If you had x-ray vision,the center regionsof our Galaxy would not be hidden fromview by the immense cosmic dust cloudsopaque to visible light Instead,the Milky Waytoward Sagittarius might look somethinglike this stunning mosaicof images from the orbitin Chandra Observatory.Pleasing to look at, the gorgeous false-colorrepresentation o the x-ray data showshigh energy x-rays in blue, medium energies in green,and low energies in red.Hundreds of white dwarf stars,neutron stars, and black holes immersed in afog of multimillion-degree gas are included in thex-ray vista.Within the white patch at the image center liesthe Galaxy's central supermassive black hole.Chandra's shar x-ray vision will likely lead to a newappreciation of our Milky Way's most active neighborhoodand has already indicated that the hot gas itself mayhave a temperature of a mere 10 million degrees Celsiusinstead of 100 million degrees as previously thought.The full mosaic is composed of 30 separate images and coversa 900 by 400 light-year swat atthe galactic center.
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