Gaia’s star-formation map
Gaia’s star-formation map (slider)
16 SEP. 2025 publication date 1885 Views

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.

[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]