Labeled Map of Our Galaxy’s Center
The diagonal line of bright objects in this image of the heart of our Milky Way Galaxy are all powerful sources of radio waves. The bright center is the home of the supermassive black hole, Sagittarius A*. The dense, bright circles are the nurseries of new, hot stars and the bubbles are the graveyards of exploded, massive stars. The thread-like shapes are not yet understood, but probably trace powerful magnetic field lines. This giant image was assembled from observations made by the Very Large Array (VLA).
Credit: NRAO/AUI/NSF and N.E. Kassim, Naval Research Laboratory
| Technical Details | |
|---|---|
| Telescope | VLA |
| Band | P |
| Center | RA: 17:43:15, Dec: -28:52:00 |
| Field of View | 150 x 240 arcminutes |
