There’s far more to the galaxy than meets the eye
The pale arch of light from the plane of our galaxy can be a humbling
sight on a clear, dark night. But it’s just a sliver of all the
treasures lurking in the Milky Way. Dense clouds of interstellar dust
block visible light from remote regions of the galaxy but allow longer
wavelengths to pass through. In February, astronomers completed a new map of our galaxy as seen in submillimeter light, which is shorter than radio waves but longer than infrared waves.
Submillimeter light can penetrate dust clouds, revealing details at the
center of the galaxy and in stellar nurseries not visible at other
wavelengths. The map was produced by ATLASGAL, a project using the APEX telescope in northern Chile to map part of the Milky Way. The project charted one-third of the band of galactic light that encircles our solar system; the images below show a narrow slice toward the constellation Sagittarius.