The center of our Milky Way is almost completely obscured from our view by interstellar dust and is therefore virtually invisible. But there is a small, tunnel-like window that allows us to see a particularly star-rich part of the Milky Way toward the center, the small Sagittarius Star Cloud. My image shows part of this cloud. In it, at the top right, surrounded by blue and red, twisted and partly diffuse filaments, lies a compact star cluster, NGC 6603. Stars like little diamonds in a large treasure chest. The filaments are remnants of a supernova explosion, revealed by emissions of light from oxygen and hydrogen.
NGC6603 and the small Sagittarius Star Cloud M24