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Secrets of the Milky Way
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The earth may be a relatively small planet, and our sun may be an average yellow-white star orbiting in the outskirts of a galaxy. But our Milky Way Galaxy is, as galaxies go, quite a sight. It's a big, respectable, spiral galaxy. Unfortunately for our viewing pleasure, the tightly packed core about 25,000 light years away is obscured by gas and dust. The band of light we call the Milky Way would feature a nice, bulging multicolored jeweled section as large and bright as the full moon if not for the hazy dark curtains drawn across it from our perspective (Fortunately, for our collective survival and evolution, those interstellar clouds may filter out dangerous radiation from the violent goings on in the core). But a new composite image from the Hubble, Spitzer, and Chandra space observatories give us a glimpse of what no human has ever seen.
You can click on the pic to enlarge offsite, or go to Phil Plats Bad Astronomy Blog where there are links to greatly embiggen the image along with some description of what you're seeing.
It’s a chunk of the sky 38 x 14 arcminutes across, or about half the size of the full Moon, and it’s aimed right into the core of our galaxy. See the bright spot just to the right of the center? Buried in there behind light years of dust and gas is the monster of the Milky Way, a black hole with four million times the mass of the Sun. But even that is dwarfed by the 400 billion solar mass heft of the entire galaxy.
Below I've broken it up into two chunks so that you can enjoy it right here. Bon appetit!
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