The center of our Milky Way Galaxy may be hidden from the prying eyes of optical telescopes by clouds of obscuring dust and gas, but, in this stunning vista, the Spitzer Space Telescope's infrared cameras penetrate much of the dust, revealing the stars of the crowded galactic center region.

What is essentially a mosaic of many smaller snapshots, this detailed, false-color image shows older, cool stars in bluish hues. Reddish glowing dust clouds are associated with young, hot stars in stellar nurseries. The galactic center lies some 26,000 light-years away, toward the constellation Sagittarius. At that distance, this picture spans about 900 light-years.

Image Credit: NASA, JPL-Caltech, Susan Stolovy (SSC/Caltech) et al.