                        Astronomy Picture of the Day

    Discover the cosmos! 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 12
    A dark field of space surrounds a thin but colorful band horizontally
   across the center. The band is nearly straight but curves at its outer
      edges. Please see the explanation for more detailed information.

                 Gaia Reconstructs a Side View of our Galaxy
        Illustration Credit: ESA, Gaia, DPAC, Stefan Payne-Wardenaar

   Explanation: What does our Milky Way Galaxy look like from the side?
   Because we are on the inside, 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 Gaia mission. The resulting
   featured illustration shows that just like many other spiral galaxies,
   our Milky Way has a very thin central disk. Our Sun and all the stars
   we see at night are in this disk. Although hypothesized before, perhaps
   more surprising is that the disk appears curved at the outer edges. The
   colors of our Galaxy's warped central band derive mostly from dark
   dust, bright blue stars, and red emission nebulas. Although data
   analysis is ongoing, Gaia was deactivated in March after a successful
   mission.

                Explore Your Universe: Random APOD Generator
                   Tomorrow's picture: again from the top
     __________________________________________________________________

       Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
            NASA Official: Amber Straughn Specific rights apply.
                  NASA Web Privacy, Accessibility, Notices;
                      A service of: ASD at NASA / GSFC,
                           NASA Science Activation
                             & Michigan Tech. U.

