Picture of the Milky Way?

[NebraskaSky (Michelle)]

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 (Carl)]

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

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 (Dave)]

This illustration Michelle?

[NebraskaSky (Michelle)]

Originally Posted by DavidU

This illustration Michelle?

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

[stephenb (Stephen)]

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