Why don’t we see the core of the milky way as a big bright splotch in our sky compared to when we are looking out perpendicular to our Galaxy’s plane or when we are looking out away from our galaxy’s center?
When we are facing in towards the center of the Milky way, don’t we have so many stars in our view that our vision should be virtually filled with photons??
You can see the center of the Milky Way with your own eyes. Go somewhere very dark (no city lights, preferrably moonless, clear skies) and you can make out a milky smear across the sky. That’s the center of our galaxy your looking at. I’ve personally seen it many times.
Milky Smear --> Milky Way? Coincidence?
I’m sure that the Bad Astronomer will be along shortly to refute me, but if you look towards the center of the galaxy, it does appear much brighter than the rest of the sky (like if you looked up towards the Big Dipper, perpindicular to the galaxy’s plane). However, in most cities, you can’t see it because of light pollution.
But that still leaves the question about why every direction from your eyeball (in that general direction) doesn’t end up on the surface of a star, and therefore look like a giant sun. I think the answer to that is that there is a lot of stuff in our galaxy that absorbs light, and that stuff tends to be pretty large. If you look at photos of other galaxies, there are striking dark streaks where clouds of “dust” are. I think our view of our own galaxy’s center are pretty much completely obscured by all the absorptive material.
As I underdstand it, our solar system lies in a dense portion of the galaxy where most of the Milky Way is obscured by interstellar dust (though I’m no astronomer). Supposedly it is a little thicker near the center from our vantage point, near the constellation Sagittarius and a little thinner in other directions.
Although, If your question is why is a night sky with a supposedly infinite number of stars dark at all, that’s a different question altogether…
As I underdstand it, our solar system lies in a dense portion of the galaxy where most of the Milky Way is obscured by interstellar dust (though I’m no astronomer). Supposedly it is a little thicker near the center, from our vantage point near the constellation Sagittarius, and a little thinner in other directions.
Although, If your question is why is a night sky with a supposedly infinite number of stars dark at all, that’s a different question altogether…
Please excuse multiple posts. I’m new. Jane, stop this crazy thing.
Cecil gets to the “night sky dark” question, Olber’s paradox, in his archives (I’d link, but again, I’m new). He discounts interstellar dust as explaining the paradox altogether. I think the interstellar dust thing works as far as our own galaxy, It’s the combined light from all galaxies that it gets kind of iffy on explaining.
Here ya go: Why is the night sky dark?
To paraphrase Cecil there basically aren’t enough stars in the ‘observable’ universe to make the sky glow all white. Cecil postulates the universe is 10 billion years old so the ‘observable’ universe is a 10 billion light year radius around the earth. Any stars beyond that haven’t had their light reach earth yet.
If I undersatnd the OP, it’s why is the center of the Milky Way not brighter, since that’s where the stars are?
The answer has already been posted; there is a lot of gas and dust between us and the center, it they obscure the view. Same goes with the plane of the Galaxy. You can see more stars there, but not as much as if the dust were gone. When you look toward Orion, Casseopaeia, Cygnus or Sagittarius, you are looking right into the disk of the Galaxy. Look toward, say, Virgo or Bootes and you are looking directly out, and see fewer stars.
However, the galactic center appears brighter in some other kinds of light, like infrared, radio, gamma ray, etc.
This site gives a good overview. Check out how dusty it looks in the visible spectrum:
http://nvo.gsfc.nasa.gov/mw/mmw_images.html