Galactic Center

The Galactic Center and the surrounding Central Molecular Zone comprise the most active star formation region in the Milky Way. This 2 x 1 degree field was imaged at 20 cm (purple) with the NRAO Very Large Array, tracing H II regions that are illuminated by hot, massive stars, supernova remnants, and synchrotron emission. Emission at 1.1 mm (orange) was observed with the Caltech Submillimeter Observatory and highlights cold (20-30 K) dust associated with molecular gas. Some of this material will form stars within in the next few million years; the remainder will be blown away. The diffuse cyan and colored star images are from the Spitzer Space Observatory's Infrared Array Camera. The cyan is primarily emission from stars, the point sources, and from polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), the diffuse component.

Legacy Astronomical Images

NRAO/AUI/NSF does not hold full copyright for this image. Contact the archivist for details.

Legacy Astronomical Image

Galactic Center

Adam Ginsburg (Univ of Colorado - Boulder), John Bally (Univ of Colorado - Boulder), Farhad Yusef-Zadeh (Northwestern), Bolocam Galactic Plane Survey team, GLIMPSE II team

Very Large Array (VLA)

2004-00-00

continuum

L

20 cm

1.4 GHz

RA 17:46:57.000, Dec: 28:33:31.000

2.000000 x 1.000000 degrees

Contact the archivist for a high resolution tif of this image.

Galactic Sources Series

Star Forming Regions Unit