Science
Astronomer Daniel Wang on Friday said that he spent a year working on this while stuck at home during the pandemic.
Updated : May 29, 2021, 06:09 PM IST | Edited by : Shampa Sen
This can be called a perfect way to utilise your days while you are stuck at home during the COVID-19 pandemic. NASA has released a stunning new picture of our galaxy's violent, super-energized 'downtown'. These beautiful pictures that we can see are a result of some great work done by Astronomer Daniel Wang of the University of Massachusetts Amherst.
Astronomer Daniel Wang on Friday said that he spent a year working on this while stuck at home during the pandemic.
What we see is a composite of 370 observations over the past two decades by the orbiting Chandra X-ray Observatory, depicting billions of stars and countless black holes in the center, or heart, of the Milky Way.
Taking to Twitter NASA shared a picture and wrote, "Unravel the threads of superheated gas and magnetic fields that make up the tapestry of energy of our Milky Way galaxy. A new image from ChandraXray brings to life the giant mosaic of data that weaves together this cosmic masterpiece."
Unravel the threads of superheated gas and magnetic fields that make up the tapestry of energy of our Milky Way galaxy.
A new image from @ChandraXray brings to life the giant mosaic of data that weaves together this cosmic masterpiece. Discover more: https://t.co/UJZMMDe2Zg pic.twitter.com/jkNgFXk2z2— NASA (@NASA) May 27, 2021
Launched in 1999, Chandra is in an extreme oval orbit around Earth. A radio telescope in South Africa also contributed to the image, for contrast.
"What we see in the picture is a violent or energetic ecosystem in our galaxy's downtown," Astronomer Daniel Wang said in an email.
"There are a lot of supernova remnants, black holes, and neutron stars there. Each X-ray dot or feature represents an energetic source, most of which are in the center," he added.
This busy, high-energy galactic center is 26,000 light-years away. His work appears in the June issue of the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.