Stars and Dust through Baade's Window
			
		
		
			Credit & Copyright:  
Stephane Guisard
		
		
			Billions of stars light up the direction toward the 
center of our Galaxy.  
The vast majority of these stars are themselves 
billions of years old, rivaling their home 
Milky Way Galaxy 
in age.  
Together with interstellar dust,
these
old stars combine to create this
yellowish starscape.
Although the 
opaque dust obscures the 
true Galactic center in 
visible light, there is a low density hole in the 
dust on the right of the image.  
The region, named 
Baade's
Window for the German
astronomer who studied it, is 
used to inspect 
distant stars and to determine the 
internal geometry of the Milky Way.  
Baade's Window 
lies toward the constellation of the Archer (Sagittarius).