Herschel's view of the galactic centre

Credit: ESA / NASA / JPL-Caltech / Hi-GAL

An odd-shaped formation of gas and dust at the centre of the Milky Way, captured by the far-infrared cameras on board ESA's Herschel space observatory. The nearly continuous strip of dense and cold clumps of material forms an infinity symbol, or sideways 8, that is a few hundred light years across. In this image, the strip twists around an invisible axis running roughly from the top left to the bottom right.

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Source / Image Courtesy

Zoom in galactic center.

Hiding behind the constellations Sagittarius and Scorpius is the center of our own Milky Way galaxy, over 25,000 light years away. This patch of sky is mostly dark in visible light, shrouded by dust clouds that lie between us and the Galactic center.

But the infrared vision of NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope sees through the dust showing us this strange and tumultuous region.

The whole universe fascinates me because we don't know what's out there hugs