New picture of Milky Way’s downtown released

NASA has released a stunning new picture featuring our galaxy, Milky Way’s 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 centre of the Galaxy. A radio telescope in South Africa also contributed to the image, for contrast.

The busy galactic centre is 26,000 light years away from the earth.