SOFIA Reveals New View of Milky Way’s Center

NASA has captured an extremely crisp infrared image of the center of our Milky Way galaxy. Spanning a distance of more than 600 light-years, this panorama reveals details within the dense swirls of gas and dust in high resolution, opening the door to future research into how massive stars are forming and what’s feeding the supermassive black hole at our galaxy’s core.


Among the features coming into focus are the jutting curves of the Arches Cluster containing the densest concentration of stars in our galaxy, as well as the Quintuplet Cluster with stars a million times brighter than our Sun. Our galaxy’s black hole takes shape with a glimpse of the fiery-looking ring of gas surrounding it.

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Credits: NASA/SOFIA/JPL-Caltech/ESA/Herschel

Composite infrared image of the center of our Milky Way galaxy. It spans 600+ light-years across and is helping scientists learn how many massive stars are forming in our galaxy’s center. New data from SOFIA taken at 25 and 37 microns, shown in blue and green, is combined with data from the Herschel Space Observatory, shown in red (70 microns), and the Spitzer Space Telescope, shown in white (8 microns). SOFIA’s view reveals features that have never been seen before.

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Credits: NASA/Ames Research Center

NASA’s flying telescope SOFIA captured a crisp infrared image of the center of our Milky Way galaxy. It reveals details within the dense swirls of gas and dust, opening the door to future research into how massive stars are forming and what’s feeding the black hole at our galaxy’s core.