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Sagittarius C (NIRCam Compass Image)

An image titled James Webb Space Telescope, Sagittarius C. An image of space, crowded with stars and colorful clouds of gas. At the bottom left are compass arrows indicating the orientation of the image on the sky. The north arrow points in the 3 o’clock direction. The east arrow points toward 12 o’clock. Below the image is a color key showing which filters were used to create the image and which visible-light color is assigned to each infrared-light filter. From left to right, Webb NIRCam filters are F162M (blue), F405N (cyan), F360M (orange), and F470N (red). A scale bar at the lower right of the image is about one-ninth the total width of the image, and text below it reads, six light-years.

This image of Sagittarius C (Sgr), captured by Webb’s Near-Infrared Camera (NIRCam), shows compass arrows, scale bar, and color key for reference.

The north and east compass arrows show the orientation of the image on the sky. Note that the relationship between north and east on the sky (as seen from below) is flipped relative to direction arrows on a map of the ground (as seen from above).

The scale bar is labeled in light-years, which is the distance that light travels in one Earth-year. (It takes 6 years for light to travel a distance equal to the length of the scale bar.) One light-year is equal to about 5.88 trillion miles or 9.46 trillion kilometers. The field of view shown in this image is approximately 44 light-years long.

This image shows invisible near-infrared wavelengths of light that have been translated into visible-light colors. The color key shows which NIRCam filters were used when collecting the light. The color of each filter name is the visible light color used to represent the infrared light that passes through that filter.

Read the full image caption.

About the Object

  • R.A. Position
    R.A. PositionRight ascension – analogous to longitude – is one component of an object's position.
    17:44:40.30
  • Dec. Position
    Dec. PositionDeclination – analogous to latitude – is one component of an object's position.
    -29:28:14.93
  • 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 lightyears
  • Dimensions
    DimensionsThe physical size of the object or the apparent angle it subtends on the sky.
    This image is about 5.8 arcminutes across (44 lightyears)

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.

    This image was created with Webb data from proposal: 4147 (S. Crowe). Image Processing: Alyssa Pagan (STScI)

  • Instrument
    InstrumentThe science instrument used to produce the data.
    NIRCam
  • Exposure Dates
    Exposure DatesThe date(s) that the telescope made its observations and the total exposure time.
    22 Sept 2023
  • Filters
    FiltersThe camera filters that were used in the science observations.
    F162M, F360M, F405N, F470N
  • Object Name
    Object NameA name or catalog number that astronomers use to identify an astronomical object.
    Sagittarius C
  • Release Date
    November 20, 2023
  • Science Release
    NASA’s Webb Reveals New Features in Heart of Milky Way
    Read the release
  • Credit
    Image: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, Samuel Crowe (UVA)

Downloads

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An image titled James Webb Space Telescope, Sagittarius C. An image of space, crowded with stars and colorful clouds of gas. At the bottom left are compass arrows indicating the orientation of the image on the sky. The north arrow points in the 3 o’clock direction. The east arrow points toward 12 o’clock. Below the image is a color key showing which filters were used to create the image and which visible-light color is assigned to each infrared-light filter. From left to right, Webb NIRCam filters are F162M (blue), F405N (cyan), F360M (orange), and F470N (red). A scale bar at the lower right of the image is about one-ninth the total width of the image, and text below it reads, six light-years.
Color Info
Color InfoA brief description of the methods used to convert telescope data into the color image being presented.

These images are a composite of separate exposures acquired by the James Webb Space Telescope using the NIRCam instrument. Several filters were used to sample specific 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: F162M, Cyan: F405N, Orange: F360M, Red: F470N

Related Images & Videos

a funnel-shaped region of space appears darker than its surroundings with fewer stars. It is wider at the top edge of the image, narrowing towards the bottom. Toward the narrow end of this dark region a small clump of red and white appears to shoot out streamers upward and left. A large, bright cyan-colored area surrounds the lower portion of the funnel-shaped dark area, forming a rough U shape. The cyan-colored area has needle-like, linear structures and becomes more diffuse in the center of the image. The right side of the image is dominated by clouds of orange and red, with a purple haze.

Sagittarius C (NIRCam Image)

The full view of the James Webb Space Telescope’s NIRCam (Near-Infrared Camera) instrument reveals a 50 light-years-wide portion of the Milky Way’s dense center. An estimated 500,000 stars shine in this image of the Sagittarius C (Sgr C) region, along with some as-yet...

A crowded region of space, full of stars and colorful clouds, more than twice as wide as it is tall, with features outlined in the image in different colors. A key on the right indicates what each outline is highlighting. From the top of the key down: an orange circle next to text, protostar cluster. An irregular green dashed-line shape with text, infrared-dark cloud. A straight red dashed-line with text, needle structures. An irregular yellow dotted-line shape with text, ionized hydrogen. See full image extended description for more details.

Sagittarius C (Annotated NIRCam Image)

Approximate outlines help to define the features in the Sagittarius C (Sgr C) region. Astronomers are studying data from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope to understand the relationship between these features, as well as other influences in the chaotic galaxy center. Read the...

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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

Image Credit

NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, Samuel Crowe (UVA)

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