• Question: Is there anywhere we can see half a galaxy?

    Asked by nicenadia to Alessandro, Angela, Claudia, Marina, Phil on 9 Mar 2013.
    • Photo: Phillip Wilkinson

      Phillip Wilkinson answered on 9 Mar 2013:

      Very good question! Roughly from where the Earth is in the Milky Way we can see 0.000003% of the 200-400 billion stars in the galaxy. ->

      So not very much at all. But in theory if we were in a space ship and traveled far enough away from the Galaxy. Then maybe it would look something like the picture above. However, seeing as the Milky Way is 120 000 light years (10 000 000 000 000 000 000 00 meters) across, and the furthest man made thing from Earth is the Voyager 1 space craft is only 0.002 light years away it might take us a while!

      Read more: http://www.universetoday.com/23173/the-milky-way-from-earth/#ixzz2N4GCHvvt

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