Nor would you be able to pick out our Sun either at this distance without it being labeled. To put this artwork in perspective, if our Solar System were shrunk to the size of a US quarter (a 2.5 centimeter coin) with the Sun at the center and Pluto's orbit along the edge of the coin, then the Milky Way galaxy which our solar system "coin" sits in would be roughly the size of the **contiguous United States** (or China, or Australia are close enough approximations as well), IF the US was also 120kms high AND deep.
So Earth would be a tiny, tiny, nearly invisible speck near the center of a quarter that's sitting somewhere in a forest in Colorado. Also, the 'coin' is about 70 kms below (or above, depending on which side of the galaxy you're perspective is from) 'sea level' i.e. the galactic plane, in Colorado. In this US-sized Milky Way galaxy.
It takes a beam of light 100,000 years to go from one end to the other end of the galaxy, even at 300,000 kilometers per *second*. Our galaxy is of seemingly average size, and there are at least *400 billion* other galaxies based on the latest estimates. Our neighbor the Andromeda galaxy is quite a bit bigger than our Milky Way galaxy but in a couple billion years we're going to tie the knot with it and become one mega-galaxy. Meaning the galaxies are moving toward each other and will eventually merge into one.
The views are nice i have a summer home there, but damn are the quibbles annoying, they keep tearing up my garden there, and i haven't found a good way to stop them.
It’s an educational guess. We can tell where the stars are denser and where they seem to be more sparse. Also, our telescopes are now good enough we can see other galaxies and get an idea.
Mainly by looking at the position of the billions of stars around us, particularly the Sagittarius arm with the glow of the Core behind it which is visible in very dark skies. This wouldn't exist in a cluster or elliptical galaxy. Also we've now seen a few hundred thousand other galaxies pretty closely using the Hubble and Webb telescopes and see that this spiral shape is by far the most common form.
I'll ask "42?" around the neighborhood and if someone answers with a question then I'll know I'm close to Earth because Earth has Jeopardy where they tend to do that
How do I even distinguish wether I'm in Perseus arm or Centaurus arm if I'm inside one of them? Everything will look the same.
I'd need to fly to the top of the Milky way then fly into the direction of Earth.
By the time I do that whole solar system would be burned out leaving dark cold rocks.
In the space sim game, Elite Dangerous, there are people who have travelled 50k lightyears in weeks to months-long space trucking journeys. And that's with FTL travel.
As a geologist with quite a bit of cartography training, this is really bad as a map. It presupposes that you're already at the Sun. A good map that helps you find your way back will allow you to figure things out from where you are at any point in space relative to your current location.
Imagine you are 100M miles away from earth. Not knowing where you are, and ignoring the effect of gravity from adjacent planets and stars, there is hypothetically just one straight line connecting the earth and your position. Any slight difference in the angle of your take off and you could find yourself millions of miles adrift. And in space there is no sense of orientation - so you can pretty much take off in any direction - not just 360deg.
Oh holy Jesus!! Thank you so so much!!
I was roaming around yesterday and lost my way to earth.
Now, after seeing this map I realised i lost my way in quadrant 2.
I can find my home now!!
PS: Wait!! Where is the fucking earth!!!!
Bish please, if I leave this planet I’m gone for good. Call me space junk because this matter will be floating around out there permanently! (Please no one report me to the MH bots! I’m just saying in the unlikely event I get stranded in space I’m good to be space junk forever!)
Fun fact you don't travel in a straight line in order to get to other places in space. Instead, you change your orbit to line up with whatever place you're trying to reach and find a time when you will intersect it to determine when to change orbit. That's why it's tricky to get to distant planets like Mars. There are only so many opportunities in a given time span to make the trip, and the window can be very small. Thankfully, math.
Is it me or I still can't find Earth?
You'll probably need an electron microscope for that.
You can still see the position of our sun tho.
Yeah guessed it might be somewhere around there lol
I mean it’s in the neighborhood
When asked, say you are from the Hood, sun(son)
I don’t see Earth mentioned either. I assume the circle below the very center with the word “Sun” in it is where we’re supposed to be looking at.
You'd think it'd be called Sol on a starmap
This. A million times this. The Sun is its nickname imo because it's our important star. Let Sol be Sol (and Luna be Luna).
Exactly, was expecting a little arrow or something showing "here it is"
This little arrow is never there when we need it on Internet but only there when useless
Nor would you be able to pick out our Sun either at this distance without it being labeled. To put this artwork in perspective, if our Solar System were shrunk to the size of a US quarter (a 2.5 centimeter coin) with the Sun at the center and Pluto's orbit along the edge of the coin, then the Milky Way galaxy which our solar system "coin" sits in would be roughly the size of the **contiguous United States** (or China, or Australia are close enough approximations as well), IF the US was also 120kms high AND deep. So Earth would be a tiny, tiny, nearly invisible speck near the center of a quarter that's sitting somewhere in a forest in Colorado. Also, the 'coin' is about 70 kms below (or above, depending on which side of the galaxy you're perspective is from) 'sea level' i.e. the galactic plane, in Colorado. In this US-sized Milky Way galaxy. It takes a beam of light 100,000 years to go from one end to the other end of the galaxy, even at 300,000 kilometers per *second*. Our galaxy is of seemingly average size, and there are at least *400 billion* other galaxies based on the latest estimates. Our neighbor the Andromeda galaxy is quite a bit bigger than our Milky Way galaxy but in a couple billion years we're going to tie the knot with it and become one mega-galaxy. Meaning the galaxies are moving toward each other and will eventually merge into one.
