Microwave map of the Milky Way

An excerpt from the Planetarium Show "The Hot and Energetic Universe". 

This expansive microwave map is based on 1 year's worth of data taken by the Planck spacecraft. The bright stripe of gas and dust clouds along the galactic plane are hundreds or thousands of light-years away, while the reddish mottled regions represent the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB). The light from the CMB has travelled from 13.7 billion light-years away, a relic of the Big Bang.