It took two years and 21,400 photographs to capture the stunning view of the Milky Way, home of the spiral galaxy.
On January 18, astronomers announced a ‘giant’ survey of the Milky Way(opens in new window) As part of an ambitious project called “Dark Energy Camera Plane Investigation”. They captured this view at the Cerro Tololo Interamerican Observatory at an altitude of 7,200 feet in Chile using an instrument called a Dark Energy Camera. The camera is attached to a large telescope over 13 feet wide. In the end, he captured a whopping 3.32 billion images of celestial bodies, most of them stars.
“It’s a huge technological feat. Imagine a group photo of over 3 billion people. Every individual is recognizable!” said Debra Fisher, director of the National Science Foundation’s Division of Astronomical Sciences. , said in a statement: “Over the next few decades, astronomers will peruse this detailed portrait of his more than three billion stars in the Milky Way galaxy. It’s a great example of what partnerships between federal agencies can achieve.” .”
Yes, there are 100 million rogue black holes wandering our galaxy
The Milky Way galaxy probably has more than 100 billion stars(opens in new window)As such, this panorama is a detailed sample of the galaxy as seen from Earth’s southern hemisphere. Let’s see:
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First image below: This is a panorama containing about 3.32 billion objects. “Most of the Milky Way’s stars and dust are located in its disk—the bright band that extends across this image—where the spiral arms reside,” says the operator of large telescopes in the United States and elsewhere. explains the National Science Foundation’s NOIRLab.
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Image below: This is part of the gigantic cosmic panorama above. The NOIRLab press release reads, “This image, bursting with stars and dark dust clouds, is a small extract from the Complete Dark Energy Camera Plane Survey (DECaPS2) of the Milky Way.(opens in new window).
A new panoramic view of the Milky Way galaxy.
Credits: DECaPS2 / DOE / FNAL / DECam / CTIO / NOIRLab / NSF / AURA // Image processing: M. Zamani & D. de Martin (NSF’s NOIRLab)
millions of stars. where’s waldo?
Credits: DECaPS2 / DOE / FNAL / DECam / CTIO / NOIRLab / NSF / AURA Image processing: M. Zamani & D. de Martin (NSF’s NOIRLab)
If you need more, there are more. With the Legacy Survey Viewer, you can view the entire survey with the ability to zoom in and out.(opens in new window) website.
Our galaxy contains many stars, but it also contains huge regions of dust and gas. To see through these obfuscated regions of space, astronomers have captured wavelengths of light invisible to the naked eye called near-infrared wavelengths. This type of light travels in longer waves than visible light and can sneak through and pass through cosmic dust to reveal what lies beyond (the powerful James Webb Space Telescope also sees in the infrared). .
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These new images capture an almost unfathomable number of stars. There are still many places we cannot see, can Imagine. Most stars have at least one planet, and many have multiple solar systems. it is in total trillion exoplanets(opens in new window) in our Milky Way galaxy 1 person.
Some of these planets may rain gems. Some may be sea worlds. Others could be Earth-sized rocky planets. Our galaxy, filled with bright stars, holds immense potential.
