How can we see the Milky Way if we are inside of it? - eviltoast
  • intensely_human@lemm.ee
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    1 year ago

    Though someday we may find a gigantic space mirror that allows us to see our own galaxy by zooming in on it enough.

    The space mirror will be formed by some weird gravitational pattern that happens to send light back the way it came. Not like literal glass floating in space. Just some kind of optical distortion that acts as a mirror.

    But we’ll be looking at our galaxy a long time ago.

    • valkyre09@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Over 26000 years ago if the mirror was placed at the very edge of the milky way. I wonder how many light years away the mirror would have to be to fit the whole image of the galaxy inside it.

      I just can’t even begin to get my head around those numbers, I am a tiny insignificant ant.

      • intensely_human@lemm.ee
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        1 year ago

        It would more be a matter of the diameter of the mirror. It could be one inch outside the galaxy and give us a view of the galaxy.