Amazing Photo Captures 84 Million Stars in Our Milky Way Galaxy

[n2doc]

Astronomers have catalogued 84 million stars at the heart of the Milky Way galaxy using an enormous cosmic photo snapped by a telescope in Chile, a view that is billed as the largest survey ever of the stars in our galaxy's core.


The staggering 9-gigapixel picture was created with data gathered by the Visible and Infrared Survey Telescope for Astronomy (VISTA), an instrument at the European Southern Observatory's Paranal Observatory in northern Chile. The zoomable image is so large that it would measure 30 feet long by 23 feet tall (9 by 7 meters) if printed with the resolution of a typical book, researchers said.

The catalogue derived from the new image contains 10 times more stars than previous studies have provided. It should help astronomers better understand the structure and evolution of our home galaxy, researchers said.

"By observing in detail the myriads of stars surrounding the center of the Milky Way we can learn a lot more about the formation and evolution of not only our galaxy, but also spiral galaxies in general," study lead author Roberto Saito, of the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, Universidad de Valparaíso and The Milky Way Millennium Nucleus, said in a statement.

http://www.space.com/18193-milky-way-photo-84-millions-stars.html

[lalalu]

1. Nice

Reminds of a clear night on a southwestern road. The stars at night are awesome there.

[bongbong]

3. Try sailing

The view of space from a small boat in the middle of nowhere, many miles from shore, is incredible.

[lalalu]

4. I have the Natalie Wood syndrome.

I can imagine it is beautiful and wish I would be relaxed enough to enjoy. The few times I have been out have been nerve wracking.

I have always been terrified of the ocean although I loved to sit on shore and watch the ocean at a distance. My parents and siblings could never understand.

[bongbong]

5. Sorry to hear that

You could try getting on a boat, falling asleep, and waiting until the middle of the night to be woken.

If it is calm, and there is no moon, you can be 1000 miles from land and your senses tell you you're bobbing around in a little pond - because there's nothing "out there" and no indication you're offshore. It's an AMAZING sensation. And you'll see, literally, millions of stars.

[lalalu]

7. I just may try that.

I have actually been thinking about giving it another chance.

[longship]

2. Jaw dropping!

Wish I had BW to get the whole 9GB image. But I don't have the memory to load it anyway. It would make a helluva good image for wall paper.

[deutsey]

6. Wow!

[Scuba]

8. I only counted 83,713,946. Perhaps I missed a few.