Two powerful observatories combine to produce a spectacular image showing the centre of our galaxy.
The Chandra X-ray Observatory has captured an image of the centre of the Milky Way, revealing many of its secrets that would normally be obscured from view.
The image is one of many captured by Chandra to celebrate the space observatory’s 25th anniversary.
X-rays from Chandra are seen in orange, green, blue and purple, while radio data from the MeerKAT radio telescope in South Africa is shown in lilac.
The centre of our Milky Way is a chaotic region, where cosmic gas and dust obscure what we can see in optical light.
But x-ray light and radio waves can be used to peer through this gas and dust and get to the heart of cosmic regions, including the centre of our Galaxy.
In this composite image, x-rays show threads of superheated gas and bursts from our galaxy’s central supermassive black hole.
The red clouds are regions of hot gas, seen by the Chandra X-ray Observatory.
Translucent threads are mysterious sources of radio waves in clusters, streaks, and ribbons, seen by MeerKAT.
The very bright white spot at the lower righthand corner of the image is the region around Sagittarius C, a bright star forming region.
The Chandra X-ray Observatory was launched into space aboard the Space Shuttle Columbia on 23 July 1999.
It has spent the last 25 years giving astronomers a view of thousands of objects in x-ray, unravelling many of the hidden secrets of the cosmos.
Highlights include Chandra’s view of the Crab Nebula, a view of Westerlund 1, the biggest explosion ever seen in the Universe and a Death Star black hole.