Science News: Amazing View of the Milky Way

December 1, 2011 at 11:51 am | Posted in Regular Feature, Science News | Leave a comment
Tags: milky way, Tunc Tezel

This stunningly gorgeous image of our own galaxy was photographed by skywatcher Tunc Tezel on Mangaia, Cook Islands.  Tezel, there to watch a solar eclipse, took advantage of the opportunity and captured this prize-winning photo.

So how is it possible to get a photo of our galaxy from our galaxy?  According to Popsci, Tezel could do it because Earth is way out on one of the spiral arms of the Milky Way (we’re a spiral galaxy, by the way, just like the GFFA).  Our galaxy is 100,000 light years across and with our sun about 26,000 light years from the galactic center, we can look back towards the center and see a lot of our own galaxy.  Gives a new spin to living on the fringes.

That bigger mass over there on the left of the image is the galactic core.  Sagitttarius and Scorpius are there as well as Alpha and Beta Centauri, the Southern Cross and the Coalsack nebula.

It really is a beautiful universe, isn’t it?

Posted by Synlah for Roqoo Depot