Posted 11.11.2009 at 11:50 am
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Three-Way View of Milky Way: NASA
The composite image was stitched together from three separate images captured by some of astronomy's most advanced tools: a near-infrared image from Hubble, an infrared image from Spitzer and an X-ray view from the Chandra Observatory. Each of these images is itself a composite, a mosaic of sweeping surveys of the galaxy beyond our solar system.
The result: a view of the Milky Way from an amazing perspective that includes vibrant regions of star birth, the supermassive black hole that hubs our galaxy and hazy blue X-ray light from super-hot gasses leftover from stellar explosions. Makes you feel kind of small, doesn't it?
Check out the annotated version below, or click here to download your own hi-res images.
The Center of the Milky Way, Annotated: NASA
[Hubble]
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Seems pretty dumb to have a key on the picture... considering that its a 2-d image of space? Or maybe its just me....
Seems pretty dumb to have a key on the picture... considering that its a 2-d image of space? Or maybe its just me....
Lol yeah and that little compass... which way is north? If I follow that line straight will I hit the north pole?
Where's Sha Ka Ri?
Ba dum psh.
What did you say?
Adam Schichtel
email me @ aschichtel15@franklinvillecsd.org
i think it's celestial north or something like that didn't pay much attenition in astronomy on that chapter
The sky is mapped according to the equitorial coordinate system - right ascension, declination. It functions by projecting the earth's poles, equator, and ecliptic onto the celestial sphere.