Astronomy Picture of the Day

Explanation: What does the centre of our Milky Way Galaxy look like? In visible light, no one knows! It is not possible to see the Galactic centre in light our eyes are sensitive to because the thick dust in the plane of our Galaxy obscures it. If one looks in the direction of our Galaxy's centre - which is toward the constellation of Sagittarius - many beautiful wonders become apparent, though. Large dust lanes and star clouds dominate the picture. As many as 30 Messier Objects are visible in the above spectacular image mosaic, including all types of nebulae and star clusters. Two notable nebula include the Lagoon Nebula (M8), a red patch just above and to the right of centre, and slightly to its right is the red and blue Trifid Nebula (M20).