One billion stars (and a huge amount of data)
By Kelly Oakes | March 29, 2012
To say a picture is worth a thousand words would be selling this one rather short.
Full image containing (at least) a billion stars. Click for a bigger version, see text for the really big version, or scroll down for zoomed in view. Credit: Mike Read (WFAU), UKIDSS/GPS and VVV
This edge-on image of the Milky Way contains at least a billion stars. The full version is available here. But be warned: it’s 39,300 by 3,750 pixels. My laptop was not at all happy when I tried to download it, and your machine may feel similarly.
The truth is that no computer screen could ever really do it justice. But here we go anyway…
The above picture, zoomed in even more on the star forming region. There are still over ten thousand stars in this picture. Click for a bigger version. Credit: Mike Read (WFAU), UKIDSS/GPS and VVV
Scientists made the image by combining infrared images from two sky surveys done by the UK Infrared Telescope in Hawaii and ESO’s VISTA in Chile. By looking at infrared light, scientist are able to cut through much of the dust in the Milky Way that would otherwise obscure light coming from the centre of the galaxy.
After collection, the data was processed and archived by teams at the universities of Edinburgh and Cambridge in the UK. It is now available to researchers around the world who want to have a go at analysing it.
more
http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/basic-space/2012/03/29/one-billion-stars-and-a-huge-amount-of-data/
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