If we reside inside the Milky Way galaxy, how do we know what it looks like?
by 
blackfront00
ANSWERS: 5
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The distances to stars can be measured using several techniques, and since we know the direction to the stars , we can plot their positions on a 3D map (or 2D with some projection). With enough of the stars plotted, you can get a pretty accurate picture of the shape and size of the galaxy. At least that's how I'd do it... I don't know how it was actually done :)
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We have various techniques for measuring the distances to celestial objects. By taking the direction to an object and its distance from us, we can plot its location in space. Thus, even though we are inside of the Milky Way, we can figure out what it looks like by plotting the locations of the objects that we can "see". (Here, seeing includes using much more of the electromagnetic spectrum than just visible light. Dust in the galaxy blocks much of the visible light from other parts of the galaxy, but it does not block other frequencies.) The attached picture, is what we think our the Milky Way looks like.
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We can see what it looked like because by the speed of light it would take 100,000 years to get from one end to the other. So if we look in the sky we can actually see the past and see what the milky way looked like hundreds of thousands of years ago. When you look at a star, if it's a million light years away you are seeing what it looked like a million years ago. In real time it has moved it's location and may even have exploded but we haven't seen that yet. We won't see it until the light has traveled a million years. Did you get that? We can see what it looked like many years ago becuse of the speed of light. The whole galaxy is travling in space also so it is not static.
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yes...we can plot the stars we see, but with the hobble telescope now we can plot the ones we can't see using different light spectrums
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Basically, its a matter of looking at the bigger picture. We know how to see out to the stars, and we can measure their distances from us, and each other. After time, we were able to put all of the data together, and make an image.
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