Approximately 1.7 million stars analyzed by ESA's Gaia Mission

The European Space Agency (ESA), through the Gaia Mission, has released a new set of data on the mapping and exact position of around 1.7 million stars in the Milky Way, which has been collected over the last two years. This data from space has been analyzed by a Portuguese team from the Multidisciplinary Center for Astrophysics (CENTRA), which has been part of the Mission since its inception and is responsible for transforming the information collected into visualizations of the Milky Way.

The work carried out by the Portuguese team enabled the development of a unique visualization platform, accessible to everyone in the field dedicated to the Gaia Mission, on the European Space Agency's website. The data collected includes information on the positions, distance indicators, and movements of stars, as well as high-precision measurements of asteroids that are part of the Solar System and stars beyond our galaxy.

The mission has revealed details about the composition of the Milky Way's stellar population and how these stars move, which has contributed to further research into their formation and evolution.

More information at www.esa.int