This Is the Most Detailed Image Yet of the Milky Way's Center
Key takeaways
- The image is a mosaic containing more than 60 million stars, as well as nebulae and star clusters.
- On March 23, 2025, Euclid turned its gaze toward the galactic bulge, capturing this enormous image in just 26 hours of observations.
- To put this into perspective, the Keck Observatory would require roughly 2,000 hours to observe the same mosaic.
Why this matters: a development in AI with implications for how people work, create, and decide.
Photograph: ESA/Euclid/Euclid Consortium/NASA, CFHT, image processing by J.-C. Cuillandre and E. Bertin (CEA Paris-Saclay)Comment Loader Save Story Save this story Comment Loader Save Story Save this story The European Space Agency’s (ESA) Euclid space telescope has captured the largest and most detailed visible-light image ever obtained of the Milky Way's galactic bulge, the central region of our galaxy.
The image is a mosaic containing more than 60 million stars, as well as nebulae and star clusters. It will allow scientists to confirm the possible presence of exoplanets using a microlensing technique and measure their masses with greater precision.
Although Euclid was designed to observe billions of distant galaxies, its visible-light camera is sensitive enough to resolve individual stars at the center of the Milky Way—a region that is both extremely bright and densely populated—without being overwhelmed by the intense light.