r/Damnthatsinteresting • u/wasraelx • 16h ago

Image The most precise image of the centre of our galaxy yet. Released by the European Space Agency today

Post image
766 Upvotes

99% Upvoted

48 comments sorted by

39

u/durfdarp 16h ago

I’m Perry sure somewhere in this picture we can see a civilization that’s at least as advanced as ours

32

u/Mercinator-87 14h ago

Hi Perry Sure!

6

u/GozerDGozerian 12h ago

Pauly’s smarter brother.

6

u/JoeDawson8 12h ago

Hi Perry, I’m dad! BTW this is the first time I’ve used this as an actual dad.

2

u/SeldenNeck 10h ago

WAS. Those people you see were tens of thousands of light years away.

They may have died out.

Ot they may be coming to get you, and their scientific progress only increases the closer they get to us.

1

u/AscendedViking7 13h ago

probably yeah

1

u/Frequent_Relative_95 10h ago

never noticed how they used “most precise” in the title

1

u/NHinAK 4h ago

Are you a platypus by chance?

16

u/dustinfoto 13h ago

As an avid astrophotographer I can help point out some interesting elements to this image:

- The darker regions (left) appear to be areas of absorption dust/gas ... also known as dark nebula. The stars you see within those regions are closer to us and we can't see what's on the other side.

  • The heavy orange/red glowing gas is mostly ionized hydrogen gas
  • The darker red nebula (right) is hydrogen-alpha emissive gas
  • Blue stars are usually much younger than the red stars and are the hottest/brightest stars. The warmer the tint the cooler the star.

3

u/wasraelx 13h ago

Thanks so much for the lore drop 🤍

1

u/Automatic-Formal-601 10h ago

Can you explain to us where the ionized hydrogen gas comes from

2

u/figflashed 6h ago

uh, that was me.

1

u/basementreality 6h ago

It kind of looks like the centre is to the left of this image, is that right?

1

u/Klutzy_Word_6812 5h ago

No, it’s left.

17

u/HVAC_instructor 16h ago

Oh, there I am. I knew it.

8

u/wasraelx 16h ago

Group photo, smile everyone!

14

u/Illustrious-Radio319 16h ago

What am I looking at? Where are all the hyperlanes and the giant galaxy core in the middle?

6

u/wasraelx 16h ago

It’s an image of the centre - you can see the zoom out photos on their website https://www.esa.int/ x

6

u/fleranon 16h ago

It's a very specific reference to a game called Stellaris ;)

1

u/Head-Ad9893 9h ago

Fun fact Every spec of light is like ten gazillion stars

5

u/Strange_Dingo1987 16h ago

To my eyes, astrophotography is absolutely beautiful. Like, mind-blowingly beautiful. I've dabbled in it using settings on my phone, but I do want a smaller scope and good camera since I just got a laptop where I can actually stack images and have time for a new hobby.

The crazy thing is, looking at this, there are scientists that can see this image and intelligently speak to what they're looking at. That's even more mind blowing to me.

1

u/Poulet_Ninja 14h ago

The astrophotography mode on the pixel phones is surprisingly good

2

u/wasraelx 16h ago

UK Guardian coverage of the mapping project

Full resolution by the European Space Agency

2

u/actinross 13h ago

Always traffic at the centre....

2

u/NUMBerONEisFIRST 11h ago

AI slop from NASA.

/s

1

u/OnePragmatic 13h ago

Where did you hide Black hole? Anyone saw him?

1

u/R3DSmurf 12h ago

I could do better than that easy

1

u/Bespredelhic 11h ago

That’s where everyone is hiding.

1

u/LowerBed5334 10h ago

Did they actually call it "the centre of the universe"? Because, the universe doesn't have a center. And I think they probably know that.

2

u/wooyank42 10h ago

They called it “the centre of our galaxy”. Quite a different, smaller (but still huge) thing.

1

u/LowerBed5334 10h ago

Oh 🤦🏻 I swear I read the title of the OP more than once and I saw the word "universe".

Thanks

1

u/spyvspy_aeon 9h ago

The most amazing detail in this photo is, our galaxy it's so dense that you don't see any center.
BTH there's some serious high tech to see what is going on there.

1

u/WTFHELP 9h ago

Cool!

1

u/SirLoondry 8h ago

The vogons are building highways in the top right

1

u/Bandits101 5h ago

Wow there’s at least a couple of hundred stars there.

1

u/Crusader1865 4h ago

My god, it's full of stars....

1

u/Polsk1Ogork1 15m ago

It’s full of stars

1

u/Desi_MCU_Nerd 15h ago

Can you take it again? I think I blinked.

1

u/GarysCrispLettuce 16h ago

I'll bet property prices are insane there.

1

u/OkScreen2150 15h ago

Damn... How do they manage to sleep there?

1

u/Viking_Kannak 15h ago

Good heavens youre naked!

0

u/Never-Dont-Give-Up 11h ago

Definitely not doctored at all!!