It took two years and 21.400 shots to capture the stunning view of our spiral galaxy.
On January 18, astronomers released a "huge" survey of the Milky Way as part of an ambitious project called the “Dark Energy Camera Plane Survey”. They captured this view using an instrument called the Dark Energy Camera at the Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory. The Cerro Tololo Observatory is located at an elevation of 7.200 feet in Chile.
Η camera it is mounted on a large telescope that spans over 4 meters in width. They ended up taking images of 3,32 billion objects, most of which are stars.
"It's quite a technical achievement. Imagine a group photo with over three billion people and every single person is recognizable!”
Debra Fischer, director of the Division of Astronomical Sciences at the National Science Foundation, (Astronomical Science at National Science Foundation) stated:
"Astronomers will be examining this detailed portrait containing more than three billion stars of our Milky Way Galaxy for decades to come. It is a fantastic example of what partnerships between federal agencies can achieve.”
There are probably over 100 billion stars in the Milky Way, so this panorama is a deeply detailed sample of the galaxy as seen from Earth's southern hemisphere. Take a look:
If you want more of the images above, you can view the full zoomable image on the website Legacy Survey Viewer.
