PICTURED: Stunning and most detailed map of the Milky Way so far revealed
THE European Space Agency (ESA) has produced a stunning and detailed map of the Milky Way Galaxy which contains over a BILLION stars.
Gaia has been mapping the Milky Way
The ESA’s Gaia satellite has been scanning the galaxy for fourteen months and as such have been able to produce the most extensive and detailed map of our galactic neighbourhood to date.
The mind-boggling map shows the precise location and brightness of 1142million stars.
Alvaro Giménez, ESA’s Director of Science, said: “Gaia is at the forefront of astrometry, charting the sky at precisions that have never been achieved before.
“[The] release gives us a first impression of the extraordinary data that await us and that will revolutionise our understanding of how stars are distributed and move across our Galaxy.”
The most extensive map of the Milky Way to date
Timo Prusti, Gaia project scientist at ESA, added: “The beautiful map we are publishing … shows the density of stars measured by Gaia across the entire sky, and confirms that it collected superb data during its first year of operations.”
The satellite was first launched in July 2014, and the image is based on data collected in the first 14 months of its operation.
There are billions of stars in the Milky Way
Despite the awe-inspiring map, the ESA says that this is only the beginning of its mission, and that it is “on track to complete the most detailed and complex mapping of the heavens ever undertaken.”