ESO's VISTA Telescope Captures Ethereal 9-Gigapixel Picture of Milky Way Galaxy, Revealing 84 Million Stars

The VISTA Telescope of the European Space Observatory (ESO) was able to snap a remarkably intricate 9-gigapixel shot of the Milky Way Galaxy. With a size of 24.6 gigabytes, the shot showcases 84 million stars.

9-Gigapixel Picture of Milky Way Galaxy

While the Milky Way's center may be viewed with the naked eye, there are intricacies across the cosmos that would require more sophisticated tools and equipment. The Space Academy reports that the VISTA telescope was able to snap one of the most intricate shots of the Milky Way. The picture was able to catalog up to 84 million stars.

According to Universe Today, if the extremely high-resolution picture was printed out, it could have a height of seven meters and a length of nine meters. The original shot has a great resolution of 108,500 x 81,500.

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Milky Way Galaxy

While the shot may seem aesthetically pleasing, it is of great astronomical value. The remarkable data set is a great step forward in understanding the Milky Way. In fact, because of the high-resolution shot, astronomers and scientists were able to identify different celestial objects that they could delve further into.

The Milky Way is part of a huge structure interlinked with more than 800 galaxies that are as far away as a thousand million light years. It is included in an intergalactic highway that spans around 500 million light years across and holds roughly 100,000,000,000,000,000 suns. According to the Space Academy, scientists have dubbed this Laniakea.

The spiral galaxy's disk has a diameter of roughly 100,000 light years. Its thickness also measures around a thousand light years, according to the Las Cumbres Observatory. A supermassive black hole can also be found at the galaxy's center. The Milky Way Galaxy also harbors a central bulge that spans around 10,000 light years in diameter.

The American Museum of Natural History reports that without the help of a telescope, one may be able to spot around 6,000 stars from the earth. While this may seem like a lot, it is only a small chunk of the entire galaxy. Most of the "invisible" stars are either faint, too distant, or blocked by cosmic dust clouds.

ESO's VISTA Telescope

The VISTA telescope of the European Southern Observatory (ESO) is a 4-m specialized telescope for field surveys of the southern hemisphere. It is booted with the VIRCAM (Vista InfraRed CAMera) which has a 1.65-degree diameter view field at the normal pixel size of the telescope. The Space Academy notes that the telescope's remarkable VIRCAM enables it to examine clouds of dust that may obscure other telescopic views.

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