The European Space Agency has published on Wednesday a map of the Milky Way that contains more than 1 billion stars as part of a project to create a 3D map of the galaxy. The agency has identified the precise position and brightness of about 1.14 billion stars in the Earth’s galaxy which astronomers are now converting into a cosmic version of Google Maps 3D – a project known as the Gaia Mission.
The Gaia spacecraft is 10-metres wide and resembles a barrel sitting on a silver saucer. It carries two telescopes and is orbiting slowly around the sun. The robotic Gaia spacecraft, which launched in 2013, is fitted with a 1bn pixel camera – the largest ever in space – complete with more than 100 electronic detectors. The Head of the scientific consortium processing Gaia data, said the highly precise calculations represent “a revolution” in astrophysics. The high-resolution methods have already helped identify some 400 million new stars. The agency says the “huge stellar census” will help resolve mysteries about the origin and evolution of the galaxy.