Central Region of the Milky Way
Galaxy: A 400 by 900 light-year mosaic of images located
about 26,000 light years from Earth in the constellation
Sagittarius.
Caption: This spectacular mosaic of Chandra images reveals hundreds of white dwarf stars, neutron stars, and black holes bathed in an incandescent fog of multimillion degree gas. A supermassive black hole residing
at the center of our Galaxy is located inside the bright white
patch near the middle of the mosaic. The colors indicate X-ray
energy bands - red (low), green (medium), and blue (high). The
mosaic gives a new perspective on how turbulent the Galactic
Center is, and how the region affects the evolution of our
Galaxy as a whole.
Scale: Image is 120 by 48
arcmin.
Chandra X-ray Observatory ACIS
Image
CXC operated for
NASA by the Smithsonian Astrophysical
Observatory
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