the Center of the Galaxy!

Slightly off-topic here! Oleg Bartunov is a Russian Astronomer and scholar, with a passion for the Himalaya. He has trekked extensively in the Himalaya, and has shared many incredible pictures from his journeys on Flickr - here. This photo combines two of my biggest passions: astronomy and the Himalaya. Here we see the Milky Way - our home, spiral galaxy seen from within - as it seems to erupt from a notch in the Chukhung valley, which is located between Everest and Ama Dablam. Oleg has caught the famous 'asterism' in Sagittarius which we Americans call the 'Teapot'. Just off the 'spout' of the teapot, astronomers know there is an intense point source of radio and x-ray radiation. In addition, stars in the area have been observed whirling with remarkable speed exactly around this phenomenon. Based on the orbital velocities observed for these orbiting stars and the presence of an intense electromagnetic emission in the exact same location, there is little to no doubt in modern astronomer's minds that this is the location of a super-massive black hole of roughly 4.1 MILLION solar masses calles 'Sagittarius A*' - at the very center of our 'Milky Way' galaxy! I will be posting more of Oleg's great photos (with his permission, of course!) with added annotations as time allows. I hope you enjoy this one! Big Lew