After a decade in the desert of Chile, astronomers mapped our galaxy

A gigantic and most detailed map with 1.5 billion celestial objects is now available online, charting our galaxy.

After 13 years of extensive research, the European Southern Observatory (ESO) has combined an infrared map that sheds light on the billions of celestial objects found in the Milky Way galaxy.

Astronomers used ESO’s VISTA telescope, located in the desert in Chile, to make 200,000 images and compile 500 terabytes of data into a map of our galaxy. This new dataset covers an area of the sky equivalent to 8600 full moons, breaking the record of the previous map compiled by the same team in 2012.

The map highlights newborn stars and globular clusters – dense groups containing millions of the galaxy's oldest stars. It also includes brown dwarfs, “failed” stars that lack sustained nuclear fusion, and free-floating planets that do not orbit any star.

The researchers also tracked hypervelocity stars – fast stars that are kicked out of the Milky Way's center after a close encounter with the supermassive black hole.

The team used VISTA’s infrared camera, VIRCAM, which can see through the dust and gas in our galaxy. This allows it to detect radiation from the Milky Way's hidden areas, giving a unique view of our galactic surroundings.

“We made so many discoveries, we have changed the view of our Galaxy forever,” said project lead Dante Minniti, an astrophysicist at Universidad Andrés Bello in Chile.

The map is too large to be released as a single image, but the processed data and objects catalog are available to anyone on ESO Science Portal.