Why is it possible to see the milky way galaxy if we are apart of it?

Question

What can we see of it? The actual arms and swirls or just stars apart of it? I'm not completely sure, can someone possibly give me an indepth explanation. Thanks!

Answer 1

Put your hand up in front of your face. You can see it, right? Well, your eyes are a part of your body, yet they can still see other parts of your body. Our galaxy is the same way. We are part of it, but we can still see other parts of it with our telescopes. Although it doesn't look like a big magnificent spiral from where we're standing, we can determine how far away different stars are and by combining that with the density of stars in certain areas we can figure out how the galaxy is shaped (and from the outside, if we could make it out in the blackness of space, it would look like a big magnificent spiral). These techniques have been known for a long time, and the spiral shape of our galaxy has also been known for at least most of a century.

Answer 2

Our solar system is located in the nether regions (far away from the center) of our galaxy (the milky way).  When we see the milky way in the night sky, we are actually looking towards the center, more concentrated region of our galaxy.  

You are actually seeing stars, planets, asteroids, and all kids of other debris that orbit the center of our galaxy.

Many people believe the center of our galaxy to be a black hole.  With a gravitational force so great that it causes matter closer to the center to orbit faster than matter farther away from the center.  This is what causes the spiral shape of our and many other galaxies.

Answer 3

Hillary is correct and I cant really give a better answer, or Logic's Logic. Yes the band of milky white we see is from us looking towards the center of our galaxy.

Answer 4

If you stand in a middle of a road that goes to the top of a mountain, you can see some parts of the road even though you are actually a part of it. It is the same principal with Milky Way. It is so vast and big that we can still see some parts of it even though we are actually a part of it.

Answer 5

Imagine a disc. A CD or a frisbee or something. The Solar System would be about two-thirds of the way out. So, looking in toward the centre of the disc, you are looking through the centre of the galaxy, which is filled most densely with stars. If you look to the edge of the disc, you see stars spread out loosely all over the place.

The centre of the galaxy is the Milky Way, and we can see it because a galaxy is not a solid thing - it is made up of mainly empty space, even though there are billions of stars in the galaxy.

You can't see the arms from inside the galaxy. You'd have to be thousands if not millions of light years above OR below the galactic plane in order to make out any of the arms.

Answer 6

Fortunately, the sun and our solar system is slightly off the ecliptic of the galaxy so that we have a view which enables us to detect some of the spiral arms but not the entire galaxy. The shape and number of arms of the galaxy are obtained from inference and may not necessarily what it really is.

Answer 7

we don't really see it.... (not the whole thing... we see one single band of stars that are part of our galaxy, but you can't see the whole thing.)scientists have built up an image of what it would look like if you were standing far away and observing it, by observing other spiral galaxies, and comparing them to us.... among other things (but the ability to study other galaxies really is what enabled us to see our own for the first time)

ok you can stop with the thumbs down, i didn't say this is the only way we've built up an image of our galaxy..... but my answer isn't wrong....

Answer 8

its kinda like trying to map a forest when you are inside it and not allowed to move about... luckily, the trees talk to us.