunier. The high resolution image provided here contains 18 million pixels.

[themos]

If you google for "edge on galaxy" images, you will see lots that show how the dust clouds stop us from seeing inside their core, too.

[Chris H]

Just on the issues of numbers of stars. It is said that there are more stars than there are grains of sand on earth.

Is it stars or galaxies? When you see deep field Hubble shots every part of space has lots of galaxies.

[en51nm]

Is it stars or galaxies? When you see deep field Hubble shots every part of space has lots of galaxies.

It's the number of stars, although you are right in thinking that the famous Hubble deep field is made up mostly of galaxies.

[Chris H]

It's the number of stars, although you are right in thinking that the famous Hubble deep field is made up mostly of galaxies.

It could be galaxies too we don't know how many are out there.

[Rustmonkey]

Thanks Dynamo for that amazing image and everyone else for your explanations. That image is truely awe inspiring.

[UnderTheRain]

Indeed when I sit down to actually think about the numbers of stars, galaxies and the vastness of space and what might be out there ir's pretty awe inspiring

[stevetynant]

Indeed when I sit down to actually think about the numbers of stars, galaxies and the vastness of space and what might be out there ir's pretty awe inspiring

I'm sure I read somewhere though that only 300-350 are actually named in the sense that they are catelogued and numbered but only a tiny, tiny percentage are Milky Ways or Saturns or Polaris -

[kenmyers]

I'm sure I read somewhere though that only 300-350 are actually named in the sense that they are catelogued and numbered but only a tiny, tiny percentage are Milky Ways or Saturns or Polaris -

There is only one Saturn and only one polaris and one milkyway.

[stevetynant]

I can remeber shelf fulls of Milky ways when I was a kid

[kenmyers]

lol

ahhh I'm the Mooon

[dynamo]

Thanks Dynamo for that amazing image and everyone else for your explanations. That image is truely awe inspiring.

You're most welcome Rustmonkey.

Indeed an awe inspiring image.

There are many fantastic images on the ESO site,

I spend hours on there (and here of course), in awe and amazement.