The Galactic Center in Infrared

The center of our Galaxy is a busy place. In visible light, much of the
Galactic Center is obscured by opaque dust. In infrared light, however,
dust glows more and obscures less, allowing nearly one million stars to be
recorded in the above photograph. The Galactic Center itself appears on the right
and is located about 30,000 light years away towards the constellation of Sagittarius.
The Galactic Plane of our Milky Way Galaxy, the plane in which the Sun orbits,
is identifiable by the dark diagonal dust lane. The absorbing dust grains are created
in the atmospheres of cool red-giant stars and grow in molecular clouds. The region
directly surrounding the Galactic Center glows brightly in radio and high energy radiation,
and is thought to house a large black hole.