Picture of the Milky Way?

[NebraskaSky]

This is probably going to sound like a ridiculous question. I was just wondering... you know that famous picture of the Milky Way that has an arrow pointing to it that says "You Are Here"... Well, I wanted to know whether this was an artists conception or a real photo and, if the latter, how was it taken?

[renormalised]

Artist concept. Unfortunately, we don't as yet have the technology to be able to get a great piccie like that:sadeyes:

But we're getting there:)

However, even at warp 9, it would take the Enterprise nearly 60 years of travel time to get to the vantage point that photo would have to be taken at:)

[DavidU]

This illustration Michelle?

[NebraskaSky]

Yes that's the one haha. It always puzzled me as to how we could have taken a photo of the Milky Way from an external perspective when no human telescope has left the galaxy...

I just read some articles about the Spitzer Space Telescope so I sort of understand how the artist conceived the idea now :P

[stephenb]

I great image to show off to non-astro people. Does anyone know the author?