Astronomers have unveiled a brand-new atlas of the galactic plane of the Milky Way in submillimeter wavelengths of light. Called ATLASGAL—the APEX Telescope Large Area Survey of the Galaxy—it reveals dense knots of dust where new stars may form.

Colour-composite image of part of the Galactic Plane seen by the ATLASGAL survey. In this image, the ATLASGAL submillimetre-wavelength data are shown in red, overlaid on a view of the region in infrared light, from the Midcourse Space Experiment (MSX) in green and blue.

Credit: ESO/APEX & MSX/IPAC/NASA

The image is a composite of submillimeter wavelength data from the APEX telescope along with infrared data from the Midcourse Space Experiment.