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The mountains of Cygnus

Submitted by Kevin Jardine on 14 May, 2009 - 14:07


1280x1024 version

In this slightly eccentric but I think successful experiment, I have overlaid a four colour image created from the IRIS version of the IRAS infrared data for the Cygnus region on top of a heightmap created from the Effelsberg 11 cm (2.7 GHz) radio data for the galactic plane.

The resulting "mountains in the sky" image reveals cooler supernova remnants (dark green mountains and plateaus) as well as the warmer infrared regions in the most massive star formation region in the solar neighbourhood. This image is just a detail of the complete galactic plane "mountain range" available through the Milky Way Explorer.