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Milky Way Bulge
Hubble Captures Glittering Crowded Hub of our Milky Way Galaxy
This Hubble Space Telescope image of a sparkling jewel box full of stars captures the heart of our Milky Way galaxy.
Aging red giant stars coexist with their more plentiful younger cousins, the smaller, white, Sun-like stars, in this crowded region of our galaxy’s ancient central hub, or bulge. Most of the bright blue stars in the image are probably recently formed stars located in the foreground, in the galaxy's disk. Astronomers studied 10,000 of these Sun-like stars in archival Hubble images over a nine-year period to unearth clues to our galaxy’s evolution.
The study reveals that the Milky Way’s bulge is a dynamic environment of variously aged stars zipping around at different speeds, like travelers bustling about a busy airport.
The researchers found that the motions of bulge stars are different, depending on a star’s chemical composition. Stars richer in elements heavier than hydrogen and helium have less disordered motions, but are orbiting around the galactic center faster than older stars that are deficient in heavier elements.
The image is a composite of exposures taken in near-infrared and visible light with Hubble’s Wide Field Camera 3. The observations are part of two Hubble surveys: the Galactic Bulge Treasury Program and the Sagittarius Window Eclipsing Extrasolar Planet Search.
The center of our galaxy is about 26,000 light-years away.
About the Object
- R.A. PositionR.A. PositionRight ascension – analogous to longitude – is one component of an object's position.17:58:57.92
- Dec. PositionDec. PositionDeclination – analogous to latitude – is one component of an object's position.-29:12:11.35
- ConstellationConstellationOne of 88 recognized regions of the celestial sphere in which the object appears.Sagittarius
- DistanceDistanceThe physical distance from Earth to the astronomical object. Distances within our solar system are usually measured in Astronomical Units (AU). Distances between stars are usually measured in light-years. Interstellar distances can also be measured in parsecs.26,000 light-years from Earth
- DimensionsDimensionsThe physical size of the object or the apparent angle it subtends on the sky.Image is 2.2 arcmin across (about 16 light-years)
About the Data
- Data DescriptionData DescriptionProposal: A description of the observations, their scientific justification, and the links to the data available in the science archive.
Science Team: The astronomers who planned the observations and analyzed the data. "PI" refers to the Principal Investigator. - InstrumentInstrumentThe science instrument used to produce the data.WFC3/UVIS/IR
- Exposure DatesExposure DatesThe date(s) that the telescope made its observations and the total exposure time.October 2009 - September 2010; October 2011 - October 2012
- FiltersFiltersThe camera filters that were used in the science observations.F110W, F160W, F814W, F555W
- Object NameObject NameA name or catalog number that astronomers use to identify an astronomical object.Milky Way Bulge
- Object DescriptionObject DescriptionThe type of astronomical object.Dense field of stars from the core of the Milky Way
- Release DateJanuary 11, 2018
- Science ReleaseHubble Probes the Archeology of Our Milky Way’s Ancient Hub
- CreditsNASA, ESA, Thomas Brown
These images are a composite of separate exposures acquired by the WFC3/IR and WFC3/UVIS instruments on the Hubble Space Telescope. Several filters were used to sample various wavelength ranges. The color results from assigning different hues (colors) to each monochromatic (grayscale) image associated with an individual filter. In this case, the assigned colors are: Blue: F555W Green: F814W Red: F110W +F160W
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Details
Claire Andreoli
NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center
Greenbelt, Maryland
claire.andreoli@nasa.gov
Will Clarkson
University of Michigan?Dearborn
Dearborn, Michigan
Annalisa Calamida
Space Telescope Science Institute
Baltimore, Maryland
Kailash Sahu
Space Telescope Science Institute
Baltimore, Maryland
