It was particularly clear tonight and when me and the boyfriend got home from our friends we just stod looking at all the beautifulness of the stars. You could clearly see the milky way.
This woke a question that I have been wondering about for some time now; wich way is the center? Is it this way? Or is it visible from the other side of the earth? I think it should be that a certain star on the sky shows the way to the center, or a constellation perhaps.
I can’t recollect being told of this, and I think this is strange.
In school, we are always asked to be able to point to our homes on maps, and to know wich planet we are on in the solar system. If we had a photo of the galaxy we would probably be asked to know where we are in it.
But when have I been asked to point in the direction of any location? I don’t remember that event ever taking place. Except for when learning to use a compass.
And yet, would that not make more sence than learning to read a map? Or at least preceed it? I can’t get to a location if I start of in the wrong direction.
Anyways, does anyone know the way to the centre of our own galaxy? I think this knowledge should be out there somewhere, if only I knew wich way to look…
I know!!!
Your very smart sister at your service!
Our solarsystem is located in one of the arms of the milkyway. At night, we´re looking away from the center of the galaxy, out in the universe. The band of stars in the visible milkyway-arm is those between us and the universe.
I wonder what it would be like if it was the opposite. All man could see was her own galaxy. Would early philosophers thougt other things about the world we live in? Would religion have been the same?
I feel small…::)
Hug from Elin
http://ircamera.as.arizona.edu/NatSci102/images/milkyway.jpg
Actually, we can only guess what our galaxy looks like. No probe or telescope has ever ventured so far that we could fotograph it. Even if a camera would take a picture of the milkyway, it would take lightyears for the signal to come back to earth!
In other news… There’s a big scary black hole in the middle of every galaxy. Including milkyway! But it’s surounded by trillions of shiny stars, so no one has ever seen that either…
/Elin (sis again)
Univers is big….
The closest star to ours is 39,900,000,000,000 km (4.22 light years) away: Proxima Centauri.
How many stars in the galaxy?
How many galaxies in the universe?
How many fish in the sea?
Ok, I have to stop now! Overload…
/Elin
So there is a star pointing to the center! The sun…
But like, with all the rotations going on, shouldn’t the night side of earth be looking at the center at some point? I mean, all sides of the moon looks at the sun at some point, right?
Actually, I knew about the black hole. However, if it’s hard to care about the people in africa because they are far away… =)
Want to feel small? Watch this: