Wikipedia:Featured picture candidates/Milky Way Galaxy

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[edit] Galactic Center of the Milky Way

The center of our Milky Way Galaxy is located in the constellation of Sagittarius. In visible light the lion's share of stars are hidden behind thick clouds of dust. This obscuring dust becomes increasingly transparent at infrared wavelengths. This central core, seen in the upper left portion of the image, is about 25,000 light years away and is thought to harbor a supermassive black hole. The reddening of the stars here and along the Galactic Plane is due to scattering by the dust; it is the same process by which the sun appears to redden as it sets. The 2MASS analysis software has identified and measured the properties of almost 10 million stars in this spectacular field alone.
The center of our Milky Way Galaxy is located in the constellation of Sagittarius. In visible light the lion's share of stars are hidden behind thick clouds of dust. This obscuring dust becomes increasingly transparent at infrared wavelengths. This central core, seen in the upper left portion of the image, is about 25,000 light years away and is thought to harbor a supermassive black hole. The reddening of the stars here and along the Galactic Plane is due to scattering by the dust; it is the same process by which the sun appears to redden as it sets. The 2MASS analysis software has identified and measured the properties of almost 10 million stars in this spectacular field alone.
Edit Removed gray border.
Edit Removed gray border.
High Res Version
High Res Version
Reason
It is a beautiful image with ~ 10 million stars and fantastic example of the center of our galaxy.
Articles this image appears in
Galactic Center
Creator
2MASS/G. Kopan, R. Hurt
  • Comment I tried to upload it, but it must be too big because it never seems to work. Imaninjapiratetalk to me 21:08, 27 May 2007 (UTC)
  • Comment There, I cropped that large version, and now it will let me upload it. Imaninjapiratetalk to me 21:54, 27 May 2007 (UTC)
    • Support Very nice picture, support 3rd version▪◦▪≡ЅiREX≡Talk 04:02, 28 May 2007 (UTC)
  • Support. Third Version. Certainly, this is a wonderful image. └Jared┘┌t┐  13:59, 28 May 2007 (UTC)
  • Support per Sirex and Jared; amazing image. Cliff smith 16:32, 28 May 2007 (UTC)
  • Support (borderless hi-res) - "My God, it's full of stars!" --TotoBaggins 18:33, 28 May 2007 (UTC)
    • Oppose - After reading Debivort's comment and looking again, I've reconsidered. It does look overcooked. --TotoBaggins 15:02, 29 May 2007 (UTC)
  • Support borderless high-resolution version. --Brand спойт 20:37, 28 May 2007 (UTC)
  • ack! oppose - looks like it has been oversharpened / contrast boosted - with a majority of the distinguishable stars spread out to more than one pixel each, and running together. Too many stars saturated out, I suspect heavy handed post-processing. Debivort 23:30, 28 May 2007 (UTC)
  • Oppose per Debivort. -- Moondigger 00:54, 29 May 2007 (UTC)
  • Oppose – Per Debivort. Centy – reply• contribs – 19:54, 3 June 2007 (UTC)

Not promoted MER-C 04:06, 4 June 2007 (UTC)