Two international teams of astronomers have used ESO’s VISTA telescope and MPG/ESO 2.2-m telescope, both in Chile, to produce the best 3D map yet of the central bulge of our Milky Way Galaxy.
This artist’s impression shows how the Milky Way galaxy would look seen from almost edge on and from a very different perspective than we get from the Earth. The central bulge shows up as a peanut shaped glowing ball of stars and the spiral arms and their associated dust clouds form a narrow band (ESO / NASA / JPL-Caltech / M. Kornmesser / R. Hurt).
One of the most important and massive parts of the galaxy is the galactic bulge. This huge central cloud of about 10 000 million stars spans thousands of light-years, but its structure and origin were not well understood.
Unfortunately, from our vantage point from within the galactic disc, the view of this central region — at about 27 000 light-years’ distance — is heavily obscured by dense clouds of gas and dust. Astronomers can only obtain a good view of the bulge by observing longer wavelength light, such as infrared radiation, which can penetrate the dust clouds.
Now the teams have used new data from several of telescopes to get a much clearer view of the bulge’s structure.
This image shows the structure of the Milky Way, including the location of the spiral arms and other components such as the bulge (NASA / JPL-Caltech / ESO / R. Hurt).
Astronomers Create Map of Milky Way’s Central Bulge
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