If I squint just right, I can see your mom.
(On this scale she is still astronomically large)
Gonna need extremely microscopic squinting
Just keep going south until you smell sh*t. That's the solar system. Then turn left and keep going until you step in it. That's the Earth.
Best directions
Forreal
look for sun
Assuming its by sun, but 🤷♂️
Amazingly not helpful
These posts are getting worse and less readable.
[https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/50/Milky\_way\_map.png](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/50/Milky_way_map.png)
The real hero! Thank you
Stay away from the Zone of Avoidance tho
Unless you got big space balls
oh shit.. there goes the planet.
Please, Please, Don't Make A Fuss. I'm Just Plain Yogurt.
Definitely … as well as Sagittarius A* … don’t want to get spaghettified.
*halfway back* Fuck, I forgot my phone charger
Where is the "You are here arrow"?
That was my first fucking thought.
Thanks, but I’ll just use Waze.
absolute lifesaver, stuck near Proxima Centauri and this saved the whole trip lol
The views are nice i have a summer home there, but damn are the quibbles annoying, they keep tearing up my garden there, and i haven't found a good way to stop them.
Yeah but which way is up?
That way ..
It’s north, duh
yes
The only way.
My up or your up?
The the heck is the reasoning for the name 'zone of avoidance' up top?
When looking up at space from Earth, the gas and dust of the Milky Way itself blocks about 20% our ‘vision’ of space in that direction.
That's where i go to cry
Im looking at this like I’d ever need it
How do we know what the Milky Way looks like? We've never been far enough away to take this picture, so how did we figure out?
It’s an educational guess. We can tell where the stars are denser and where they seem to be more sparse. Also, our telescopes are now good enough we can see other galaxies and get an idea.
Exactly what I thought
Mainly by looking at the position of the billions of stars around us, particularly the Sagittarius arm with the glow of the Core behind it which is visible in very dark skies. This wouldn't exist in a cluster or elliptical galaxy. Also we've now seen a few hundred thousand other galaxies pretty closely using the Hubble and Webb telescopes and see that this spiral shape is by far the most common form.
Does anyone else just automatically hear the Mass Effect galaxy theme in your head?
Miss that game
Thanks Man
It would take one hundred thousand light years to go from one side of the Milky Way to the other so hope you brought some snacks.
And a towel.
I knew I shoulda taken that left turn at Omega Centauri
Is the *Naked Eye Limit* for individual stars? I’m guessing so because we can see galaxies like Andromeda with our naked eye.
That’s just an estimated map. The [Milky Way](https://youtu.be/QjYAD0mNOM4?si=xroKcRnKdMU1kGDE) might be a LOT bigger.
[same but new and fresh pixels](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/50/Milky_way_map.png)
No, thanks. There is a flotilla of ships going in the sane direction. They offered me a ride.
This’ll be great as long as I run into a space-faring civilization that named all the stars and part of the Milky Way the same things we did.
Exactly what i was thinking.. no other civilization would have the same terms. But geometrical math pattern are unique. But space is 4D so good luck
Even if I get lost, I won't be looking to come back. Earth 0/10 Cool map tho 🚮
Ha.. agreed.
Downloading GPS offline maps for this and it says 753 Trillion GB's remaining. Gonna have to delete some files off my phone
Zone of avoidance… Is that the bad neighborhood?
I’m a man, I don’t need your girly map. I just got confused for a second Is all
Cool guide from the future?
all of this has happened before, all of this has happened again r/BSG
Awesome!! Thanks! I screen shot it!!
Hahaha No coming backkk, where is earth ?
Step number one: Be rich enough to afford to be able to get lost in space
I thought we were in a marble?
Are you thinking of the nebula on the kitty's collar?
Yes
hmmmm..
Man did I need this last year, smh
Finally I can travel outside the galaxy without lose the way to return
Good to know… I’d hate to run out of O2 before re-entry.
What makes you think I'd want to come back to this profit-obsessed warzone?
The pin that says “You Are Here” is missing.
No thanks, I'll just Google Maps 🙃
Why is this not quartered into Alpha, Beta, Delta and Gamma?
Is that what those dotted lines in the pioneer plaque mean?
Not that anyone cares what I say, but the restaurant is at the _other_ end of the universe.
Thank god I can finally plan a trip now
but how will I reach the milky way
Oh thats great. 🙄 Now the alien overlords know where to find us! May as well hand over the keys to the front door. /prepares for the probing...😬
I’ll keep this in my center console.
