This photo looking toward the center of the Milky Way galaxy covers 0.5 by 0.25 degrees on the sky (an area about twice as wide as the full Moon) and contains over 180,000 stars. The image captures a portion of our galaxy about 220 by 110 light-years across. It was taken with the Dark Energy Camera on the Victor M. Blanco 4-meter Telescope at the Cerro-Tololo Inter-American Observatory in Chile, a Program of NSF's NOIRLab.
By studying the brightnesses of these stars at different wavelengths of light, astronomers were able to determine how many heavy elements they contain, which is related to their formation history. The team concluded that the majority of stars in our galaxy’s central bulge were formed in a single burst of star formation some 10 billion years ago.
Credits
CTIO/NOIRLab/NSF/AURA/STScI, W. Clarkson (UM-Dearborn), C. Johnson (STScI), and M. Rich (UCLA)| About The Object | |
|---|---|
| Object Name | Milky Way |
| Object Description | Stars in the Galactic Bulge |
| R.A. Position | 17:58:57.92 |
| Dec. Position | -29:12:11.35 |
| Distance | About 25,000 light-years from Earth |
| Dimensions | 30 arcminutes across (about 220 light-years) |
| About The Data | |
| Instrument | CTIO Blanco DECam |
| Filters | F485W, F635W, F925W |
| About The Image | |
| Color Info | These images are a composite of separate exposures acquired by the DECam instrument on the Blanco 4-meter telescope. Several filters were used to sample specific wavelength ranges. The color results from assigning different hues (colors) to each monochromatic (grayscale) image associated with an individual filter. In this case, the assigned colors are: blue: F485W green: F635W red: F925W |
| About The Object | |
|---|---|
| Object Name | A name or catalog number that astronomers use to identify an astronomical object. |
| Object Description | The type of astronomical object. |
| R.A. Position | Right ascension – analogous to longitude – is one component of an object's position. |
| Dec. Position | Declination – analogous to latitude – is one component of an object's position. |
| Constellation | One of 88 recognized regions of the celestial sphere in which the object appears. |
| Distance | The physical distance from Earth to the astronomical object. Distances within our solar system are usually measured in Astronomical Units (AU). Distances between stars are usually measured in light-years. Interstellar distances can also be measured in parsecs. |
| Dimensions | The physical size of the object or the apparent angle it subtends on the sky. |
| About The Data | |
| Data Description |
|
| Instrument | The science instrument used to produce the data. |
| Exposure Dates | The date(s) that the telescope made its observations and the total exposure time. |
| Filters | The camera filters that were used in the science observations. |
| About The Image | |
| Image Credit | The primary individuals and institutions responsible for the content. |
| Publication Date | The date and time the release content became public. |
| Color Info | A brief description of the methods used to convert telescope data into the color image being presented. |
| Orientation | The rotation of the image on the sky with respect to the north pole of the celestial sphere. |
