                    APOD: 2018 April 27 - Gaia's Milky Way

                         Astronomy Picture of the Day

    Discover the cosmos! [1] Each day a different image or photograph of our
 fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a
                           professional astronomer.

                                2018 April 27
                                      [2]
                              Gaia's Milky Way
          Image Credit and Copyright: ESA [3] , Gaia [4] , DPAC [5]

Explanation: This grand allsky view [6] of our Milky Way and nearby galaxies
is not a photograph [7] . It's a map based on individual measurements for
nearly 1.7 billion stars. The astronomically rich data set used to create it,
the sky-scanning [8] Gaia satellite's second data release [9] , includes
remarkably precise determinations of position, brightness, colour, and
parallax [10]  distance for 1.3 billion stars. Of course, that's about 1
percent of the total number of stars in the Milky Way. The flat plane of our
galaxy still dominates the view. Home to most Milky Way stars [11]  it
stretches across the center of Gaia's stellar data map. Voids and rifts along
the galactic plane correspond to starlight-obscuring interstellar dust clouds.
At lower right are stars of the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds, neighboring
galaxies that lie just beyond the Milky Way [12] .

                  Tomorrow's picture: clouds in the sky [13]

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    Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff [25] (MTU [26] ) & Jerry Bonnell [27]
                                  (UMCP [28] )
          NASA Official:  Phillip Newman Specific rights apply [29] .
              NASA Web Privacy Policy and Important Notices [30]
              A service of: ASD [31]  at NASA [32]  / GSFC [33]
                           & Michigan Tech. U. [34]
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Site notes:
  [1] archivepix.html
  [2] image/1804/Gaia_s_sky_in_colour_g.jpg
  [3] http://www.esa.int/
  [4] https://www.cosmos.esa.int/web/gaia/home
  [5] https://www.cosmos.esa.int/web/gaia/dpac/consortium
  [6] http://www.esa.int/spaceinimages/Images/2018/04/ Gaia_s_sky_in_colour2
  [7] ap980523.html
  [8] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BnFyzZGWuYs
  [9] https://www.cosmos.esa.int/web/gaia/data-release-2
  [10] https://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Space_Science/Gaia/ Parallax
  [11] http://www.spitzer.caltech.edu/images/
5762-ssc2014-02a-GLIMPSE-the-Galaxy-All-the-Way-Around
  [12] https://www.cosmos.esa.int/web/gaia/gaiadr2_dggc
  [13] ap180428.html
  [14] ap180426.html
  [15] archivepix.html
  [16] lib/apsubmit2015.html
  [17] lib/aptree.html
  [18] https://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/apod/apod_search
  [19] calendar/allyears.html
  [20] /apod.rss
  [21] lib/edlinks.html
  [22] lib/about_apod.html
  [23] http://asterisk.apod.com/discuss_apod.php?date=180427
  [24] ap180428.html
  [25] http://www.phy.mtu.edu/faculty/Nemiroff.html
  [26] http://www.phy.mtu.edu/
  [27] https://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/htmltest/jbonnell/www/bonnell.html
  [28] http://www.astro.umd.edu/
  [29] lib/about_apod.html#srapply
  [30] https://www.nasa.gov/about/highlights/HP_Privacy.html
  [31] https://astrophysics.gsfc.nasa.gov/
  [32] https://www.nasa.gov/
  [33] https://www.nasa.gov/centers/goddard/
  [34] http://www.mtu.edu/
