1 Billion Stars Mapped! Most Detailed Catalog of Milky Way Is Revealed

The most detailed 3D map yet of a billion stars in the Milky Way galaxy was released today (Sept. 14), along with a sneak peek at brand-new data on millions of stars collected by the European Space Agency's Gaia spacecraft. Gaia has been scanning the sky to create a catalog of more than a billion stars in and around the Milky Way since 2014. ESA scientists used the observations to create this stunning fly-through of a packed star cluster.