The latest composite release, from the ATLASGAL collaboration. This map spans nearly half of the... [+]
Our atmosphere is great for viewing the Milky Way in visible light, but other wavelengths are mostly blocked.
Image credit: ESO/S. Brunier, of the Milky Way as seen from Earth in visible light, as part of the... [+]
This is too bad, because the dust in our galaxy blocks visible light, leaving much of the Universe unexplored.
Atmospheric transmission windows as a function of wavelength. Images credit: Created as part of the... [+]
Earth has a few narrow "windows," however, where the atmospheric gases allow light of particular wavelength ranges to penetrate.
The view of the galactic center in four different wavelength bands. Atop, from the ATLASGAL survey... [+]
Rather than needing to go to space to map the Universe, we can build ground based telescopes and arrays capable of gathering far more light than a space-based observatory.
In the Chilean plateaus, a 12-meter radio telescope known as the Atacama Pathfinder EXperiment (APEX) just mapped the entire southern galactic plane at unprecedented wavelengths: the sub-millimeter, between the infrared and the radio.
More than 70 scientific papers have already been published, but most fabulous of all are the images.
The latest composite release, from the ATLASGAL collaboration. Image credit: ESO/APEX/ATLASGAL... [+]
These wavelengths map the cold dust, which will form the next generation of stars in our galactic plane.
The latest composite release, from the ATLASGAL collaboration. Image credit: ESO/APEX/ATLASGAL... [+]
While all the other infrared wavelengths hide this dust from view, this latest survey, the APEX Telescope Large Area Survey of the Galaxy (ATLASGAL), beats even space-based surveys for resolution.
Enjoy this first-time view of our galaxy's future stars.
Mostly Mute Monday tells the story of a single astronomical object or phenomenon in pictures and other visuals, with no more than 200 words of text.
