wow! I guess I will have to postpone reading my next book and spend a few hours exploring. Makes the size of the MW and the universe more concrete and real. Great find! Thanks!
Glad everyone enjoyed that as much as I did. The part that astounded me was the gigantic area surround the black hole with virtually nothing in it.
This photo does still not resolve the controversy over whether ours is a barred or a bar-free spiral galaxy.
If you got Google earth you can find it there on the sky maps , I could not find a planet in that direction planets move anyway, but to locate it your best bet is using the constellations the tip of the arrow of Sagittarius seems to be close mind you Im looking at a map not into the night sky.
Neato. Check out this pic of a supermassive black hole. It looks like a negative to me. Does anyone know? I didn't know there's a controversy about our galaxy being barred or unbarred. Do you have some good links, Peter? I don't see any notation of where our solar system is in all that - (the OP's link to the "glimpse"). Anyone know?
This is not spam, i downloaded the freebie and have considered the full version, its not expensive. But try the free one and play with the gravity to get jupiter to fall in closer to the sun, interesting how over time if you get it to cut into the earth orbit, all the inner planets eventually lose their proper orbit. http://universesandbox.com/ update just started it up, the freebie is a hour or 2 of simulation. Reran jupiter and set it to cut into mercurys orbit, then warning for 30 mins left came up.
Here. Should get you on a right track. A controversy exists because no clear optical image exists of the central part of Milky Way. You need to rely on infrared imagery which in this case is fuzzy at best. http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap050825.html
meh.. I prefer the Sloane Digital Sky Survey. There are also several amateur sky surveys that are so fantastic that you can literally see the galactic arm that we reside in curving away from us.
