In case you mean pictures like this; http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/82/Milky_Way_Galaxy.jpg - they are not actually images of the Milky Way. As you’ve guessed, we can’t directly see it in its full spirally goodness from the inside. Instead, these pictures are either artist’s impressions based on scientific understanding, or pictures of different galaxies that are reckoned to be pretty similar to the Milky Way.
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.
In case you mean pictures like this; http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/82/Milky_Way_Galaxy.jpg - they are not actually images of the Milky Way. As you’ve guessed, we can’t directly see it in its full spirally goodness from the inside. Instead, these pictures are either artist’s impressions based on scientific understanding, or pictures of different galaxies that are reckoned to be pretty similar to the Milky Way.
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.