Astrophotographer Andrew McCarthy has shared a striking new image with fans of his work. It shows a band of the Milky Way.
By moving out of town away from its backlighting, we can see the characteristic diffuse white band in the night sky. This celestial phenomenon is called the Milky Way. It represents how we see our galaxy and its spiral arms when we are inside it.
If you look at the band of the Milky Way in a telescope or a small telescope, it becomes immediately clear that it consists of a huge number of faint stars. They are not visible to the naked eye individually, but their light merges together to form a characteristic band.
McCarthy’s published image shows the Milky Way band in all its glory. Its full resolution exceeds 300 megapixels. McCarthy used a special camera and filmed in the corners of Texas with the darkest skies. The images he took were subsequently merged into a single image. The astrophotographer even had to assemble a new computer to handle the job.
According to McCarthy, a total of 1.4 million stars have been captured in his photos. The figure seems huge, but in fact it is only a drop from the total stellar population of our galaxy, which according to various estimates is between 200 and 400 billion stars.
The image also shows bright nebulae, within which new star systems are forming right now, and dark clouds. They consist of dust that blocks visible light. Its concentration is especially high near the galactic center. To break through its veil, astronomers use imaging in other bands of the electromagnetic spectrum — infrared, X-rays and radio.
Earlier, we reported on how Andrew McCarthy photographed the covering of Saturn by the Moon.
