In case you mean pictures like this; http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/82/Milky_Way_Galaxy.jpg - they are not actually images of the Milky Way. As you’ve guessed, we can’t directly see it in its full spirally goodness from the inside. Instead, these pictures are either artist’s impressions based on scientific understanding, or pictures of different galaxies that are reckoned to be pretty similar to the Milky Way.
Though someday we may find a gigantic space mirror that allows us to see our own galaxy by zooming in on it enough.
The space mirror will be formed by some weird gravitational pattern that happens to send light back the way it came. Not like literal glass floating in space. Just some kind of optical distortion that acts as a mirror.
But we’ll be looking at our galaxy a long time ago.
Over 26000 years ago if the mirror was placed at the very edge of the milky way. I wonder how many light years away the mirror would have to be to fit the whole image of the galaxy inside it.
I just can’t even begin to get my head around those numbers, I am a tiny insignificant ant.
In case you mean pictures like this; http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/82/Milky_Way_Galaxy.jpg - they are not actually images of the Milky Way. As you’ve guessed, we can’t directly see it in its full spirally goodness from the inside. Instead, these pictures are either artist’s impressions based on scientific understanding, or pictures of different galaxies that are reckoned to be pretty similar to the Milky Way.
Though someday we may find a gigantic space mirror that allows us to see our own galaxy by zooming in on it enough.
The space mirror will be formed by some weird gravitational pattern that happens to send light back the way it came. Not like literal glass floating in space. Just some kind of optical distortion that acts as a mirror.
But we’ll be looking at our galaxy a long time ago.
Over 26000 years ago if the mirror was placed at the very edge of the milky way. I wonder how many light years away the mirror would have to be to fit the whole image of the galaxy inside it.
I just can’t even begin to get my head around those numbers, I am a tiny insignificant ant.
It would more be a matter of the diameter of the mirror. It could be one inch outside the galaxy and give us a view of the galaxy.