Tuesday, May 19, 2009

My New Desktop Wallpaper

Today's Astronomy Picture of the Day. It's a little dark, but works well.

mwcenter_gendler 1.jpg


"What does the center of our Milky Way Galaxy look like? In visible light, no one knows! It is not possible to see the Galactic center in light our eyes are sensitive to because the thick dust in the plane of our Galaxy obscures it. If one looks in the direction of our Galaxy's center - which is toward the constellation of Sagittarius - many beautiful wonders become apparent, though. Large dust lanes and star clouds dominate the picture. As many as 30 Messier Objects are visible in the above spectacular image mosaic, including all types of nebulas and star clusters. Two notable nebula include the Lagoon Nebula (M8), a red patch just above and to the right of center, and slightly to its right is the red and blue Trifid Nebula (M20)."

As a bonus, check out this Time-Lapse Photo of the Galactic Core of the Milky Way posted by Gizmodo.

1 comment:

The Dad said...

I have a bruise on the back of my leg that looks exactly like this.