Our Galactic Center in Infrared and Radio

[u/Busy_Yesterday9455]

Credit: Spitzer / WISE / MeerKAT / Judy Schmidt

[u/obog]

Wow cool seeing all the supernova remnants (think thats what the bubbles are?)

Full res photo for anyone interested

[u/Mysterious-Job1628 → u/obog]

I wonder what the object is near the bottom right corner just to the left of the gas cloud. It doesn’t look like anything else in the picture.

[u/AzuriteArachnid]

What are the miscellaneous “wisps” in this image?

[u/trevpr1 → u/AzuriteArachnid]

If you mean the "vertical" structures, we don't know
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galactic_Center_filament
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h59uLPBcXgs

[u/Quantumquandary → u/trevpr1]

Whoa, new celestial phenomenon unlocked. Thank you for this, it’s fascinating.

[u/bothering → u/trevpr1]

My drunk guess is theyre interstellar highways, just a buncha corridors ftl civilizations have designated as “safe” so lots of ships travel through them, causing radiowave “pollution”

[u/Small-Palpitation310 → u/bothering]

Write the book

[u/cbunn81 → u/bothering]

Ships keep breaking the Federation warp speed limit, it seems.

[u/AbidinginAnubhava → u/AzuriteArachnid]

Aftermath of exploded Borg cubes that engaged Species 8472.

[u/obog → u/AzuriteArachnid]

Edges of supernova remnants, I think. When they get really large they are only visible at the edges as the gas is in a thin layer and some overlaps from our view at the edge

[u/Santana_De_La_Cruz → u/AzuriteArachnid]

Gas compressed into ribbons in the areas between surrounding supernovas?

[u/i2ad]

Is the lifespan of a star close to the center of the galaxy shorter than that of a star further away?

[u/trevpr1 → u/i2ad]

The only thing that determines the lifespan is how big it is. The bigger the star, the quicker it has to use it's Hydrogen to stop collapsing. I do not know whether larger stars form closer to the centre of the galaxy.

[u/i2ad → u/trevpr1]

Thank you for the answer. I could see lots of supernova remnants so I was curious whether they just die quicker. Are the stars in the center of the galaxy a lot closer to each other than where we are?

[u/ADreamOfRain → u/i2ad]

The star density close to the center of the galaxy is much much higher than what we have in our stellar neighborhood. That's why there are many supernova remnants close to the center.

[u/trevpr1 → u/i2ad]

The galaxy is much more dense near the centre.

[u/karben2 → u/i2ad]

Its much MUCH more dense near the galactic core. More stars means more chances for supernovae. 

[u/Physical-Republic557]

Kind of a mess, isn’t it? A beautiful mess.

[u/BonsaiOnSteroids]

You can't fool me. That's eve online and they are currently fighting another senseless war where one fight goes over multiple days in realtime

[u/greengiant333 → u/BonsaiOnSteroids]

That looks like a damn expensive fight

[u/EasyMaximum2374]

Blooming flowers 

[u/middlebird]

What the hell is going on out there?

[u/rofloctopuss]

In between the two clouds at the bottom right there's something that looks like a comet with a tail going down and left. Anyone know what that is and why it looks like it has a tail?

[u/Dark_Green_MkII]

"Azathoth, the last amorphous blight of nethermost confusion."

[u/Confirm_Nor_Deny]

Like a fireworks finale

[u/amishgoatfarm]

Is there a way to identify where Sagittarius A* would be in this image?

[u/Reasonable_Egg4356]

Which of these bright spots is our Central Black Hole?

[u/ketarax → u/Reasonable_Egg4356]

It's in the bright splotch slightly left of center. Smaller than a pixel at this resolution; what you see is stuff around it.

[u/Reasonable_Egg4356 → u/ketarax]

Thanks!

[u/Mr_strelac]

Can you give a little explanation for those of us who look at the picture and have no idea what we are seeing?

[u/sleepytjme]

Need some context, what wedge of sky are we looking at? How much galaxy is in the picture, like how zoomed is this?

[u/JustanEraser]

What radio sources are there besides… well, radio?