In celebration of the International Year of Astronomy 2009, NASA's Great Observatories — the Hubble Space Telescope, the Spitzer Space Telescope, and the Chandra X-ray Observatory — have collaborated to produce an unprecedented image of the central region of our Milky Way galaxy.
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 (labeled Sagitarrius A when you roll your mouse over the above composite image). 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:
When these views are brought together, this composite image provides one of the most detailed views ever of our galaxy's mysterious core.
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Universal mean Beyond your inspiration.
Posted by Kyaw Kyaw Moe on Saturday, 12.12.15 @ 23:42pm
Absolutely amazing. No way we are alone.
Posted by Collin grantham on Friday, 06.14.13 @ 09:37am
No person in their right mind would want to get close to the 4 million solar mass black hole at the center of our Milky Way galaxy, except for some Cosmologists who think they can go through the "singularity" and come out on the other side somewhere else in the Universe. Good luck fellas, you're gonna need it!
Posted by Gregg Grider on Monday, 06.3.13 @ 19:53pm
It is really wonderful. And I am very happy with this achievement of NASA. I want to know how the space looks in 3d.
Posted by Rakesh B Kasangeri on Wednesday, 08.25.10 @ 10:32am
It appears to me as if the X-ray portion of the image shows a faint jet coming up from Sagittarius A. Of course, it could be just other hot excited gases that's not associated with Sagittarius A. I don't know if further analysis has been done to determine one way or the other.
Would a lack of radio jet emission be considered enough to rule out such a possibility? Could it still be a remnant of a jet in the not too distant past?
Posted by David Halliday on Tuesday, 01.12.10 @ 10:15am
It looks like the center of the milky way is very light. If you lived on a planet in the middle of the milky way, would there ever be night darkness?
Where can I learn more about this?
Posted by Mike on Monday, 12.14.09 @ 15:14pm
Dear Manuel,
Careful analysis of radio and infrared images has taught us where the center of the galaxy is.
P. Edmonds for CXC
Posted by P. Edmonds on Wednesday, 12.9.09 @ 13:38pm
Dear Madhu,
We won't ever know what's happening now, because of the light travel time. But, it's interesting that the further out we look, the more we can see into the Universe's past.
P. Edmonds for CXC
Posted by P. Edmonds on Wednesday, 12.9.09 @ 13:36pm
Unfortunately, UV images don't probe the area close to the center of the galaxy because of very strong absorption by gas and dust.
P. Edmonds for CXC
Posted by P. Edmonds on Wednesday, 12.9.09 @ 13:35pm
Dear Mark Ballington,
That's an interesting idea. The detail is fine, but it's not that fine.
P. Edmonds for CXC
Posted by P. Edmonds on Wednesday, 12.9.09 @ 13:32pm
Dear José Roberto,
Thanks. There isn't evidence in these images for jets generated by the black hole. It appears to be too inactive for such jets to appear, unlike the case for some large black holes in other galaxies.
P. Edmonds for CXC
Posted by P. Edmonds on Wednesday, 12.9.09 @ 13:29pm
Hi, How do we know the center of the galaxy is in Sagitarius and not say in Gemini constelation direction?
Posted by manuel on Friday, 11.27.09 @ 00:22am
Wonderful and attractive pictures.
Posted by RAKESH B KASANGERI on Monday, 11.23.09 @ 06:08am
Amazing, you folks are doing a great job to humanity.
One question - if this is what it looked like so many light years ago, how do we know what's happening now?
Will we ever know?
Posted by Madhu on Monday, 11.23.09 @ 04:52am
This is an awesome picture. I've seen the infrared galaxy core pic before, but I've never seen the x-ray infrared and visible all combined. There should be a picture of the core in ultraviolet to add to this also.
Posted by True Radiant Free emissary on Sunday, 11.15.09 @ 16:32pm
What a wonderful. And I guess, If this is only the center of the milky way and our planet is more little, What a little we are in this universe.
Posted by Lizeddy on Sunday, 11.15.09 @ 12:18pm
A wonderful composite image. The detail is very fine. I wonder if it is possible to detect the disturbance in dust and gas, made of objects passing through them?
Posted by Mark Ballington on Saturday, 11.14.09 @ 04:41am
Dear Paul,
The stars visible in the galactic center image are moving in various orbits around the supermassive black hole. In terms of galactic motion the black hole is effectively stationary, while out here in the solar system - in the galaxy suburbs - we're swinging around the center of the galaxy as the arms rotate.
P. Edmonds for CXC
Posted by P. Edmonds on Friday, 11.13.09 @ 08:44am
Absolutely outstanding pictures, thank you so much for allowing me to see.
Posted by Gordon Musson on Friday, 11.13.09 @ 05:10am
WOW. I'm sorry, no other words describe it.
Posted by Michele on Thursday, 11.12.09 @ 22:34pm
What a beautiful picture.
I read a while back a book on our galaxy and it said that the black hole in the center of our galaxy is four light years in diameter and the closest stars to it travel around it at 200 miles per second. This has also been stated in various astronomy programs on Cable Television
Thanks so much to the Chandra team for their hard work to educate us lay people about our most marvelous universe.
Marvin L. S.
Posted by Marvin L. S. on Thursday, 11.12.09 @ 19:17pm
love the pic, awesome, my guess it's moving clockwise as viewed from above we are on the side view obviously, upward and away from us. Just a guess based on her structure.
Posted by spacermike on Thursday, 11.12.09 @ 18:28pm
Absolutely amazing.
Posted by Byron Pearce on Thursday, 11.12.09 @ 16:52pm
Wonderful image. Can we distinguish the gas jets streams from the black hole at the center?
José Roberto
Posted by siqueira on Thursday, 11.12.09 @ 14:56pm
Just wonderful
Thank you
Posted by Lawrence Migdale on Wednesday, 11.11.09 @ 11:28am
If you could produce a three dimensional version of this portion of space how would it look? In a three dimensional box which way is the black hole moving through space?
Posted by Paul Schurr on Wednesday, 11.11.09 @ 09:53am