Sagittarius and the Central Milky Way
Credit & Copyright:
Robert Gendler (robgendlerastropics.com)
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).