It’s an unprecedented view into the heart of our galaxy.
The European Southern Observatory released an image taken by APEX (the Atacama Pathfinder EXperiment) telescope that provides an amazing glimpse into the southern regions of the Milky Way. (A zoomable image can be seen here. And you will want to check it out. You’ll get lost in it.).
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Much of the image contains star-forming regions of gas and dust. Some of these stars will one day host planets — but not any time soon.
The data from APEX was combined with the European Space Agency’s Planck satellite to provide an image that is four times better than anything we’ve ever seen and is part of the ATLASGAL (APEX Telescope Large Area survey of the Galaxy).
Obviously, this isn’t what we see in the night sky. The image was produced using data from satellites that see in different wavelengths. For APEX, it’s using something called submillimetre astronomy.
“Submillimetre astronomy is a relatively unexplored frontier in astronomy and reveals a Universe that cannot be seen in the more familiar visible or infrared light,” ESO’s website explains. “It is ideal for studying the “cold Universe”: light at these wavelengths shines from vast cold clouds in interstellar space, at temperatures only a few tens of degrees above absolute zero.”
The telescope is able to peer through the dust and gas that might otherwise hide star-forming regions.
You can also check out ESO’s video (below) as it travels the length of the image.