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back to article Earth receives picture postcard of Milky Way

Astronomers at the European Southern Observatory (ESO) have agreeably given we Earthlings a pretty good idea of what our Milky Way galaxy would look like, were we looking at it from the depths of intergalactic space. The ESO describes its snap of NGC 6744 as "almost a picture postcard" of our home, featuring "striking spiral …

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  1. Christoph

    So where's the ...

    "You are Here" arrow?

    (and the "Your luggage is over here" arrow)

    11 0
  2. ravenviz Silver badge
    WTF?

    Make your mind up

    I thought the Milky Way is a barred spiral these days?

    http://astronomycentral.co.uk/our-barred-spiral-galaxy-the-milky-way

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    1. Tim Parker
      Reply Icon

      Re : Make your mind up

      "I thought the Milky Way is a barred spiral these days?"

      Me too - and with a warped, third arm (no tittering at the back there please)

      http://www.technologyreview.com/blog/arxiv/26763/

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    2. Kibble
      Reply Icon

      A barred spiral?

      A bar does appear in the picture in the article. The filtering process may have a bit to do with it not being more prominent.

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      1. T J
        Reply Icon
        FAIL

        What Bar where? - Dave, of the Winchester club

        Yes, if the bar is that faint this aint a bar galaxy doods.

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  3. The Fuzzy Wotnot
    Happy

    "All we are is dust in the wind dude!" - Bill & Ted

    Hmmmm

    5 0
  4. steveie_b
    Happy

    And if you just look closely...

    at the unfashionable end of the Western Spiral Arm, you can just see where they are building the Hyperspace bypass. They need to get rid of that insignificant little blue-green planet though.

    5 0
    1. Disco-Legend-Zeke
      Reply Icon

      Just Don't...

      ...panic.

      3 0
    2. Asgard
      Reply Icon
      Alien

      @"unfashionable end of the Western Spiral Arm"

      I was thinking something very similar ... especially this following bit of the news, which sounded like an alien estate agent was trying to sell it to us, i.e. ... "striking spiral arms wrapping around a dense, elongated nucleus and a dusty disc"

      Sounds wonderful, I can't wait! ... When can I move in! :)

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  5. Anonymous Coward
    WTF?

    WTF the link?

    Come on now....

    0 0
  6. NoneSuch Silver badge
    Happy

    Hey...

    I can see my house from here...

    0 0
  7. Winkypop Silver badge
    Thumb Up

    Magnificent!

    ..and further proof we don't need any gods to explain it all.

    0 1
  8. Mips
    Flame

    What happened to..

    ... my favourite icon?

    Aarrgh. I am about to explode and you do not want to see resulting the mess.

    Mr Creosote and then some.

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  9. <shakes head>

    how exactly does this

    disprove god ?

    0 0
  10. Erroneous Howard

    Maybe....

    ....it's a parallel dimension. Best ask Magical Trevor if that's where the cow went.

    0 0
  11. Blue eyed boy
    Boffin

    It's not just a galaxy like our own

    it IS our own galaxy . All the intervening distance is just once round the hyperdimensional circumference of the cosmos.

    Far-fetched? Should be easy to prove. Directly behind it will be yet another image of our own galaxy, formed by light which has gone twice round the daffodils to reach us.

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