2020-04-02_Science_Illustrated

scienceillustrated.com.au | 7

Although we can now identify incredibly

remote galaxies, we are unable to observe the

centre of our own Milky Way. A wall of intergalactic

dust blocks our view of the supermassive black hole

at the centre of our galaxy, Sagittarius A*. But the

long-running Spitzer space telescope has used

infrared imaging to peek beyond the wall of dust and

create this image. The blue spots are old cold stars;

the red clouds are dust illuminated by young warm

stars. The large bright area is the centre, where

millions of stars are slowly sucked into the black hole.

Hole in the middle: viewing

the centre of the Milky Way

Photo // NASA/JPL-Caltech
NAS

A,^ J

PL-C

ALT

ECH

,^ SU

SAN

STO

LOV

Y^ (S

SC/

CAL

TEC

H)^ E

T^ AL

.