This Is What The Center Of Our Galaxy Looks Like

Astronomers take an unprecedented, x-ray view of the black hole in the center of the Milky Way.
The central regions of our galaxy, the Milky Way, seen in
x-rays by ESA’s XMM-Newton X-ray observatory.
This new, unprecedented image of the Milky Way shows
that our galaxy's core is a pretty tumultuous place.
The compiled image of photos taken by the European
Space Agency's x-ray satellite XMM-Newton spans 1,000 light-years in the center of the galaxy, and
shows dying stars, powerful winds, hot gas and, most
notably, a supermassive black hole.
The galactic black hole, dubbed Sagittarius A*, and its
surrounding emission are located in the brightest central
region of the image.
Black holes don't emit light. But as the objects that
surround Sagittarius A* in the Milky Way's center are
pulled in by the black hole's strong gravitational grasp,
the interaction emits light at various wavelengths,
including x-rays.
This magnification shows the central 100 light-years of
the galaxy's violent core. Here, only soft x-ray emissions are shown.
After analyzing the image, an international team of
astronomers at the Max Planck Institute for
Extraterrestrial Physics has not only concluded that the
center of the galaxy is a dramatic place, but that
Sagittarius A* may be partly to blame for the tumult.
The black hole is so ginormous that it has a mass a few
million times that of our sun. The new image of our
galaxy's center may provide important insight into how
our Milky Way and its black hole are evolving.