Portal:Outer space/Selected picture/18
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![Milky Way](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/9/9e/Milky_Way_IR_Spitzer.jpg/250px-Milky_Way_IR_Spitzer.jpg)
Credit: Spitzer Space Telescope
This infrared image shows hundreds of thousands of stars crowded into the swirling core of our spiral Milky Way galaxy. In visible-light pictures, this region cannot be seen at all because cosmic dust lying between Earth and the galactic center blocks our view.