NASA's Great Observatories Celebrate International Year of Astronomy

ABOUT THIS IMAGE:

The Spitzer Space Telescope's infrared-light observations provide a detailed and spectacular view of the galactic center region. The swirling core of our galaxy harbors hundreds of thousands of stars that cannot be seen in visible light. These stars heat the nearby gas and dust. These dusty clouds glow in infrared light and reveal their often dramatic shapes. Some of these clouds harbor stellar nurseries that are forming new generations of stars. Like the downtown of a large city, the center of our galaxy is a crowded, active, and vibrant place.

Object Name: Galactic Center

Image Type: Astronomical

Credit: NASA, JPL-Caltech, E. Churchwell (University of Wisconsin), SSC, and STScI

NEWS RELEASE IMAGES

The above image is part of a montage:

Montage Image: NASA's Great Observatories Present Unique Views of the Center of the Milky Way Image Type: Astronomical/Annotated PRC2009-28b Galactic Center Region in Near-Infrared from Hubble Image Type: Astronomical Galactic Center Region in X-rays from Chandra Image Type: Astronomical

All images from this news release:

To access available information and downloadable versions of images in this news release, click on any of the images below: