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Galactic Center

The Galactic Center is the rotational center of the Milky Way galaxy, located approximately 25,000 light-years from Earth in the direction of the constellation Sagittarius. It is a densely populated region containing a supermassive black hole known as Sagittarius A*, surrounded by a high concentration of stars, gas, and dust.

Source: nasa.gov

APODs including "Galactic Center"

Gigagalaxy Zoom: Milky Way

26/09/2009

Gigagalaxy Zoom: Milky Way
Image Credit: Serge Brunier / NASA APOD

Our magnificent Milky Way Galaxy sprawls across this ambitious all-sky panorama. In fact, at 800 million pixels the full resolution mosaic strives to show all the stars the eye can see in planet Earth's night sky. Part of ESO's Gigagalaxy Zoom Project, the mosaicked images were recorded over several months of 2008 and 2009 at exceptional astronomical sites; the Atacama Desert in the southern hemisphere and the Canary Islands in the northern hemisphere. Also capturing bright planets and even a comet, the individual frames were stitched together and mapped into a single, flat, apparently seamless 360 by 180 degree view. The final result is oriented so the plane of our galaxy runs horizontally through the middle with the bulging Galactic Center at image center. Below and right of center are the Milky Way's satellite galaxies, the Magellanic Clouds.