# What does the night sky look like near the galactic center? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [May 9, 2012, 7:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-the-night-sky-look-like-near-the-galactic-center/621363 "2012-05-09T07:08:54Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![beowulff](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beowulff/32/542_2.png) [@beowulff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/beowulff)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2012, 3:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-the-night-sky-look-like-near-the-galactic-center/621363/21 "2012-05-13T03:40:20Z")
Well, he _did_ put a bomb on my ship… (and yes, that’s where my screen name comes from). ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2012, 4:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-the-night-sky-look-like-near-the-galactic-center/621363/22 "2012-05-13T04:40:53Z")
\*\*What does the night sky look like near the galactic center? \*\* It’s freakin’ awesome man! ---
**Author:** ![Moe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/moe/32/2972_2.png) [@Moe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Moe)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2012, 10:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-the-night-sky-look-like-near-the-galactic-center/621363/23 "2012-05-13T10:46:46Z")
> [@eburacum45](#): > > I agree with what you say, but bear in mind just what a challenging environment this would be; any of the short-lived stars there could explode as a supernova at any moment, and periodically one or other of the stars closest to the supermassive black hole might get ripped apart in a phenomenal burst of debris. These waves of detructive radiation would arrive at the speed of light, so you’d have to keep a close eye on every star there to predict if and when it would blow. > > I suspect that a suitably advanced civilisation could pobably thrive in such an environment, but it would have to be prepared to withdraw all its vunerable components into radiation-proof shelters on a periodic basis. Such a civilisation would probably be very different to our own. I would imagine long before any biologically alive beings set foot (or whatever they have) there, you’d have proxy robots of some kind that could transmit back HD sensory info to some dude in a suit far far away. We may never physically get there, but I can certainly imagine in some 100s or 1000s of years, we might be able to realistically experience what it looks and feels like. ---
**Author:** ![Ken001](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/43a26b/32.png) [@Ken001](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ken001)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2012, 11:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-the-night-sky-look-like-near-the-galactic-center/621363/24 "2012-05-13T11:14:01Z")
> [@beowulff](#): > > Here’s what Larry Niven thinks it would look like: Sheesh. Wouldn’t it be easier to just buy a video from the Outsiders? 😃 So anyway, if our solar system was near the Core, our sky would be bright all the time. Day and night. Possibly less bright looking away from the Core. We’d be unlikely to see the black hole because its gravity would warp light around it. We’d see where it was from the violence in the accretion disc but not a black empty spot. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2012, 9:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-the-night-sky-look-like-near-the-galactic-center/621363/25 "2012-05-13T21:17:57Z")
> [@](#): > > Sheesh. Wouldn’t it be easier to just buy a video from the Outsiders? It’s even more inhospitable to them than it is to us. The only way they’d have the information would be to buy it from someone else. Which they did, and that someone else was Beowulf Shaeffer. ---
**Author:** ![Lust4Life](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/ecc23a/32.png) [@Lust4Life](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lust4Life)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2012, 9:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-the-night-sky-look-like-near-the-galactic-center/621363/26 "2012-05-13T21:49:22Z")
> [@TonySinclair](#): > > Can I possibly be the first to post [this](http://www.ibiblio.org/wm/paint/auth/gogh/starry-night/gogh.starry-night.jpg)? VG is one of my totally favourite artists, I hope to see that "in the flesh"one day, when I’m your side of the pond. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-the-night-sky-look-like-near-the-galactic-center/621363.md?page=1)