Across the Milky Way (violet version)
A radio and infrared wave panorama of a section of the Milky Way in the constellations of Scutum and Aquila. Normal stars show up as the myriad of aqua-white points. Radiation from the newborn stars heats surrounding dust into infrared temperatures (in violet), while the ultraviolet light from these stars separates electrons from hydrogen atoms, and gives off radio waves (in red). More mature stars have destroyed nearby dust, leaving red cores surrounded by aqua, then violet, shells as the temperature drops far from the stars. Massive stars have died in titanic explosions and blasted their gas light years into space at thousands of miles per second, leaving blast arcs (in red). The diffuse infrared glow (violet) comes from the tiny dust particles scattered through space.
| Technical Details | |
|---|---|
| Telescope | VLA; Spitzer |
| Band | L; I |
| Date | 2001-09-03; 2001-09-03 |
| Field of View | 366 x 96 arcminutes |
