The NASA Hubble Space Telescope has been surveying the galactic core in infrared wavelengths for a rather long time. Recently, astronomers were able to put all those data into a comprehensive mosaic view of the central Milky Way. Experts in charge of this survey say that this represents the most complex investigation ever conducted on mapping these regions. The data have already revealed the existence of new massive stars, as well as large volumes of ionized gas. The latter also appear to be forming large-scale structures.
Hubble's Near Infrared Camera and Multi-Object Spectrometer (NICMOS) could not snap images of this 300-by-115 light-years area in visible wavelengths, because the region is obscured by billowing clouds of molecular hydrogen gas and cosmic dust.
Most of the glow visible in this photo comes from ionized hydrogen gas, the same material that is used to build new stars inside nebulae and stellar nurseries. The sheer amount of data contained in this image will undoubtedly keep astronomers busy for a long time.
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