Astronomy Picture of the Day

Explanation: Billions of stars light up the direction toward the center of our Galaxy. The vast majority of these stars are themselves billions of years old, rivaling their home Milky Way Galaxy in age. Together with interstellar dust, these old stars combine to create this yellowish starscape. Although the opaque dust obscures the true Galactic center in visible light, there is a low density hole in the dust on the right of the image. The region, named Baade's Window for the German astronomer who studied it, is used to inspect distant stars and to determine the internal geometry of the Milky Way. Baade's Window lies toward the constellation of the Archer (Sagittarius).

APOD presents: Astronomy Pictures of the Year for 2007

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Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (USRA)
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NASA Official: Jay Norris. Specific rights apply.
A service of: LHEA at NASA / GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.

Publications with keywords: Baade's Window - Galactic Center
Publications with words: Baade's Window - Galactic Center
See also:

• Great Observatories Explore Galactic Center
• Gigagalaxy Zoom: Galactic Center
• Stars at the Galactic Center
• At the Center of the Milky Way
• The Galactic Center Radio Arc
• A Laser Strike at the Galactic Center
• Sgr A*: Fast Stars Near the Galactic Center

All publications on this topic >>