The Milky Way

This is a wide-field image of the Milky Way stretching across the southern sky.

NGC 3603 is located in the Carina spiral arm of the Milky Way, about 20 000 light-years from the Solar System.

The Carina Nebula (NGC 3372) appears to the right in the image, glowing in red. At the centre of the image is the constellation of the Southern Cross. The bright yellow-white star at the left of the image is Alpha Centauri, a system of three stars, at a distance of about 4.4 light-years from Earth.