How do we know what the Milky Way looks like?

[Admin]

Directly mapping the Milky Way is an extremely challenging task, but observations of other galaxies helped us piece together what our home galaxy looked like.

How do we know what the Milky Way looks like? : Read more

 

[Pogo]

Sorta like guessing the size and shape of a vast forest from the viewpoint of a sparrow living on one branch of one tree.

 

[Marc2001]

We won't know the true size & shape of our galaxy until some very, very distant time in the future when we will have the technology to send some sort of spacecraft to intergalactic space at a speed much, much faster than light to get a still or video of it.

 

[Questioner]

Just like the actual truth,
not the mythical 'singular absolute eternal truth',

the Milky way looks however it does depending on when, where & how you view it.
The intersection of many varried actual truths gives a more stereoscopic/comprehensive view.

In explicit language what i believe they meant was
"how does the Milky Way look maybe half a million light years away centered perpendicularly 'above' the fragmentary disk of stars."

Clear, explicit questions help to find clearer more accurate 'answers'.

 

[Questioner]

(fell short of my own critique)
should have included in the visible spectrum, (about) now.