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The image a close-up image of the space between the glowing light blue spots, courtesy of Chandra and NASA's Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer (IXPE). Thin white lines layered onto the top panel frame the area being highlighted, and indicate that the perspective in the bottom panel has been rotated approximately 45 degrees to our right. In the bottom panel, dappled orange mist overlaps with cloudy indigo veins, and light purple specks. These patches of veiny mist are molecular clouds. By combining data from IXPE and Chandra, researchers have determined that the X-ray light in the clouds originated from Sagittarius A* during an outburst approximately 200 years ago.

Images of the Galactic Center

Images of the Galactic Center

Look at images of the Galactic Center

Images of the Galactic Center

Look at images of the Galactic Center

Images of the Galactic Center
Look at images of the Galactic Center