This breathtaking composite image shows just how huge the Milky Way really is.

这幅令人叹为观止的合成图像展现了天河究竟有多么的浩瀚无垠。

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This image was produced by combining a dozen Chandra observations made of a 130-light-year region in the center of the Milky Way.

这张照片是多张钱德拉天文台的照片合成的，显示的是130光年远的银河系的中心部分。

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Across the top of the image runs a distant stream of bright stars and dark dust that is part of the disk of our spiral Milky Way Galaxy.

画面上方横着的是遥远的星星之河和暗尘云，这是旋涡星系我们的银河系银盘的一部分。

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This isn't the first time the ESO has shown a love for large captures: it managed to stitch together a massive 9-gigapixel image of the Milky Way out of thousands of photographs taken with its VISTA telescope earlier this fall.

ENGADGET: Visualized: Carina Nebula captured with a 268-megapixel camera

Because the image was taken in infrared light, it cuts through much of the Milky Way's obscuring dust, allowing astronomers to observe details of the galactic center.

MSN: New Milky Way photo captures 1 billion stars