This image provides a rare glimpse into the central stellar bulge of the Milky Way. Our galaxy is composed of a disk, a central bulge, and a halo of stars and globular clusters. Unfortunately, most of the Milky Way’s stellar bulge is hidden behind massive clouds of gas and dust.
    In this famous region, known as Baade’s Window, no clouds come between our solar system and the central bulge. Most of the individual stars in this image belong to the central bulge and are within about 1,500 light years of the Galactic Center.