What our galaxy might look like from the "outside"
The Univ. of Mass. using data (over half a billion stars) obtained from the Two Micron All Sky Survey has produced an image of what the Milky Way might look like from an "outside" perspective.
The official 2MASS site has yet to post the photos, I first saw the story on the BBC site but here is another article with a slightly larger pic.
http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_509625.html
see ya, VINCE