Rosa Rubicondior: Our Galaxy - The Milky Way - Like You've Never Seen It Before

Tuesday, 27 May 2025

Our Galaxy - The Milky Way - Like You've Never Seen It Before

17 dazzling images from Milky Way Photographer of the Year 2025 awards | Popular Science

Stars died and because they died, you live. You are made by stars out of stardust and in a very real sense; because you are made of the same stuff the Universe is made of and are a part of it, there is something even more wonderful about you. Through you, though not just through you, and maybe not just here on this small planet, the Universe has gained self–awareness and can begin to understand itself.

Through you it can stand on the surface of this beautiful little jewel in the cosmos, can look up in awe at itself and think "Wow!"

Rosa Rubicondior - What Make You So Special? From the Big Bang To You, page 152

“Diamond Beach Emerald Sky”
Great Ocean Road, Australia

Credit: Brent Martin / 2025 Milky Way Photographer of the Year Daniel Zafra Portill

“Starlit Ocean: A Comet, the setting Venus, the Milky Way, and McWay Falls”
California, USA

Credit: Brent Martin / 2025 Milky Way Photographer of the Year Daniel Zafra Portill

“Boot Arch Perseids”
Alabama Hills, CA, USA

Credit: Mike Abramyan / 2025 Milky Way Photographer of the Year Daniel Zafra Portill

“A Stellar View From The Cave”
Saint Raphael, France

Credit: Anthony Lopez / 2025 Milky Way Photographer of the Year Daniel Zafra Portill

“Lake RT5”
Zanskar, Himalayas

Credit: Tanay Das / 2025 Milky Way Photographer of the Year Daniel Zafra Portill

“Cosmic Fire”
Volcán Acatenango, Guatemala

Credit: Sergio Montúfar / 2025 Milky Way Photographer of the Year Daniel Zafra Portill

“Valle de los Cactus”
San Pedro de Atacama, Chile

Credit: Pablo Ruiz / 2025 Milky Way Photographer of the Year Daniel Zafra Portill

“Winter Fairy Tale”
Dobratsch Nature Park, Austria

Credit: Uroš Fink / 2025 Milky Way Photographer of the Year Daniel Zafra Portill

“One in a Billion"
ISS (International Space Station)

Credit: Don Pettit / 2025 Milky Way Photographer of the Year Daniel Zafra Portill

“Galaxy of the Stone Array”
Moeraki Boulders, New Zealand

Credit: Alvin Wu / 2025 Milky Way Photographer of the Year Daniel Zafra Portill

“Spines and Starlight”
Kanaan, Namibia

Credit: Burak Esenbey / 2025 Milky Way Photographer of the Year Daniel Zafra Portill

“Blossom”
Hehuan Mountain Dark Sky Park, Taiwan

Credit: Ethan Su / 2025 Milky Way Photographer of the Year Daniel Zafra Portill

“The Night Guardians”
Easter Island, Chile

Credit: Rositsa Dimitrova / 2025 Milky Way Photographer of the Year Daniel Zafra Portill

“Fortress of Light”
Jujuy, Argentina

Credit: Mauricio Salazar / 2025 Milky Way Photographer of the Year Daniel Zafra Portill

“Echiwile Arch”
Ennedi, Chad

Credit: Vikas Chander / 2025 Milky Way Photographer of the Year Daniel Zafra Portill

“The Wave”
Coyote Buttes, UT, USA

Credit: Vikas Chander / 2025 Milky Way Photographer of the Year Daniel Zafra Portill

WINNER “Tololo Lunar Eclipse Sky.”
Cerro Tololo Observatory, Chile.

Credit: Petr Horálek / 2025 Milky Way Photographer of the Year Daniel Zafra Portill

The Milky Way galaxy is a vast, barred spiral galaxy spanning about 100,000 light-years in diameter and containing over 100 billion stars, one of which is our Sun. It is but a single member of a local group of galaxies, and itself just one of possibly two trillion galaxies in the observable universe.

From our vantage point on Earth, the Milky Way appears as a milky band of light across the night sky—hence its name—caused by the dense concentration of stars along its galactic plane. Modern astrophysics has shown that our galaxy is part of an immense, expanding universe, governed by natural laws and shaped over billions of years by gravity, nuclear fusion, and the fundamental forces of physics. The Earth is not the centre of this galaxy, nor of the universe, but is situated in an unremarkable region of an ordinary spiral arm—an idea that has revolutionised humanity’s understanding of its place in the cosmos.

In stark contrast, the opening chapters of the Book of Genesis present a universe crafted in six days by a divine creator, who places Earth at the centre of creation. The Genesis account describes the sky as a firmament separating waters above from waters below, with the stars, Sun, and Moon fixed into this dome to give light to the Earth and mark the passage of time. The cosmos is described in anthropocentric terms, tailored to the daily experience of ancient Near Eastern peoples, and lacking any concept of vast distances, multiple galaxies, or deep cosmic time. From this perspective, Earth is the focal point of divine activity, created before the stars and held within a finite, enclosed structure.

The difference between these two descriptions highlights the shift from mythological explanations rooted in human culture and limited observational tools, to evidence-based cosmology driven by empirical observation, mathematics, and space exploration. The modern scientific view situates the Milky Way as one small piece of an evolving universe nearly 13.8 billion years old—immense, ancient, and indifferent to human narratives. Genesis, on the other hand, offers a symbolic or theological vision of the universe, meaningful within a religious framework but incompatible with current scientific understanding.

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