Symphony in Blue - NASA

Space is beautiful, especially our galaxy! Thought I would share...

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Like early explorers mapping the continents of our globe, astronomers are busy charting the spiral structure of our galaxy, the Milky Way. Using infrared images from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope, scientists have discovered that the Milky Way's elegant spiral structure is dominated by just two arms wrapping off the ends of a central bar of stars. Previously, our galaxy was thought to possess four major arms.

This artist's concept illustrates the new view of the Milky Way, along with other findings presented at the 212th American Astronomical Society meeting. The galaxy's two major arms (Scutum-Centaurus and Perseus) can be seen attached to the ends of a thick central bar, while the two now-demoted minor arms (Norma and Sagittarius) are less distinct and located between the major arms. The major arms consist of the highest densities of both young and old stars; the minor arms are primarily filled with gas and pockets of star-forming activity.

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[edit on 27-8-2009 by tmayhew01]

This is a different view of the milky way. I always thought it was a more dense, clouded, spiral. With this artists' perception, I get a clearer look.

Very cool.

I remember a thread that showed this picture and gave the location of our solar system. It made you realize how small we are. It was one star. then take into account the amount of galaxies out there. there has to be hundreds of planets just like ours with people wondering if they are alone as well.

reply to post by tmayhew01

Now that deserves to be called "awesome" a word a very rarely use. It's images like there I imagine when people try to persuade me that we are privileged and alone in the Universe. Bollocks!

Thank you and kind regards, M.

reply to post by network dude


This is the location of our sun in regards to the Milky Way

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That is an awsome image!
To think that that is only ONE of billions of galaxies, there is no way in hell we are alone in the universe.

The second image posted, instead of saying Sun, it should say "You are here!"