Years ago, astronomers started working on a comprehensive map of the Milky Way by observing it from the European Southern Observatory, an intergovernmental research organization located in Chile.

The most detailed infrared map of the Milky Way contains incredible images of over 1.5 billion objects within our galaxy. The 200,000 images were collected by the Visible and Infrared Survey ...

This collage highlights a small selection of regions of the Milky Way imaged as part of the most ... [+] detailed infrared map ever of our galaxy. Here we see, from left to right and top to bottom ...

Just like the Earth was once thought to be flat, so was the Milky Way. However, a new 3D map of the galaxy shows otherwise. While being spiral in shape, the galaxy’s disk is a warped and twisted ...

The result is an unprecedented large-scale 3D map of the galaxy. And that map shows that the edges of the Milky way bend slightly, giving it a warped S shape. "Our map shows the Milky Way disk is ...

The new three dimensional map has been published in the journal Science. The popular picture of the Milky Way as a flat disc is based on the observation of 2.5 million stars out of a possible 2.5 ...