NASA releases stunning new picture of Milky Way

It's a composite of 370 observations over the past two decades by the orbiting Chandra X-ray Observatory

NASA has released a stunning new picture of our galaxy’s violent, super-energised “downtown.” It's a composite of 370 observations over the past two decades by the orbiting Chandra X-ray Observatory, depicting billions of stars and countless black holes in the center, or heart, of the Milky Way. A radio telescope in South Africa also contributed to the image, for contrast. Astronomer Daniel Wang of the University of Massachusetts Amherst said in an email: “What we see in the picture is a violent or energetic ecosystem in our galaxy’s downtown...There are a lot of supernova remnants, black holes, and neutron stars there. Each X-ray dot or feature represents an energetic source, most of which are in the center.”