Wednesday, September 14, 2016

millions and millions

The European Space Agency released data from the Gaia probe. Wow. Look at the density!

all-sky map of the first data set from Gaia

The first catalogue has more than a billion stars. Clearly, it's not done.

In addition to plotting the star positions, an unprecedented number of distance measures were made, making for the most elaborate three-dimensional map of the Milky Way ever produced.

Literally, this is huge.

See the full article at the ESA web site.

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