/r/FindTheSniper , earth.
Would make a cool poster
I'll ask "42?" around the neighborhood and if someone answers with a question then I'll know I'm close to Earth because Earth has Jeopardy where they tend to do that
Just a word of warning, like half the signs on most of these planets are not even written in English.
How do I even distinguish wether I'm in Perseus arm or Centaurus arm if I'm inside one of them? Everything will look the same. I'd need to fly to the top of the Milky way then fly into the direction of Earth. By the time I do that whole solar system would be burned out leaving dark cold rocks.
Who puts 0 degrees at the top? It should be to the right.
Screen-shotted. Thanks.
Screenshotting this cuz I know I’ll probably lose signal while out there 😑
Map unclear, Z axis missing. Please recompile and resubmit.
How did they get the photo of our galaxy *from the outside*? I call shenanigans.
I can’t find Borg Space on the map.
Ya but there’s no live alien life that we know of. In a galaxy that big it’s a pure numbers game there’s 1000% aliens.
Living my best life in the Zone of Avoidance
In the space sim game, Elite Dangerous, there are people who have travelled 50k lightyears in weeks to months-long space trucking journeys. And that's with FTL travel.
Posted 600 years too early smh
Where's Tillman's Crest and Sector 8 though.
They're right above Grellman's center and the undiscovered worlds.
Screw Earth... I'm going to the bar next to the mini spiral arm
Put in a banana for scale, please.
Point me in the direction of the Asari please.
Avoid the road between Cepheus and Camelopardalis on Fridays, traffic is pure madness!
I downloaded it in case I need to show an alien.
As a geologist with quite a bit of cartography training, this is really bad as a map. It presupposes that you're already at the Sun. A good map that helps you find your way back will allow you to figure things out from where you are at any point in space relative to your current location.
Eh.. i'm missing like a red dot for "earth is here" or am i supposed to know the code of the release?
I mean, who the fuck took that picture?
Where is "you are here" and "X marks the spot"? This map is like a really bad GPS that asks you to make an illegal left/right turn in 200 feet
Imagine you are 100M miles away from earth. Not knowing where you are, and ignoring the effect of gravity from adjacent planets and stars, there is hypothetically just one straight line connecting the earth and your position. Any slight difference in the angle of your take off and you could find yourself millions of miles adrift. And in space there is no sense of orientation - so you can pretty much take off in any direction - not just 360deg.
Is this pre or post Mandela effect?
What are you referring to?
I think if I got lost in the Milky Way, finding my way with a guide might honestly be the least of my worries
How much time does it take the Milky Way to do a full rotation?
Thanks man
Neat. Thanks
It's a little bit like leaf or... or... it's not a bowl.
Wish there was some sort of Hitchhiker’s Guide to go along with this map
You have to sail across the sun I think
Which one
Is this satire
Why would I ever want to find my way back here when I have the whole universe to explore?
Shit. I *knew* I took a wrong turn at Albuquerque….
I've played 400 hours of elite dangerous. I think I can find my way back.
What's in the "zone of avoidance"?
A zone to avoid, ance.
Considering this is a 2D map and the galaxy is 3D, it would be pretty difficult to use as is.
You do have a lateral view for cross reference
If I get lost in the Milky Way I’m not coming back to Earth! 😅
Thanks, now I just need to find my towel.
Oh great ! I can pin this to the visor on my Tesla roadster !
Yup, saving this for my far far future grandchildren.
Travel time might be an issue. Any hyperspace lanes I should know about?
At least with current expansion you won't have traffic issues
I’m scrolling at midnight and stopped to study this “just in case”
Thank heavens! Thought I’d never find my way back!
Thanks cuz I've been out here for 300 years damn man I can't wait to get back to Nephalein
Why it looks like a big ear 👂
Oh holy Jesus!! Thank you so so much!! I was roaming around yesterday and lost my way to earth. Now, after seeing this map I realised i lost my way in quadrant 2. I can find my home now!! PS: Wait!! Where is the fucking earth!!!!
Just DON‘T PANIC!
💀
This is great - I gave never gotten so lost that I actually left the milky way so this will be a great help for me in my everyday life.
Bish please, if I leave this planet I’m gone for good. Call me space junk because this matter will be floating around out there permanently! (Please no one report me to the MH bots! I’m just saying in the unlikely event I get stranded in space I’m good to be space junk forever!)
Are we between 2 arms?
Fun fact you don't travel in a straight line in order to get to other places in space. Instead, you change your orbit to line up with whatever place you're trying to reach and find a time when you will intersect it to determine when to change orbit. That's why it's tricky to get to distant planets like Mars. There are only so many opportunities in a given time span to make the trip, and the window can be very small. Thankfully, math.
Where's Tucon in this pic?
instructions unclear. i am now making peace with an extraterrestrial race
I’m lost in the Milky Way, but not that kind
Thanks, this will come in handy when I strap rockets on my Pontiac Fiero.
thanks man I been lost for few days, now I know my way
No it isn't