                        Astronomy Picture of the Day

    Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our
      fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation
                    written by a professional astronomer.

                              2024 November 24

                     Journey to the Center of the Galaxy
        Video Credit: ESO/MPE/Nick Risinger (skysurvey.org)/VISTA/J.
                       Emerson/Digitized Sky Survey 2

   Explanation: What lies at the center of our galaxy? In Jules Verne's
   science fiction classic, A Journey to the Center of the Earth,
   Professor Liedenbrock and his fellow explorers encounter many strange
   and exciting wonders. Astronomers already know of some of the bizarre
   objects that exist at our Galactic Center, including vast cosmic dust
   clouds, bright star clusters, swirling rings of gas, and even a
   supermassive black hole. Much of the Galactic Center is shielded from
   our view in visible light by the intervening dust and gas, but it can
   be explored using other forms of electromagnetic radiation. The
   featured video is actually a digital zoom into the Milky Way's center
   which starts by utilizing visible light images from the Digitized Sky
   Survey. As the movie proceeds, the light shown shifts to
   dust-penetrating infrared and highlights gas clouds that were recently
   discovered in 2013 to be falling toward the central black hole.

                       Tomorrow's picture: dark horse
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       Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
            NASA Official: Amber Straughn Specific rights apply.
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                           NASA Science Activation
                             & Michigan Tech. U.

