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.

Crédit:

ESO/Nogueras-Lara et al.

À propos de l'image

Identification:galactic-centre-b
Type:Observation
Date de publication:16 décembre 2019 17:00
Taille:4257 x 1775 px

À propos de l'objet

Nom:Milky Way Galactic Centre
Type:Milky Way : Galaxy : Component : Center/Core
Constellation:Sagittarius
Catégorie:Stars

Image Formats

Grand JPEG
4,0 Mio
JPEG taille écran
289,2 Kio

Zoomable


Fonds d'écran

1024x768
515,2 Kio
1280x1024
836,3 Kio
1600x1200
1,2 Mio
1920x1200
1,4 Mio
2048x1536
1,8 Mio

Coordinates

Position (RA):17 45 34.83
Position (Dec):-28° 59' 44.38"
Field of view:35.67 x 14.87 arcminutes
Orientation:North is 121.3° right of vertical

Couleurs & filtres

DomaineLongueur d'ondeTélescope
Infrarouge
J
1.258 μmVery Large Telescope
HAWK-I
Infrarouge
H
1.62 μmVery Large Telescope
HAWK-I
Infrarouge
Ks
2.146 μmVery Large Telescope
HAWK-I