File:GLIMPSE-MIPSGAL Milky Way 14.jpg
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[edit]DescriptionGLIMPSE-MIPSGAL Milky Way 14.jpg |
English: This is one segment of an infrared portrait of dust and stars radiating in the inner Milky Way. More than 800,000 frames from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope were stitched together to create the full image, capturing more than 50 percent of our entire galaxy.
As inhabitants of a flat galactic disk, Earth and its solar system have an edge-on view of their host galaxy, like looking at a glass dish from its edge. From our perspective, most of the galaxy is condensed into a blurry narrow band of light that stretches completely around the sky, also known as the galactic plane. This segment extends through the constellations Circinus and Centaurus. The bright green region near the right edge of the image corresponds to our sightline along the Scutum-Centaurus spiral arm. In visible light the foreground dust renders this area nearly featureless and dark with only a scattering of nearby stars. The bright blue star left of center near the lower edge is Alpha Centauri, part of the nearest star system to the sun. The swaths of green represent organic molecules, called polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, which are illuminated by light from nearby star formation, while the thermal emission, or heat, from warm dust is rendered in red. Star-forming regions appear as swirls of red and yellow, where the warm dust overlaps with the glowing organic molecules. The blue specks sprinkled throughout the photograph are Milky Way stars. This survey segment spans galactic longitudes of 310.5 to 318.7 degrees and is centered at a galactic latitude of 0 degrees. It covers about two vertical degrees of the galactic plane. This is a three-color composite that shows infrared observations from two Spitzer instruments. Blue represents 3.6-micron light and green shows light of 8 microns, both captured by Spitzer's infrared array camera. Red is 24-micron light detected by Spitzer's multiband imaging photometer. This combines observations from the Galactic Legacy Infrared Mid-Plane Survey Extraordinaire (GLIMPSE) and MIPSGAL projects. |
Date | |
Source | http://www.spitzer.caltech.edu/images/3372-ssc2008-11a14-GLIMPSE-MIPSGAL-Milky-Way-14 |
Author | NASA/JPL-Caltech/Univ. of Wisconsin |
Image use policy: http://www.spitzer.caltech.edu/info/18-Image-Use-Policy
Licensing
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This file is in the public domain in the United States because it was solely created by NASA. NASA copyright policy states that "NASA material is not protected by copyright unless noted". (See Template:PD-USGov, NASA copyright policy page or JPL Image Use Policy.) | ||
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current | 16:26, 14 June 2011 | 24,752 × 13,520 (46.1 MB) | Spitzersteph (talk | contribs) |
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Image title | This is one segment of an infrared portrait of dust and stars radiating in the inner Milky Way. More than 800,000 frames from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope were stitched together to create the full image, capturing more than 50 percent of our entire galaxy.
As inhabitants of a flat galactic disk, Earth and its solar system have an edge-on view of their host galaxy, like looking at a glass dish from its edge. From our perspective, most of the galaxy is condensed into a blurry narrow band of light that stretches completely around the sky, also known as the galactic plane. This segment extends through the constellations Circinus and Centaurus. The bright green region near the right edge of the image corresponds to our sightline along the Scutum-Centaurus spiral arm. In visible light the foreground dust renders this area nearly featureless and dark with only a scattering of nearby stars. The bright blue star left of center near the lower edge is Alpha Centauri, part of the nearest star system to the sun. The swaths of green represent organic molecules, called polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, which are illuminated by light from nearby star formation, while the thermal emission, or heat, from warm dust is rendered in red. Star-forming regions appear as swirls of red and yellow, where the warm dust overlaps with the glowing organic molecules. The blue specks sprinkled throughout the photograph are Milky Way stars. This survey segment spans galactic longitudes of 310.5 to 318.7 degrees and is centered at a galactic latitude of 0 degrees. It covers about two vertical degrees of the galactic plane. This is a three-color composite that shows infrared observations from two Spitzer instruments. Blue represents 3.6-micron light and green shows light of 8 microns, both captured by Spitzer's infrared array camera. Red is 24-micron light detected by Spitzer's multiband imaging photometer. This combines observations from the Galactic Legacy Infrared Mid-Plane Survey Extraordinaire (GLIMPSE) and MIPSGAL projects. |
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Copyright holder | http://www.spitzer.caltech.edu/Media/mediaimages/copyright.shtml |
Width | 24,752 px |
Height | 13,520 px |
Compression scheme | LZW |
Pixel composition | RGB |
Orientation | Normal |
Number of components | 3 |
Horizontal resolution | 72 dpi |
Vertical resolution | 72 dpi |
Data arrangement | chunky format |
Software used | Adobe Photoshop CS3 Macintosh |
File change date and time | 10:49, 13 September 2010 |
Color space | Uncalibrated |