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Astronomy Picture of the Day

Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer.

2025 May 13

Explanation: What does our look like from the top? Because we are on the , 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 mission. The resulting shows that just like , our Milky Way has distinct spiral arms. and most of the bright stars we see at night are in just one arm: . Gaia data bolsters previous indications that our Milky Way has more than two . Our sports a . The colors of our Galaxy's disk derive mostly from dark , , and . Although data analysis is ongoing, in March after a succession mission.

Authors & editors: () & ()
NASA Official: Amber Straughn .
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