Galaxy Pictures?

I was watching a program on TV this morning about astro physics. In one part they were talking about the size of our galaxy and went on to say ‘Here is a photograph of our galaxy’. Surely it cant be a photograph, it must be a digital impression of what we think it looks like?

How do scientist know what it looks like? Voyager 1 is the farthest man made object but she hasn’t left our galaxy has she?

Matt

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