When I look at photographs of the full Milky Way I cannot help wondering how we managed to get those pictures. Do we really have satellites that far away or is it all speculation what it looks like?

Answer 1

We cannot see the entire Milky Way galaxy, since we're IN it; it is all around us. We're actually way off toward the edge of the galaxy. The center of the galaxy is in the general direction of the constellation Scorpio; when you see the Milky Way at night, there's really no mistaking it.

But many barred spiral galaxies have a structure similar to what we believe the Milky Way has; we can base our simulations of our own galaxy by looking at Andromeda or other beautiful spiral galaxies.

As far as satellites, our most distant satellites are the two Voyager probes, which are just now approaching the edge of our own solar system. And if we DID have satellites so far away that they could see the entire Milky Way galaxy, the radio signal would take longer than the span of existence of the human race to get here.

Also, the center of the Milky Way is so dense with stars, gases and dust that it actually obscures a great deal of the space behind it. We don't really have any kind of clear view of that part of our galaxy or the vast regions of space beyond it.