The Galactic Core in Infrared

What's happening at the center of our Milky Way Galaxy? To help find out,
the orbiting Hubble and Spitzer space telescopes have combined their efforts
to survey the region in unprecedented detail in infrared light. Infrared light is
particularly useful for probing the Milky Way's center because visible light
is more greatly obscured by dust. The above image encompasses over 2,000
images from the Hubble Space Telescope's NICMOS taken last year. The
image spans 300 by 115 light years with such high resolution that structures
only 20 times the size of our own Solar System are discernable. Clouds of
glowing gas and dark dust as well as three large star clusters are visible.
Magnetic fields may be channeling plasma along the upper left near the
Arches Cluster, while energetic stellar winds are carving pillars near the
Quintuplet Cluster on the lower left. The massive Central Cluster of stars
surrounding Sagittarius A* is visible on the lower right. Why several central,
bright, massive stars appear to be unassociated with these star clusters is not
yet understood.