Fact Sheet
Hot Times in the Milky Way
Superhot stars and clouds of gas surround the black hole at the center of the Milky Way galaxy in this new image from the orbiting Chandra X-Ray Observatory. The large blobs of red at left and right represent gas ejected thousands of years ago from the region just outside the black hole. The blobs span many light-years. Chandra studies some of the hottest and most violent objects in the universe, which produce copious amounts of X-rays. Earth's atmosphere absorbs X-rays, so astronomers must place their telescopes in space to study the energy.
[NASA/CXC/MIT/F. BAGANOFF ET AL.]
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