News Astronomy

Gaia mission’s Milky Way map pinpoints locations of billion-plus stars

With more data, satellite will make 3-D atlas of galaxy

Milky Way panorama

A BILLION POINTS OF LIGHT  This panoramic view of the Milky Way galaxy from the Gaia satellite shows the density of stars on the sky. The center of the galaxy lies beyond the line of dark clouds in the middle; the two bright patches at lower right are the Magellanic Clouds, two satellite galaxies of the Milky Way. The stripes are an artifact of how Gaia scans the sky.

DPAC/Gaia/ESA

By Christopher Crockett

- More than 2 years ago

A new map of the galaxy, the most precise to date, reveals positions on the sky for over 1 billion stars both within and beyond the Milky Way.