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Credit & Copyright: Mark Garlick
(Space-art)
Explanation:
What does our Milky Way Galaxy look like from afar?
Since we are stuck inside, and since opaque
dust truncates our view in
visible light, nobody knows for sure.
Drawn above, however, is a good guess based on many different types of observations.
In the Milky Way's center
is a very bright core region centered on a
large black hole.
The Milky Way's bright
central bulge
is now thought to be an
asymmetrical bar
of relatively old and red stars.
The outer regions are where the
spiral arms
are found, dominated in appearance by
open clusters
of young, bright, blue stars, by red
emission nebula, and by dark dust.
The spiral arms reside in a disk dominated in mass by relatively dim stars and
loose gas composed mostly of
hydrogen.
What is not depicted is a huge spherical halo of invisible
dark matter that dominates the mass of the
Milky Way
as well as the motions of stars away from the center.
News: APOD editor to speak in January in New York
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NASA Web Site Statements, Warnings, and Disclaimers
NASA Official: Jay Norris. Specific rights apply.
A service of: LHEA at NASA / GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.
Based on Astronomy Picture
Of the Day
Publications with keywords: Milky Way - stars
Publications with words: Milky Way - stars
See also:
- APOD: 2023 December 12 Á Aurora and Milky Way over Norway
- Milky Way Rising
- APOD: 2023 July 18 Á Milky Way above La Palma Observatory
- APOD: 2023 July 16 Á Meteor and Milky Way over the Alps
- APOD: 2023 July 2 Á Milky Way and Aurora over Antarctica
- APOD: 2023 June 20 Á The Nandu in the Milky Way
- APOD: 2023 May 29 Á Milky Way over a Turquoise Wonderland