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.   

Credit:

ESO/Nogueras-Lara et al.

About the Image

Id:eso1920a
Type:Observation
Release date:16 December 2019, 17:00
Related releases:eso1920
Size:40303 x 17463 px

About the Object

Name:Milky Way Galactic Centre
Type:Milky Way : Galaxy : Component : Center/Core
Constellation:Sagittarius
Category:Stars

Image Formats

Screensize JPEG
305.2 KB

Zoomable


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2.2 MB

Coordinates

Position (RA):17 45 35.96
Position (Dec):-28° 59' 53.45"
Field of view:35.69 x 15.46 arcminutes
Orientation:North is 58.8° left of vertical

Colours & filters

BandWavelengthTelescope
Infrared
J
1.258 μmVery Large Telescope
HAWK-I
Infrared
H
1.62 μmVery Large Telescope
HAWK-I
Infrared
Ks
2.146 μmVery Large Telescope
HAWK-I