The clouds of gas and dust surround the supermassive black hole at the galactic dead center.
It’s the largest image ever taken by the ALMA antenna network in the Atacama Desert, one of the driest places on Earth.
By studying how stars are born in this so-called Central Molecular Zone, astronomers can better understand how galaxies evolved, said survey leader Steve Longmore of Liverpool John Moores University.
“It’s a place of extremes, invisible to our eyes, but now revealed in extraordinary detail,” the European Southern Observatory's Ashley Barnes, who is part of the research team, said in a statement.
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