Q. Daniel Wang

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.

The center of our galaxy is a crowded kitchen where several dishes are simmering at once, and their steam blends into a single cloud. X-rays from the exploded star's remnant, from the stellar wind around the supermassive black hole, and from hot gas between stars all overlap.