Astonishingly detailed map of the Milky Way will blow your mind

We now have the most detailed catalogue of stars in our Milky Way galaxy yet. 

The new map — created using data collected by the Gaia satellite — shows about 1.7 billion stars, including many objects never seen before, according to the European Space Agency (ESA), which runs Gaia. 

The catalogue represents almost two years of sky charting.

“The observations collected by Gaia are redefining the foundations of astronomy,” Günther Hasinger, ESA Director of Science, said in a statement.

“Gaia is an ambitious mission that relies on a huge human collaboration to make sense of a large volume of highly complex data.” Read more…

More about Space, Science, Space Photos, Galaxies, and Milky Way

Source: Mashable | Astonishingly detailed map of the Milky Way will blow your mind