A team of astronomers published a gigantic infrared map of the Milky Way with more than 1.5 billion objects mapped — the most complete record of our galaxy ever made.
Among the more than 140 scientists involved are 14 Brazilians including the main author of the article on mapping, published at the end of September in Astronomy & Astrophysics magazine.
“This project constituted a monumental effort, only possible thanks to a great team,” said Roberto Saito, astronomer at the Federal University of Santa Catarina (UFSC) and lead author of the study.
The record-breaking map includes more than 200,000 images taken with the VISTA telescope (Visible and Infrared Survey Telescope for Astronomy), equipment from the European Southern Observatory (ESO) specialized in recording large areas of the sky, located in Chile.
The telescope’s infrared camera can observe space beyond the dust and gas that permeate our galaxy, capturing radiation emitted in previously hidden regions. The current mapping recorded about 10 times more objects than a map published by the same team in 2012.
Observations began in 2010 and ended in the first half of 2023, covering a total of 420 nights.
“We made so many discoveries that we forever changed the view we had of our galaxy,” said Dante Minniti, an astronomer at Andrés Bello University in Chile, who led the project.
Spacecraft takes a photo of the Earth and the Moon side by side seen from space; look
This content was originally published in Brazilians help create the most detailed map of the Milky Way ever made on the CNN Brasil website.
Source: CNN Brasil
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