BBC NEWS | Science & Environment | Black hole confirmed in Milky Way
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7774287.stm

They tracked the movement of 28 stars circling the centre of the Milky Way, using two telescopes in Chile. The black hole, said to be 27,000 light years from Earth, is four million times bigger than the Sun, according to the paper in The Astrophysical Journal. Black holes are objects whose gravity is so great that nothing - including light - can escape them.

There is a giant black hole at the centre of our galaxy, a 16-year study by German astronomers has confirmed. They tracked the movement of 28 stars circling the centre of the Milky Way, using two telescopes in Chile.

We're being sucked into a black hole! Oh noes! Or radiating out from one. ;^)

comparison among planets and stars, cool picture

Ok. Now I feel small. Start at the top of the image and work your way down. http://is.gd/sgZ4 [from http://twitter.com/teachernz/statuses/1516861582]

Really makes you understand, you're really not that important

amazine composite time-spread exposure of the panoramic heavens. Wow!

An amazingly huge photo of the night sky, predominated by the Milky Way.

Melkweg panoramafoto (C) ESODe Europese Zuidelijke Sterrenwacht (ESO) heeft de eerste foto gepubliceerd binnen het GigaGalaxy Zoom project. Het is een panoramafoto, 800-miljoen pixels groot, van de sterrenhemel zoals die te zien is vanaf de grote ESO-telescopen in Chili. Het samengestelde panorama van de sterrenhemel bestaat uit 1200 afzonderlijke opnamen. Op de GigaGalaxy Zoom website kun je inzoomen op de foto. De Melkweg staat in het midden. Het GigaGalaxy Project is opgezet in het kader van het Internationaal Jaar van de Sterrenkunde (IYA2009). De komende weken worden nog twee panoramafoto's online gezet.

"reveals the full sky as it appears with the unaided eye from one of the darkest deserts on Earth, then zooms in on a rich region of the Milky Way to reveal three amazing, ultra-high-resolution images of the night sky that online stargazers can zoom in on and explore in an incredible level of detail."

天の川全景のパノラマ via WIRED VISION http://wiredvision.jp/news/200909/2009091522.html

... resulting in 2000 civilizations in the galaxy, as plugged into the drake equation.

Recent work at Edinburgh University tried to quantify how many intelligent civilisations might be out there. The research suggested there could be thousands of them.

From the article: "But, based on the limited numbers of planets found so far, Dr Boss has estimated that each Sun-like star has on average one 'Earth-like' planet." Contrast with Nick Bostrom's take on life from other planets.