Detail View: NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day Collection: The Galactic Center - A Radio Mystery
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Title:
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The Galactic Center - A Radio Mystery
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Explanation:
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Tuning in [ http://www.pagecreations.com/astrocappella/welcome.html ] to the center of our Milky Way galaxy, radio astronomers explore a complex, mysterious place. A premier high resolution view, this startlingly beautiful picture [ http://rsd-www.nrl.navy.mil/7213/lazio/GC/ ] covers a 4x4 degree region around the galactic center. It was constructed from 1 meter wavelength radio data obtained by telescopes of the Very Large Array [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap970727.html ] near Socorro, New Mexico, USA. The galactic center [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap971111.html ] itself is at the edge of the extremely bright object labeled Sagittarius (Sgr) A, suspected of harboring a million solar mass black hole. Along the galactic plane which runs diagonally through the image are tortured clouds of gas energized by hot stars and round-shaped supernova remnants (SNRs) - hallmarks of a violent [ http://www.astro.nwu.edu/astro/purcell/511kev_press_release/ ] and energetic cosmic environment [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap980729.html ]. But perhaps most intriguing are the arcs, threads, and filaments [ http://adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-bib_query?1991MNRAS%2E249%2E%2E262A&db_key=AST ] which abound in the scene. Their uncertain origins challenge present theories of the dynamics of the galactic center.
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Credit and Copyright:
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N. E. Kassim, D. S. Briggs, T. J. W. Lazio [ mailto:lazio@rsd.nrl.navy.mil ], T. N. LaRosa, J. Imamura (NRL [ http://www.nrl.navy.mil/ ]/RSD)
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keyword:
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galactic center
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facet_where:
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Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC)
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facet_what:
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Sagittarius
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original url:
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http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap990128.html
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UID:
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SPD-APOD-ap990128
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