Each summer the thousands of stars visible in rural skies take a backseat to the dramatic mottled band that dominates the scene. That band is our own galaxy, the Milky Way, regarded by some earlier cultures as the centerpiece of the heavens.
They were right. For as it cascades downward toward the southern horizon it suddenly sports an extra-luminous section, like a splotch of spilled cream. And this glow is nothing less than the center of the galaxy.
Well, almost the center--what this glow really marks is the direction of the galactic core. We can peer barely 10 percent of the distance to the actual center before a profusion of stars and dust obscures the crowded turbulence beyond. But radio and X-ray emissions have confirmed that the black heart of our galaxy is right there, 30,000 light-years away, just beyond Sagittarius, whose stars resemble an archer only to those with ...
