The European Southern Observatory (ESO) on Thursday released spectacular new images of the Milky Way galaxy to mark the completion of the APEX Telescope Large Area Survey of the Galaxy (ATLASGAL).
The telescope which is situated in Chile, mapped the full area of the Galactic Plane visible from the southern hemisphere and this is the most detailed map of our galaxy made.
A statement by the observatory added:
APEX, the Atacama Pathfinder Experiment telescope, is located at 5100 metres above sea level on the Chajnantor Plateau in Chile’s Atacama region. The ATLASGAL survey took advantage of the unique characteristics of the telescope to provide a detailed view of the distribution of cold dense gas along the plane of the Milky Way galaxy. The new image includes most of the regions of star formation in the southern Milky Way.
The Washington Post reported:
APEX uses nearly 300 high-tech sensors kept at just 0.3 degrees above absolute zero to monitor minuscule changes in temperature. When incoming radiation meets one of the telescope's many detectors, it notes the resulting temperature increase and uses it to map cold swaths of gas and dust.
The detailed image can be found here.
Watch a video here.