The most comprehensive map of the Milky Way ever made has been released by astronomers working at the Apex telescope in Chile.
The map, described by the team as "spectacular", covers an area of sky 140 degrees long and three degrees wide. It gives a high resolution view of gas and dust -- the materials from which new stars are formed. The survey from which the data was gathered is the most successful of its kind -- over 70 papers associated with its research have been published.
The telescope used is located 5,100 metres above sea level, which provides a clear view of the sky. The image was mapped using infrared light and radio waves, and includes "most of the regions of star formation in the southern Milky Way". The southern Milky Way is home to the galactic centre -- the rotational centre of the galaxy.
Apex works by measuring incoming radiation. The tiny rise in temperature that radiation triggers is measured and then registered by one of 295 sensors built into the telescope.
"Apex provides exciting insights into where the next generation of high mass stars and clusters form," said Timea Csengeri from the Max Planck Institute, who lead the research. "By combining these with observations from Planck, we can now obtain a link to the large-scale structures of giant molecular clouds."
The team will follow their research with complementary data from Alma, a cluster of antennae in the same area. "This has allowed us to have a new and transformational look at the dense interstellar medium of our own galaxy," said Leonardo Testi, member of the project. "The new release of the full survey opens up the possibility to mine this marvellous data set for new discoveries."
This article was originally published by WIRED UK
