Welcome to DU!
The truly grassroots left-of-center political community where regular people, not algorithms, drive the discussions and set the standards.
Join the community:
Create a free account
Support DU (and get rid of ads!):
Become a Star Member
Latest Breaking News
General Discussion
The DU Lounge
All Forums
Issue Forums
Culture Forums
Alliance Forums
Region Forums
Support Forums
Help & Search
Science
Related: About this forumTelescope on Airplane Captures Never Seen Before Details of Our Milky Way Galaxy
TOPICS:Ames Research Center
By NASA JANUARY 7, 2020
SOFIA Reveals New View of Milky Ways Center
NASA has captured an extremely crisp infrared image of the center of our Milky Way galaxy. Spanning a distance of more than 600 light-years, this panorama reveals details within the dense swirls of gas and dust in high resolution, opening the door to future research into how massive stars are forming and whats feeding the supermassive black hole at our galaxys core.
Among the features coming into focus are the jutting curves of the Arches Cluster containing the densest concentration of stars in our galaxy, as well as the Quintuplet Cluster with stars a million times brighter than our Sun. Our galaxys black hole takes shape with a glimpse of the fiery-looking ring of gas surrounding it.
The new view was made possible by the worlds largest airborne telescope, the Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy, or SOFIA. Flying high in the atmosphere, this modified Boeing 747 pointed its infrared camera called FORCAST the Faint Object Infrared Camera for the SOFIA Telescope to observe warm, galactic material emitting at wavelengths of light that other telescopes could not detect. The image combines SOFIAs new perspective of warm regions with previous data exposing very hot and cold material from NASAs Spitzer Space Telescope and the European Space Agencys Herschel Space Observatory.
An overview paper highlighting initial results has been submitted for publication to the Astrophysical Journal. The image was presented for the first time at the American Astronomical Society annual meeting this week in 2020 in Honolulu.
More:
https://scitechdaily.com/telescope-on-airplane-captures-never-seen-before-details-of-our-milky-way-galaxy/
InfoView thread info, including edit history
TrashPut this thread in your Trash Can (My DU » Trash Can)
BookmarkAdd this thread to your Bookmarks (My DU » Bookmarks)
5 replies, 1012 views
ShareGet links to this post and/or share on social media
AlertAlert this post for a rule violation
PowersThere are no powers you can use on this post
EditCannot edit other people's posts
ReplyReply to this post
EditCannot edit other people's posts
Rec (11)
ReplyReply to this post
5 replies
= new reply since forum marked as read
Highlight:
NoneDon't highlight anything
5 newestHighlight 5 most recent replies
Telescope on Airplane Captures Never Seen Before Details of Our Milky Way Galaxy (Original Post)
Judi Lynn
Jan 2020
OP
lark
(23,155 posts)1. Amazing!
eppur_se_muova
(36,289 posts)2. That's a 106" mirror, for those wondering ...
For astronomy, size matters.
Bayard
(22,149 posts)3. Kind of puts us in perspective, doesn't it?
To quote an old tshirt--Beam me up, Scotty. There's no intelligent life down here.
dlk
(11,576 posts)4. Amazing photos! Thanks for sharing
calimary
(81,466 posts)5. I LOVE this stuff!