ilan
04-27-2018, 12:18 PM
Astronomy Picture of the Day
NASA | 27 April 2018
https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/1804/Gaia_s_sky_in_colour_g.jpg
Gaia's Milky Way Image
Credit and Copyright: ESA, Gaia, DPAC
This grand all sky view of our Milky Way and nearby galaxies is not a photograph. It's a map based on individual measurements for nearly 1.7 billion stars. The astronomically rich data set used to create it, the sky-scanning Gaia satellite's second data release, includes remarkably precise determinations of position, brightness, colour, and parallax distance for 1.3 billion stars. Of course, that's about 1 percent of the total number of stars in the Milky Way. Still, the flat plane of our galaxy dominates the view. Home to most Milky Way stars it stretches across the center of Gaia's stellar data map. Voids and rifts along the galactic plane correspond to starlight-obscuring interstellar dust clouds. At lower right are stars of the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds, neighboring galaxies that lie just beyond the Milky Way.
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There it is, our home galaxy, the Milky Way. It's a spectacular view that makes me pause in awe and wonder! - ilan
NASA | 27 April 2018
https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/1804/Gaia_s_sky_in_colour_g.jpg
Gaia's Milky Way Image
Credit and Copyright: ESA, Gaia, DPAC
This grand all sky view of our Milky Way and nearby galaxies is not a photograph. It's a map based on individual measurements for nearly 1.7 billion stars. The astronomically rich data set used to create it, the sky-scanning Gaia satellite's second data release, includes remarkably precise determinations of position, brightness, colour, and parallax distance for 1.3 billion stars. Of course, that's about 1 percent of the total number of stars in the Milky Way. Still, the flat plane of our galaxy dominates the view. Home to most Milky Way stars it stretches across the center of Gaia's stellar data map. Voids and rifts along the galactic plane correspond to starlight-obscuring interstellar dust clouds. At lower right are stars of the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds, neighboring galaxies that lie just beyond the Milky Way.
_________________________________
There it is, our home galaxy, the Milky Way. It's a spectacular view that makes me pause in awe and wonder! - ilan