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These sorts of images always makes me wonder about how many of the images of the universe we see, are how they look from our perspective, vs how they look from
by augustl 5y ago
These sorts of images always makes me wonder about how many of the images of the universe we see, are how they look from our perspective, vs how they look from "above" etc.
I suppose this one is from our perspective?
How we know that the arms of the milky way are bent when viewed "from above"? Imagine if they were straight lines when viewed from above. From our perspective, they would appear to be spiraling arms, since the light at the far end of the arm would take longer to reach us.
I'm not doubting astrophysics here, I'm just a layperson that wonders how these things are properly taken into account.
- nbaugh1 5y agoI'm guessing, in terms of angle (ie "above" or "our perspective"), this is pretty much what you'd see. We collect data sitting here on planet earth, so more or less, everything we see is from the same vantage point in the universe. The overall size and shape of things can be calculated by relative motion of objects in space. We also can make educated guesses about the shape of our own galaxy by observing others from the outside.
- Nition 5y agoOne day humanity will gain the ability to simulate these filaments as viewed from directly top-down and discover that the lines converge to spell out TEXT GALAXY PLEASE IGNORE.