Astronomy Picture of the Day 9-18-02

NASA ^ | 9-18-02 | Robert Nemiroff and Jerry Bonnell

[petuniasevan]

Astronomy Picture of the Day

Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer.

2002 September 18

A Sagittarius Starscape
Credit & Copyright: David Malin (AAO), ROE, UKS Telescope

Explanation: Many vast star fields in the plane of our Milky Way Galaxy are rich in clouds of stars, dust, and gas. First and foremost, visible in the above picture are millions of stars, many of which are similar to our Sun. Next huge filaments of dark interstellar dust run across the image and block the light from millions of more stars yet further across our Galaxy. The bright red region on the left is the Omega Nebula, an emission nebula of mostly hot hydrogen gas also known as M17. A small bright grouping of stars near the image center is the open cluster M18, while the long bright streak of stars just right of center is M24. On the far right of the image is the picturesque red emission nebula IC 1283 flanked by two blue reflection nebulas NGC 6589 and NGC 6590. These objects are visible with a small telescope toward the constellation of Sagittarius.

[petuniasevan]

Astronomy Fun Fact:

When you look toward the constellation Sagittarius, you are looking toward the "hub" or center region of the Milky Way. There's so much dust and gas in the way, though, that we can't see the center regions. To do that we have to use other parts of the spectrum such as radio waves and x-rays.

[petuniasevan]

[sleavelessinseattle]

Confusion...I thought the star hustler had said that Scorpio's chest is the core...But he may have been moonlighting on the Soprano's that week!;-)

[2Trievers]

Moonlighting ... Sopranos ... Baaaaaahaahhawwwaaahhh! &;-)

[sleavelessinseattle]

LOL! Jack Horkheimer looks like the classic Government protected witness! Seriously!!! LOL...fagehtaboutit!

[petuniasevan]

Well, Sleavester, the core of the Milky Way is a black hole associated with the radio source designated "Sagittarius A*".

This false-color image shows the central region of our Milky Way Galaxy as seen by Chandra. The bright, point-like source at the center of the image was produced by a huge X-ray flare that occurred in the vicinity of the supermassive black hole at the center of our galaxy. This central black hole has about 2.6 million times the mass of our sun and is associated with the compact radio source Sagittarius A*.

[MeekOneGOP]

[exnavy]

Been there, done that! just kidding, please don't flame

[MozartLover]

Oooh! This is cool.........Thanks.........

[GodBlessRonaldReagan]

Very cool! If there's an astronomy ping list, please include me...

[BossyRoofer]

What a great picture! Keep up the good work APOD!

[lonestar]

bttt

[RightWhale]

When you look toward the constellation Sagittarius, you are looking toward the "hub"

I'll take your word for it. The constellation isn't visible from here. Nice picture of millions of stars. Makes it hard to imagine that we are in fact alone in the galaxy, but also makes the greenies and the Club of Rome seem like babbling 2-year olds.

[Joan912]

Wow! Very cool!