Galactic Center Region - Center of our galaxy (photo)

Region of the centre of our galaxy view in infrared and millimetre waves. The center of the image shows the region around Sagittarius A, the central black hole of our galaxy, located about 26,000 light years from Earth. In blue, the gas and dust clouds detected by the APEX telescope in millimetre waves appear. This is a colour composite image of the central region of our Milky Way galaxy, about 26 000 light years from Earth. Giant clouds of gas and dust are shown in blue, as detected by the LABOCA instrument on the Atacama Pathfinder Experiment (APEX) telescope at submillimetre wavelengths (870 micron). The image also contains near-infrared data from the 2MASS project at K-band (in red), H-band (in green), and J-band (in blue). The image shows a region approximately 100 light-years wide. Sagittarius A* is a compact object located at the centre of our own Milky Way Galaxy, at a distance of about 26,000 light-years from Earth.