New Hubble Deep Space View

[GrimCO]

Originally posted by boxboy28
alright Grimmy so whats in the center of a galaxy ?
you look at the milky way and you see all the differnet stars but then theres one big bright lite in the middle like a giant star. what is it? like this one: http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap030511.html

Hey there box,

The bright light in the middle is a huge concentration of stars. The closer you get to a galaxy's center, the closer the stars get bunched together. This is due to intense gravity from a supermassive black hole at the center of every galaxy keeping the stars in close proximity to itself.

Here's a picture of a galaxy on it's edge so you can see what's going on in there.

[Manedew]

I typicaly use these as wall paper ... here my latest favorite nebula



http://imgsrc.hubblesite.org/hu/db/2003/09/images/a/formats/web_print.jpg


http://hubble.nasa.gov/image-gallery/astronomy-images.html

Here is the newest deep field study

[GrimCO]

Pretty amazing stuff Mane...

there be a LOT of galaxies out there....LOL

[Saurdaukar]

Grim is right - the "light" at the center of our galaxy is simply more stars in less space.

It would be interesting to think how life might develop on planets towards the center of a galaxy.  I imagine that it would be bright enough thoughout the rotation cycle that, had we started there, we might not rely on eye sight as our primary sense - hell we might not even have eyes at all.

Those little enviromental differences right in our "backyard" are ignored by most people - but to think there are places in our galaxy where "day" is constant, and the sky is a yellow/pink shade is truely amazing.

[GrimCO]

Right on Saur...

The more you think about it, the more amazing it gets...