The centre of the Milky Way*

Eso_eso0846a_1024

eso_eso0846a December 10th, 2008

Credit: ESO/S. Gillessen et al.

The central parts of our Galaxy, the Milky Way, as observed in the near-infrared with the NACO instrument on ESO's Very Large Telescope. By following the motions of the most central stars over more than 16 years, astronomers were able to determine the mass of the supermassive black hole that lurks there.

Provider: European Southern Observatory

Image Source: https://www.eso.org/public/images/eso0846a/

Curator: European Southern Observatory, Garching bei München, Germany

Image Use Policy: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License

Image Details Image Details

Image Type
Observation
Object Name
Galactic Centre
Subject - Milky Way
Galaxy > Component > Center/Core
Eso_eso0846a_128
 

Position Details Position Details

Position (ICRS)
RA = 17h 45m 40.1s
DEC = -29° 0’ 23.6”
Orientation
North is 0.3° CW
Field of View
0.4 x 0.4 arcminutes
Constellation
Sagittarius

Color Mapping Details Color Mapping

  Telescope Spectral Band Wavelength
Red VLT (NACO) Infrared (I) -
Green VLT (NACO) Infrared (H) -
Blue VLT (NACO) Infrared (K) -
Eso_eso0846a_1280
×
ID
eso0846a
Subject Category
B.5.4.9  
Subject Name
Galactic Centre
Credits
ESO/S. Gillessen et al.
Release Date
2008-12-10T00:00:00
Lightyears
Redshift
Reference Url
https://www.eso.org/public/images/eso0846a/
Type
Observation
Image Quality
Distance Notes
Distance in light years from the Max-Planck-Institute (http://www.mpe.mpg.de/SPIFFI/preprints/first_result_an1.pdf)
Facility
Very Large Telescope, Very Large Telescope, Very Large Telescope
Instrument
NACO, NACO, NACO
Color Assignment
Red, Green, Blue
Band
Infrared, Infrared, Infrared
Bandpass
I, H, K
Central Wavelength
Start Time
Integration Time
Dataset ID
Notes
Coordinate Frame
ICRS
Equinox
J2000
Reference Value
266.417038167, -29.0065441679
Reference Dimension
900.0, 900.0
Reference Pixel
450.0, 450.0
Scale
-7.54145770434e-06, 7.54145770434e-06
Rotation
-0.34000000000000008
Coordinate System Projection:
TAN
Quality
Full
FITS Header
Notes
Creator (Curator)
European Southern Observatory
URL
http://www.eso.org/
Name
Email
Telephone
Address
Karl-Schwarzschild-Strasse 2
City
Garching bei München
State/Province
Postal Code
D-85748
Country
Germany
Rights
Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
Publisher
European Southern Observatory
Publisher ID
eso
Resource ID
eso0846a
Metadata Date
2008-11-18T17:15:37+01:00
Metadata Version
1.1
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Detailed color mapping information coming soon...

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There is no distance meta data in this image.

 

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