Heart of the Milky Way

Space photography is at its best when it simply shows us things we’ve never seen. Often, such an image can be strikingly beautiful. But beauty isn’t something we always expect from an X-ray telescope.

Heart of the Milky Way. Full Story & Larger Image

That’s why this mosaic image of the central region of the Milky Way, made by the Chandra X-ray Observatory and released early this year, makes this list. Nowhere are X-rays more common than pouring out of a galactic center, where star birth is rampant and death nearly as frequent.

Until Chandra was launched, however, we could never see all this activity with such precision.

Next Page: New Star in the Sky