APOD on Nostr: **Astronomy Picture of the Day** 12 May 2025 **Gaia Reconstructs a Side View of our ...
**Astronomy Picture of the Day**
12 May 2025
**Gaia Reconstructs a Side View of our Galaxy**
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What does our Milky Way Galaxy look like from the side? Because we are on the inside, humanity can’t get an actual picture. Recently, however, just such a map has been made using location data for over a billion stars from ESA’s Gaia mission. The resulting featured illustration shows that just like many other spiral galaxies, our Milky Way has a very thin central disk. Our Sun and all the stars we see at night are in this disk. Although hypothesized before, perhaps more surprising is that the disk appears curved at the outer edges. The colors of our Galaxy's warped central band derive mostly from dark dust, bright blue stars, and red emission nebulas. Although data analysis is ongoing, Gaia was deactivated in March after a successful mission. Explore Your Universe: Random APOD Generator
#APOD #Galaxy #Astroeducation #Cosmological #Cosmology
https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap250512.htmlPublished at
2025-05-12 04:08:35Event JSON
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"content": "**Astronomy Picture of the Day**\n\n12 May 2025\n\n**Gaia Reconstructs a Side View of our Galaxy**\n\nhttps://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/2505/MilkyWaySide_Gaia_5000.jpg\n\n*Image creditor details unavailable via API. Visit linked page below for full info.*\n\nWhat does our Milky Way Galaxy look like from the side? Because we are on the inside, humanity can’t get an actual picture. Recently, however, just such a map has been made using location data for over a billion stars from ESA’s Gaia mission. The resulting featured illustration shows that just like many other spiral galaxies, our Milky Way has a very thin central disk. Our Sun and all the stars we see at night are in this disk. Although hypothesized before, perhaps more surprising is that the disk appears curved at the outer edges. The colors of our Galaxy's warped central band derive mostly from dark dust, bright blue stars, and red emission nebulas. Although data analysis is ongoing, Gaia was deactivated in March after a successful mission. Explore Your Universe: Random APOD Generator\n\n#APOD #Galaxy #Astroeducation #Cosmological #Cosmology\n\nhttps://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap250512.html\n",
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