3 Telescopes Combine for Stunning Milky Way Photo

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3 Telescopes Combine for Stunning Milky Way Photo
In this spectacular image, observations using infrared light and X-ray light see through the obscuring dust and reveal the intense activity near the galactic core of the Milky Way. The image combines pictures from the Hubble Space Telescope, Spitzer Space Telescope and Chandra X-ray Observatory. (Image credit: NASA, ESA, SSC, CXC, and STScI)

A giant composite image of the Milky Way's center has beentaken by NASA's three Great Observatories ? the Hubble and Spitzer SpaceTelescopes and the Chandra X-ray Observatory.

The image, unveiled by NASA today, was made to celebrate theInternationalYear of Astronomy, 400 years after Galileo first turned his telescope tothe heavens.

The pictures of our galaxy's hub combines a near-infraredview from the HubbleSpace Telescope, an infrared view from the Spitzer Space Telescope, and anX-ray view from the Chandra X-ray Observatory into one multiwavelength picture.

Infrared light reveals more than a hundred thousand starsalong with glowing dust clouds that create complex structures including compactglobules, long filaments, and finger-like "pillars of creation,"where newborn stars are just beginning to break out of their dark, dustycocoons.

Space.com Staff
Space.com Staff
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