From the tranquil, wide-open spaces between the galaxies of the Local Group, we now zoom into where the action is - the brightly lit, crowded center of the Galaxy, the "Broadway" of our sprawling stellar metropolis. This 400 by 900 light-year mosaic of several Chandra images of the central region of our Milky Way galaxy reveals hundreds of white dwarf stars, neutron stars, and black holes bathed in an incandescent fog of multimillion-degree gas. The supermassive black hole at the center of the Galaxy is located inside the bright white patch in the center of the image. The colors indicate X-ray energy bands - red (low), green (medium), and blue (high).
RETURN TRIP: Zoom back in from the Local Group to the Galactic Center & view the Chandra mosaic of the central region of our Galaxy.
Artist's Animation: CXC/A.Hobart
Chandra X-ray Image: NASA/UMass/D.Wang et al.
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