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Galactic Center in Near-infrared (Hubble)

A telescope image showing a multitude of bright yellow stars, star clusters, and dust against a black background.

Heated gas swirls around the region of the Milky Way galaxy’s supermassive black hole, illuminated in near-infrared light captured by NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope. Released in 2009 to celebrate the International Year of Astronomy, this was the sharpest infrared image ever made of the galactic center region. NASA’s upcoming James Webb Space Telescope, scheduled to launch in December 2021, will continue this research, pairing Hubble-strength resolution with even more infrared-detecting capability. Of particular interest for astronomers will be Webb’s observations of flares in the area, which have not been observed around any other supermassive black hole and the cause of which is unknown. The flares have complicated the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) collaboration’s quest to capture an image of the area immediately surrounding the black hole, and Webb’s infrared data is expected to help greatly in producing a clean image.

About the Object

  • R.A. Position
    R.A. PositionRight ascension – analogous to longitude – is one component of an object's position.
    17h 45m 36.0s
  • Dec. Position
    Dec. PositionDeclination – analogous to latitude – is one component of an object's position.
    -28° 55' 58.8"
  • Constellation
    ConstellationOne of 88 recognized regions of the celestial sphere in which the object appears.
    Sagittarius
  • Distance
    DistanceThe 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 (8 kiloparsecs)

About the Data

  • Data Description
    Data 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.

    Spitzer Data: The Spitzer Space Telescope data were courtesy of NASA, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and S. Stolovy (Spitzer Science Center/California Institute of Technology). Hubble Data: The Hubble component was from the HST proposal 11120 : Q.D. Wang (University of Massachusetts, Amherst), S. Stolovy (Caltech), C. Lang (University of Iowa), A. Cotera (SETI Institute), M. Muno (Caltech), M. Morris (University of California, Los Angeles), D. Calzetti (University of Massachusetts, Amherst), S. Ramirez (Caltech), and G. Schneider (University of Arizona). Chandra Data: The science team was led by Q.D. Wang (University of Massachusetts, Amherst). Image courtesy of NASA/CXC/UMass/Q.D. Wang et al.

  • Instrument
    InstrumentThe science instrument used to produce the data.
    SST>IRAC, HST>NICMOS, and CXO>ACIS
  • Exposure Dates
    Exposure DatesThe date(s) that the telescope made its observations and the total exposure time.
    September 3, 2004, and September 15, 2005 (SST), February 22 - June 5, 2008 (HST), and March 2000 - July 2007 (CXO)
  • Filters
    FiltersThe camera filters that were used in the science observations.
    SST: 3.6 microns, 4.5 microns, 5.8 microns, and 8.0 microns HST: F187N (Paschen-Alpha) and F190N (Paschen-Alpha continuum) CXO: 1-3 keV, 3-5 keV, 5-8 keV
  • Object Name
    Object NameA name or catalog number that astronomers use to identify an astronomical object.
    Sagittarius A*
  • Object Description
    Object DescriptionThe type of astronomical object.
    Center of the Milky Way Galaxy
  • Release Date
    October 27, 2021
  • Science Release
    NASA’s Webb Will Join Forces with the Event Horizon Telescope to Reveal the Milky Way’s Supermassive Black Hole
    Read the release
  • Credit
    NASA, ESA, STScI, Q.D. Wang (UMass)

Downloads

  • Full Res (For Print), 2825 × 1645
    tif (13.33 MB)
  • Full Res (For Display), 2825 × 1645
    png (6.77 MB)
  • 2000 × 1165
    png (3.68 MB)

Related Images & Videos

Telescope image with a background of blue, purple, red, yellow, and white clouds, a bright white center, and scattered spots of red and blue.

Galactic Center (Chandra, Hubble, Spitzer)

An enormous swirling vortex of hot gas glows with infrared light, marking the approximate location of the supermassive black hole at the heart of our Milky Way galaxy. This multiwavelength composite image includes near-infrared light captured by NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope,...

Annotated telescope image shows a tapestry of colors in shades of blue, purple, red, yellow, and white. Overlaid on the image are three sets of labels. In the upper right corner is the name of the object, Center of the Milky Way Galaxy, and the name of the telescopes used to capture the image: Chandra X-ray Observatory, Hubble Space Telescope, and Spitzer Space Telescope. At the center is a label that points to the smaller, amorphous region in white that reads, Sagittarius A-star.

Galactic Center (Chandra, Hubble, Spitzer Compass Image)

This composite image of the center of our Milky Way galaxy was captured by the Chandra X-ray Observatory’s Advanced CCD Imaging Spectrometer, the Hubble Space Telescope’s Near Infrared Camera and Multi-Object Spectrometer, and the Spitzer Space Telescope’s Infrared Array Camera....

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Details

Last Updated
Aug 28, 2025
Contact
Media

Laura Betz
NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center
Greenbelt, Maryland
laura.e.betz@nasa.gov

Science Credit

NASA, ESA, STScI, Q.D. Wang (UMass)

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