The image above is a small piece of a much larger, wider picture taken of the Milky Way from the southern hemisphere.
It was released to celebrate the completion of the APEX telescope’s recent Large Area Survey of the galaxy. The map made from the recent survey is suppose to be the sharpest image of the galactic plane made thus far.
The APEX telescope is located on a plateau in northwestern Chile, which offers an elevation of nearly 17,000 feet above sea level, and a desert surrounding it, minimizing interference of man-made lights; ideal geography for astronomy.
The image at the top is a vertical fragment of the much larger, complete picture of the Milky Way taken by the observatory. European Southern Observatory/APEX/NASA
