All-Sky Milky Way Panorama

All-Sky Milky Way Panorama
Credit & Copyright: Axel Mellinger (Central Mich. U)

Explanation: If you could go far away from the Earth and look around the entire sky -- what would you see? Such was the goal of the All-Sky Milky Way Panorama 2.0 project of Axel Mellinger. Presented above is the result: a digital compilation of over 3,000 images comprising the highest resolution digital panorama of the entire night sky yet created. An interactive zoom version, featuring over 500 million pixels, can be found here. Every fixed astronomical object visible to the unaided eye has been imaged, including every constellation, every nebula, and every star cluster. Moreover, millions of individual stars are also visible, all in our Milky Way Galaxy, and many a thousand times fainter than a human can see. Dark filaments of dust lace the central band of our Milky Way Galaxy, visible across the image center. The satellite galaxies Large and Small Magellanic Clouds are visible on the lower right. This was not the first time Dr. Mellinger has embarked on such a project: the results of his first All-Sky Milky Way Panorama Project, taken using photographic film, are visible here.

http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap091125.html

Peace
Tara

The Milky Way as you've never seen it before: The colourful centre of our galaxy in all its glory By Claire Bates

Hubble

Unprecedented: A beautiful composite image of the Milky Way centre using observations from the Hubble Space Telescope, the Spitzer Space Telescope, and the Chandra X-ray Observatory

Colourful, swirling clouds of cosmic dust interspersed with glowing star clusters are revealed in this extraordinary image of the Milky Way.

The dazzling image combining reds, yellows, blues and purples, was created by layering stunningly detailed pictures from the Hubble Space Telescope, the Spitzer Space Telescope and Chandra X-ray Observatory on top of each other.

The Milky Way is at the centre of our own galaxy and this image shows its core. The image was created to celebrate the 400th anniversary of Galileo Galilei's first demonstration of his telescope.



ARCHED FILAMENTS: These are located 85 light years from the centre of the Milky Way, the Sagittarius A area. The 'filaments' are roughly ten light years long and one wide. One light year is nearly 6 million million miles, the distance light travels in a year.

ARCHES CLUSTER: The densest known star cluster within the Milky Way containing about 1,000 'young' stars

X-RAY BINARY STAR: The glow is created by two stars, hence binary, orbiting a centre of mass

QUINTUPLET CLUSTER: It is a collection of stars which is 4million years old and contains 10,000 times the mass of our Sun

PISTOL STAR: This is the biggest type of star known in the universe and is called a 'blue hyper giant'. Like our Sun it has solar winds but these are 10billion times more powerful. Astronomers believe the Pistol Star will soon undergo a massive stellar explosion known as a supernova. Our solar system was probably created by such an event.

SICKLE: The Sickle is made up of dense dust clouds which are given their shape by radiation and solar winds from 'young' stars

SAGITTARIUS A: This is the centre of the Milky Way. Astronomers believe that it contains a massive black hole, a space with a gravitational field so intense that no matter or radiation can escape. Evidence for this includes mysterious radio waves emitted from this area.

Read more; click link to rest of article here:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1226815/The-Milky-Way-youve-seen-The-intense-centre-galaxy-glory.html

Simply Beautiful!

Tara