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File:Center of the Milky Way Galaxy IV – Composite.jpg

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Summary

Description
English: 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 produced a matched trio of images of the central region of our Milky Way galaxy. Each image shows the telescope's different wavelength view of the galactic center region, illustrating the unique science each observatory conducts.

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. 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 colour:

  • Yellow represents the near-infrared observations of Hubble. The galactic center is marked by the bright patch in the lower right. Along the left side are large arcs of warm gas that have been heated by clusters of bright massive stars. In addition, Hubble uncovered many more massive stars across the region. Winds and radiation from these stars create the complex structures seen in the gas throughout the image.This sweeping panorama is one of the sharpest infrared pictures ever made of the galactic center region.
  • Red represents the infrared observations of Spitzer. The swirling core of our galaxy harbors hundreds of thousands of stars that cannot be seen in visible light. These stars heat the nearby gas and dust. These dusty clouds glow in infrared light and reveal their often dramatic shapes. Some of these clouds harbor stellar nurseries that are forming new generations of stars. Like the downtown of a large city, the center of our galaxy is a crowded, active, and vibrant place.
  • Blue and violet represent the X-ray observations of Chandra. In this image, violet represents lower energy X-rays and blue indicates higher energy. Hundreds of small dots show emission from material around black holes and other dense stellar objects. A supermassive black hole -- some four million times more massive than the Sun -- resides within the bright region in the lower right. The diffuse X-ray light comes from gas heated to millions of degrees by outflows from the supermassive black hole, winds from giant stars, and stellar explosions. This central region is the most energetic place in our galaxy.
When these views are brought together, this composite image provides one of the most detailed views ever of our galaxy's mysterious core.
Español: Imagen compuesta de la región central de la Vía Láctea (por los satélites Hubble, Spitzer y Chandra).
Français : Image composite de la région centrale de la Voie lactée (par les satellites Hubble, Spitzer et Chandra).
हिन्दी: आकाशगंगा आकृति में एक सर्पिल गैलेक्सी है, जिसका एक बड़ा केंद्र है और उस से निकलती हुई कई वक्र भुजाएँ हैं। यह स्पिट्ज़र और हबल अंतरिक्ष दूरदर्शी और चंद्रा एक्स-रे वेधशाला द्वारा लिये गए चित्रों को मिलाकर बनाया गया एक विस्तृत चित्र है। चित्र के दाईं ओर और चित्र के मध्य के थोड़ा नीचे सफेद चमकता क्षेत्र केंद्र है।
Polski: Obraz centralnego obszaru Drogi Mlecznej złożony z trzech fotografii wykonanych za pomocą teleskopów kosmicznych Hubble’a, Spitzera oraz Chandra.
Čeština: Složený snímek galaktického jádra naší galaxie Mléčná dráha.
Magyar: A Tejútrendszer központi része a Hubble, Spitzer és Chandra űrtávcsövek felvételén
Italiano: Un'immagine composita della regione centrale della nostra galassia, la Via Lattea. L'immagine è stata ottenuta unendo osservazioni del Hubble Space Telescope, dello Spitzer Space Telescope e del Chandra X-ray Observatory a diverse lunghezze d'onda, permettendo di rivelare l'intensa attività vicino al nucleo galattico dietro alle scure nubi di polveri.
한국어: 우리 은하 중심부의 합성 영상.
Nederlands: Montagefoto van het centrum van de Melkweg
Português: Região central da Via Láctea. Imagem composta produzida pelos satélites Hubble, Spitzer e Chandra.
Date
Source http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA12348
See also http://www.spacetelescope.org/images/opo0928a/ and http://hubblesite.org/newscenter/archive/releases/2009/28/image/a/
Author NASA/JPL-Caltech/ESA/CXC/STScI
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Assessment

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This is a featured picture on Wikimedia Commons (Featured pictures) and is considered one of the finest images. See its nomination here.

 
 This is a featured picture on the Hindi language Wikipedia (निर्वाचित चित्र) and is considered one of the finest images. See its nomination here.

If you have an image of similar quality that can be published under a suitable copyright license, be sure to upload it, tag it, and nominate it.

This image was selected as picture of the day on Bengali Wikipedia.

Licensing

  • Hubble:
Public domain
This file is in the public domain because it was created by NASA and ESA. NASA Hubble material (and ESA Hubble material prior to 2009) is copyright-free and may be freely used as in the public domain without fee, on the condition that only NASA, STScI, and/or ESA is credited as the source of the material. This license does not apply if ESA material created after 2008 or source material from other organizations is in use.

The material was created for NASA by Space Telescope Science Institute under Contract NAS5-26555, or for ESA by the Hubble European Space Agency Information Centre. Copyright statement at hubblesite.org or 2008 copyright statement at spacetelescope.org.

For material created by the European Space Agency on the spacetelescope.org site since 2009, use the {{ESA-Hubble}} tag.


  • Spitzer and Chandra:
Public domain This file is in the public domain in the United States because it was solely created by NASA. NASA copyright policy states that "NASA material is not protected by copyright unless noted". (See Template:PD-USGov, NASA copyright policy page or JPL Image Use Policy.)
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Captions

Peering into the center of the Milky Way Galaxy.

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10 November 2009

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18,208,443 byte

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9,725 pixel

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current10:53, 3 March 2013Thumbnail for version as of 10:53, 3 March 20139,725 × 4,862 (17.36 MB)Keraunoscopia{{Information |Description ={{en|1=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 produced a matched trio o...

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