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While we know the sun is only one of over 100 billion stars in our Milky Way galaxy galaxy, we don't know much else. Projects like the DECaPS2 survey are making this a reality. The new stellar catalog, which includes 3.32 billion stars, was released by the team of astronomers who worked on that project. It's the biggest star map yet, and it's only a fraction of the rest.
The DECaPS2 project utilizes the Dark Energy Camera (DECam), which is a 520-megapixel imager mounted on the Victor M. Blanco 4-meter Telescope. It was initially built for the Dark Energy Survey. This survey concluded in 2019. It has been made available to other astronomers, such as those who are conducting the DECaPS2 survey. In 2017, the first data sets were published. The latest update now covers 6.5% of sky and 130 degrees. This is 13,000 times the area of the full Moon when viewed from Earth.
Andrew Saydjari, the lead author of the paper, says that observation time is not the key to DECaPS2’s success. The survey was able to create its huge star map due to the team's focus on the difficult problem of studying dense starfields in galactic plane. Saydjari states, "We just pointed at an area with an extraordinaryly high density of stars and were careful to identify sources that appear almost on top of one another."
An image showing the entire sky is overlayed on a low-resolution DECaPS2 image. The callout box shows a high-resolution view of only a portion of the DECaPS2 Data.
The DECam was the perfect instrument for diving into the most dense part of the galaxy. It works in the near-infrared spectrum, which allows it to see through the clouds of dust or gas that can obscure visual spectrum observations. Combining images from Pan-STARRS 1 observatory with them, it's possible to create a 3D map the Milky Way's disc, giving previously unobtainable insight into the structure and interstellar medium.
You can download the datasets collected during the survey from the site of the National Science Foundation's NOIRLab. You can also zoom in on any area scanned by DECam using a web-based viewer. You can zoom in. This really demonstrates the incredible detail that was captured by the DECaPS2 Project.
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By: Ryan Whitwam
Title: Astronomers Release Largest-Ever Map of Our Galaxy, Featuring 3.32 Billion Stars
Sourced From: www.extremetech.com/extreme/342534-astronomers-release-largest-ever-map-of-our-galaxy-featuring-3-32-billion-stars
Published Date: Wed, 25 Jan 2023 12:01:46 +0000
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