Zooming in on the Heart of the Milky Way [Video]

To create this video, the European Southern Observatory used 26 years of data from its various telescopes! How amazing is that?

This zoom video sequence starts with a broad view of the Milky Way. We then dive into the dusty central region to take a much closer look. There lurks a 4-million solar mass black hole, surrounded by a swarm of stars orbiting rapidly. We first see the stars in motion, thanks to 26 years of data from ESO’s telescopes. We then see an even closer view of one of the stars, known as S2, passing very close to the black hole in May 2018. The final part shows a simulation of the motions of the stars.

[European Southern Observatory (ESO)]