Around the Arches Cluster

Eso_eso0921c_1024

eso_eso0921c June 4th, 2009

Credit: ESO

The turbulent central region of our Milky Way is shown in this beautiful picture taken with the Wide Field Imager attached to the 2.2-metre MPG/ESO telescope. Near the centre of the image — and of our Galaxy — a supermassive black hole lurks (see ESO Press Release eso0846). Dense dust found there obscures all but the brightest stars. The image also includes the area occupied by the Arches Cluster (located in the middle of the upper quarter of the image). Astronomers needed to look in the near-infrared with the acute eye offered by adaptive optics on ESO's Very Large Telescope to study the stellar composition of the Arches Cluster. This crowded stellar factory has more than a thousand stars crammed into each cubic light year — an astonishing one million times as star-filled as our Sun’s neighbourhood (ESO Press Release eso0921). Also see the marvellous zoom to the Arches Cluster. This colour composite image was made from data taken with B, V, and Rc filters.

Provider: European Southern Observatory

Image Source: https://www.eso.org/public/images/eso0921c/

Curator: European Southern Observatory, Garching bei München, Germany

Image Use Policy: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License

Image Details

Image Type
Observation
Object Name
Milky Way Galactic Centre
Subject - Milky Way
Sky Phenomenon > Night Sky > Milky Way
Eso_eso0921c_128
 

Position Details

Position (ICRS)
RA = 17h 45m 41.5s
DEC = -29° 0’ 7.3”
Orientation
North is 1.6° CW
Field of View
32.8 x 32.2 arcminutes
Constellation
Sagittarius

Color Mapping

  Telescope Spectral Band Wavelength
Red MPG-2.2m (WFI) Optical (R) -
Green MPG-2.2m (WFI) Optical (V) -
Blue MPG-2.2m (WFI) Optical (B) -
Eso_eso0921c_1280
×
ID
eso0921c
Subject Category
B.7.1.3  
Subject Name
Milky Way Galactic Centre
Credits
ESO
Release Date
2009-06-04T00:00:00
Lightyears
Redshift
Reference Url
https://www.eso.org/public/images/eso0921c/
Type
Observation
Image Quality
Distance Notes
Distance to the galactic centre in light years.
Facility
MPG/ESO 2.2-metre telescope, MPG/ESO 2.2-metre telescope, MPG/ESO 2.2-metre telescope
Instrument
WFI, WFI, WFI
Color Assignment
Red, Green, Blue
Band
Optical, Optical, Optical
Bandpass
R, V, B
Central Wavelength
Start Time
Integration Time
Dataset ID
Notes
Coordinate Frame
ICRS
Equinox
J2000
Reference Value
266.422798543, -29.0020408719
Reference Dimension
1280.0, 1256.0
Reference Pixel
648.0, 629.0
Scale
-0.000427569940102, 0.000427569940102
Rotation
-1.57090502208
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
eso0921c
Metadata Date
2009-06-24T12:47:52+02:00
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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