The OC

[onedomino]

Seen with the Spitzer Space Telescope, this is Omega Centauri, one of about 200 globular clusters that are in orbit around our galaxy the Milky Way. The OC is home to ten million stars and it was recently determined that a black hole equal to 40,000 solar masses resides at its center: http://hubblesite.org/newscenter/archive/releases/2008/14/. It was 17,000 years ago that the light from the OC was emitted and started on its journey to us.

http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2008-057