So I’ve been watching a lot of video’s about how small we are compared to the universe. ( like [this](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9rrG5Nppaew&ab_channel=DANIELKAMARUZAMAN) ). And I don’t understand one thing. How do we know what our milky way looks like? And how do we know what the other millky ways look like?
In: Earth Science
Every picture you see of our own galaxy from the outside, like a top down view is at least partly an artist’s rendition
We can tell for the most part where most stars at though just from where they are in the sky. Earth also happens to be pretty close to the outside edge so most of the galaxy is visible as well.
Some parts though like stars of the far side, esp those directly opposite the galactic core we can’t see at all cause of the stuff in the way.
So computer analysis gives you most of it, and we fill in the gaps by assuming out galaxy is more or less symmetrical.
Other galaxies we can just look at to get the general shape of, though similarly, anything that looks too detailed is likely an artististic representation.
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