The European Space Agency (ESA) has published the third dataset under the Gaia project. The previous release of the data was back in December 2020, when it contained information on more than 1.8 billion stars, including their position, movement, brightness, color, and so on. In the current set, this information has been expanded. The result is the most detailed map of the Milky Way to date.
All information was obtained using the Gaia space telescope, which was launched in 2013. Among other things, it provides data such as the chemical components of stars, which can then be used to work out additional details. This allows the telescope to distinguish between stars that were not originally formed in our galaxy, but were consumed as it grew.
The data obtained by Gaia is plotted on a map of the positions of stars, planets, asteroids and other objects in the star system. All this looks like a normal image of the Milky Way in a reduced scale. The telescope can recognize and distinguish between binary stars, of which there are about 813 thousand in our galaxy, and also record changes in stars by their brightness. Surprisingly, Gaia also collects data for which it is not intended. So, for example, the telescope detected and cataloged starquakes, that is, vibrations on the surface of stars.
You can get acquainted with the Gaia data on the official website of the project, but it is quite difficult to figure it out there, and many will not understand it. A simpler visualization is here.
Source: Trash Box
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