Gaia Creates a Giant 3D Map of The Milky Way
- Editor OGN Daily
- 12 hours ago
- 2 min read
The Gaia space observatory has enabled astronomers to piece together a vast map of 44 million stars in the Milky Way.
The new 3D map can take you 4,000 light years away without the need to leave the comfort of your armchair. This first-of-its kind enterprise from the European Space Agency’s (ESA) Gaia mission encompasses over 44 million stars, massive plumes of ionized dust, and regions of immense cosmic energy as the rather brooding image illustrates.
Assuming a clear sky and no light pollution, it’s relatively simple to see what the Milky Way looks like from Earth. But with a diameter of around 100,000 light-years, it’s unlikely that humanity will glimpse the galaxy from an outside perspective anytime soon. However, accurately envisioning what that would look like was Gaia's objective. For over a decade, from July 2014 to March 2025, the Gaia mission mapped our cosmic neighborhood by surveying every detectable star and nebula. Now, scientists have utilized Gaia’s galactic data to create the most accurate 3D map of its kind.
“There has never been a model of the distribution of the ionized gas in the local Milky Way that matches other telescope’s observations of the sky so well,” astronomer and study co-author Lewis McCallum said in a statement. “That’s why we are confident that our top-down view and fly-through movies are a good approximation of what these clouds would look like in 3D.”
As monumental as the map already is, its designers are already planning to improve it. According to the Gaia team, the plan is to integrate the next dataset into their model in December 2026. With that new information, the team believes the map can be expanded even further while including even larger and higher quality data.
Here's a 'fly-through' video the team have released...