The Milky Way in black and white

Dust bands and gas clouds strike silhouettes against the glowing heart of the Milky Way Galaxy. This black-and-white image combines views of both the southern sky and the northern sky. The former were obtained at ESO's La Silla Observatory in Chile, and the latter were captured by the Roque de los Muchachos Observatory on La Palma off the northwest coast of Africa. Astronomers took the wide-field shots of the Milky Way in 1984 and 1985.