Gaia’s star-formation map (slider)

On this artist impression of the Milky Way, based on data from the European Space Agency’s Gaia telescope, the location of the new star-formation map is shown.

On the image on the right (the overlay), the star-formation map is made even more prominent, shown as reddish clouds. The star-formation region that is mapped out (contoured by a circle) reaches out to 4000 light-years from our Sun. The Sun is located at the centre of this region.
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[Image description slider: Two side-by-side views of the Milky Way spiral galaxy with its bright, glowing central bulge and multiple spiral arms that swirl outward. The right image includes a red circle on the bottom part of the galaxy, highlighting the star-formation area seen as reddish clouds]