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For millennia, human philosophers have held heated debates about precisely our place in the universe. Now we may have finally figured out where we are – at least geographically speaking.
The first study of the entire southern sky was carried out by the Australian Square Kilometer Array Pathfinder (ASKAP), a radio telescope created and managed by the Australian national science agency, the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO). The investigation managed to map around 3 million galaxies in 300 hours, including around 1 million that had never been seen before, according to SciTechDaily.
Since only 12 percent of the human population lives in the southern hemisphere, the southern sky is often ignored, culturally and in astronomy: few know the southern constellations, and the northern ones are hegemonic in song and in culture. However, due to less air pollution, the southern sky is clearer; also, the black hole at the center of our galaxy is only visible from the southern hemisphere.
Mapping the southern sky galaxy was a feat of information technology as much as it was of astronomy. CSIRO CEO Dr Larry Marshall told SciTechDaily that the researchers behind the technology used for the radio telescope had succeeded in “generating more raw data at a faster rate than all Internet traffic. of Australia “.
He concluded: “At a time when we have access to more data than ever before, ASKAP and the supercomputers that support it are delivering unprecedented insight.”
Meanwhile, a space telescope released the results of a similar mapping project. The Gaia Observatory, which has been compiling data on the Milky Way since its launch in 2013 from Kourou in French Guiana by the European Space Agency, has created a new detailed map of the galaxy. The data acquired from the spacecraft was used to develop the most sophisticated 3D map of the Milky Way created to date, which includes more precise information on the locations and movements of stars. This will help scientists calculate the mass of the galaxy, learn more about the acceleration of the solar system, and possibly even glean more information about the origins of the universe.
“The new data from Gaia has enabled astronomers to trace the different populations of older and younger stars to the far reaches of our galaxy – the galactic anticenter,” the European Space Agency explains on its website. (The galactic anticenter is the point in outer space opposite the center of the galaxy, as seen from Earth.) “Computer models have predicted that the Milky Way’s disk will increase over time as new stars are formed. The new data allows us to see the relics of the 10 billion year old disk and thus determine its smallest extent compared to the current size of the Milky Way disk. “
“This is an extremely rich data set and I look forward to the many discoveries astronomers around the world will make with this resource,” said Timo Prusti, scientist from ESA’s Gaia project, in a press release. . “And we’re not done yet; more interesting data will follow as Gaia continues to take measurements from orbit.”
The map, which includes approximately 1.8 billion local stars, includes approximately 1% of all stars in the Milky Way. It allowed scientists to detail how our solar system is slightly accelerating its orbit in the Milky Way and is likely to provide a wealth of other information.
“Essentially all of astronomy benefits in one way or another because it’s very basic data,” explained Anthony Brown, an astronomer at Leiden University in the Netherlands who chairs the team. director of the Gaia Data Processing and Analysis Consortium, at Space.com. “It’s a very, very broad fact-finding mission.”
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