Galactic Center
Image
Minimum credit line: Image courtesy of NRAO/AUI (for details, see Image Use Policy).

About this Image

The Galactic Center and the surrounding Central Molecular Zone comprise the most active star formation region in the Milky Way. This 2 x 1 degree field was imaged at 20 cm (purple) with the NRAO Very Large Array, tracing H II regions that are illuminated by hot, massive stars, supernova remnants, and synchrotron emission. Emission at 1.1 mm (orange) was observed with the Caltech Submillimeter Observatory and highlights cold (20-30 K) dust associated with molecular gas. Some of this material will form stars within in the next few million years; the remainder will be blown away. The diffuse cyan and colored star images are from the Spitzer Space Observatory's Infrared Array Camera. The cyan is primarily emission from stars, the point sources, and from polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), the diffuse component.

Investigator(s):  Adam Ginsburg and John Bally (Univ of Colorado - Boulder), Farhad Yusef-Zadeh (Northwestern), Bolocam Galactic Plane Survey team; GLIMPSE II team

Alternate Resolutions Help

This image is available in the following downloadable versions:If you would like to obtain a higher resolution version of this image, please contact Pat Smiley.

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Technical Data

    Telescope VLA 
    Date of Observation 2004-00-00 
    Type of Observation Continuum Observations 
    Band L 
    Wavelength 20 cm 
    Frequency 1.4 GHz 
    Center of Image RA: 17:46:57.00, Dec: 28:33:31.00  
    Field of View 2.0000 x 1.0000 degrees  

  • Astronomical database entries for Galactic Center
    • Query SIMBAD for more Galactic Center data
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