Jonathan D. Henshaw

In a kitchen where you're simultaneously boiling soup, frying meat, and baking bread, everything happens in one pot. That's roughly what the central molecular zone (CMZ) looks like — a dense clump of gas at the very heart of the Milky Way.

In the very center of the Milky Way, hidden behind a thick veil of dust, lies a giant accumulation of gas — the Central Molecular Zone. You can't see it with the naked eye: dust absorbs visible light, much like dense fog hides the lights of a city.