Credit: NASA/GSFC/K.Ebisawa et al.

Chandra's image of an area of our galaxy where dense clouds of dust and gas block out visible radiation, reveals a ridge of hot gas in our galaxy, as well as X-rays from distant galaxies. The pink, red and blue dots in this image represent different X-ray energies (pink and red for low, blue for high-energy). Most of the pink and red dots are stars within the Milky Way, while the blue dots are individual galaxies that lie far beyond our galaxy. The blue X-ray glow comes from diffuse hot gas concentrated along the plane of our galaxy. The origin of this hot gas is unknown.

Provider: Chandra X-ray Observatory

Image Source: http://chandra.harvard.edu/photo/2001/1238/

Curator: Chandra X-ray Observatory, Cambridge, MA, USA

Image Use Policy: http://chandra.harvard.edu/photo/image_use.html