How do we really know what the Milky Way looks like?
Only in very rough terms. We know it is a spiral type galaxy, possibly of
class SBc or Sc, and we know very roughly where the major spiral arms are
located, but as for details equivalent to photographic accuracy, we do not
know. All we know are where some of the major star forming regions, nebulae,
star clusters and large gas clouds are located. There are several competing
'models' of what the Milky Way looks like from outside.
The above image shows the Milky Way from our location and was taken by the COBE satellite at 3.5 microns in the infrared spectrum.
Copyright 1997 Dr. Sten Odenwald
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