3 Views Of The Galactic Center (2009) [720p]

In this spectacular image, observations using infrared light and X-ray light see through the obscuring dust and reveal the intense activity near the galactic core. Note that the center of the galaxy is located within the bright white region to the right of and just below the middle of the image (visible after 50 seconds). The entire image width covers about one-half a degree, about the same angular width as the full moon.

Each telescope's contribution is presented in a different color:

- Yellow represents the near-infrared observations of Hubble. They outline the energetic regions where stars are being born as well as reveal hundreds of thousands of stars.

- Red represents the infrared observations of Spitzer. The radiation and winds from stars create glowing dust clouds that exhibit complex structures from compact, spherical globules to long, stringy filaments.

- Blue and violet represents the X-ray observations of Chandra. X-rays are emitted by gas heated to millions of degrees by stellar explosions and by outflows from the supermassive black hole in the galaxy's center. The bright blue blob on the left side of the full field image is emission from a double star system containing either a neutron star or a black hole.

When these views are brought together, this composite image provides one of the most detailed views ever of our galaxy's mysterious core.

Credit:
X-ray: NASA/CXC/UMass/D. Wang et al.;
Optical: NASA/ESA/STScI/D.Wang et al.;
IR: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SSC/S.Stolovy

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• Milky Way
• center of galaxy
• astronomy
• Chandra
• Hubble Space Telescope
• Spitzer Space Telescope
• Sagittarius A
• stars
• black hole

[djxatlanta]

So do I whenever I view visualizations like this! :-)

[djxatlanta]

View 1: yellow colors represent near-infrared images taken by Hubble; View 2: red colors represent red-light images taken by Hubble; View 3: blue/violet colors represent x-ray images taken by Chandra X-Ray Observatory ... click the "more info" link, and you can read more about the observations in detail. Cheers!

[BobbynEdward]

The center of The Milky Way is 26,000 light years from us. How do you get 3 views? First view, first view upside-down, and first view sideways?

[verkaserduch]

I held my breath...