• By Charlie Jane Anders
    Sep 23, 2009 7:30 AM 4,409
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    The Center Of The Milky Way Galaxy Shows The Birth And Death Of Suns

    The center of our galaxy shines in greater detail than ever before, in this new composite image from NASA's Chandra X-Ray Observatory. (Click to enlarge.) The whole gamut of stellar evolution is here, from bright young stars to black holes.

    The diffuse X-ray light suffusing the image comes from gas that has been heated by stellar explosions, massive young stars — and outflows powered by the supermassive blackhole at the heart of the galaxy, Sagittarius A. Scientists believe Sagittarius A gave off giant X-ray flares 50 years and 300 years earlier. (So when we finally visit the center of the galaxy searching for the mythical planet Sha-Ka-Ree in order to meet God and ask him why he wants a spaceship, we should time our visit to avoid one of those irregular X-ray bursts.) [Chandra]


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