The Center of the Milky Way in Infrared Light

What's happening at the center of our Milky Way galaxy? To find out, the Hubble and Spitzer space telescopes are photographing the center of the Milky Way in infrared light. The infrared spectrum is suitable for observing the center of the Milky Way because the thick interstellar dust layer in the visible light makes it impossible to see anything. This image is comprised of over 2,000 images taken by the Hubble Space Telescope in 2008.

The size of the photo is 300×115 light years. So the smallest detail in the picture is 20 times larger than our solar system. The constellation Sagittarius is visible in the upper left corner, the Quintuplet Star Cluster is visible in the lower left corner, and the open star cluster Sagittarius A* is visible in the lower right corner.