HAWK-I view of the Milky Way’s central region

Taken with the HAWK-I instrument on ESO’s Very Large Telescope in the Chilean Atacama Desert, this stunning image shows the Milky Way’s central region with an angular resolution of 0.2 arcseconds. This means the level of detail picked up by HAWK-I is roughly equivalent to seeing a football (soccer ball) in Zurich from Munich, where ESO’s headquarters are located.

The image combines observations in three different wavelength bands. The team used the broadband filters J (centred at 1250 nanometres, in blue), H (centred at 1635 nanometres, in green), and Ks (centred at 2150 nanometres, in red), to cover the near infrared region of the electromagnetic spectrum. By observing in this range of wavelengths, HAWK-I can peer through the dust, allowing it to see certain stars in the central region of our galaxy that would otherwise be hidden.

Källa:

ESO/Nogueras-Lara et al.

Om bilden

ID:galactic-centre-b
Typ:Observation
Publiceringsdatum:16 december 2019 17:00
Storlek:4257 x 1775 px

Om objektet

Namn:Milky Way Galactic Centre
Typ:Milky Way : Galaxy : Component : Center/Core
Constellation:Sagittarius
Kategori:Stars

Bildformat

Originalstorlek
19,1 MB
Stor jpeg
4,0 MB
Skärmstor jpeg
289,2 kB

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Skrivbordsunderlägg

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515,2 kB
1280x1024
836,3 kB
1600x1200
1,2 MB
1920x1200
1,4 MB
2048x1536
1,8 MB

Koordinater

Position (RA):17 45 34.83
Position (Dec):-28° 59' 44.38"
Field of view:35.67 x 14.87 arcminutes
Orientering:Nord är 121.3° höger om lodrätt

Färger och filter

BandVåglängdTeleskop
Infrarött
J
1.258 μmVery Large Telescope
HAWK-I
Infrarött
H
1.62 μmVery Large Telescope
HAWK-I
Infrarött
Ks
2.146 μmVery Large Telescope
HAWK-I