First glimpse into birth of the Milky Way

On top, an edge-on image of our simulated galaxy, as an observer would see it if he could enter in the computer and look at the light emitted by our simulated stars. 

He could clearly see that the galaxy is composed by a thin disk of stars, and a brighter, small bulge at the center. 

At the bottom, a real image of our Milky Way galaxy as you would see it in infrared, where stars emit most of their light. 

Here too the Milky Way is seen edge-on, as our solar system lies in the plane of the disk. 

Credit: Two Micron All Sky Survey (2MASS), University of Massachusetts and the Infrared Processing and Analysis Center/California Institute of Technology.