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A team of astronomers at the German University has compiled a tremendous image of the Milky way galaxy. The image contains 46 billion pixels, which makes it the nigh enormous astronomical photo ever captured to date. Information technology'southward the upshot of data gathered over a period of five years past astronomers at Ruhr-University Bochum in Germany.

The data was compiled from 268 individual views of the Milky Way galaxy, including some of the lord's day and the Earth. The view was attained after continuously capturing images over that v-year menstruum with the help of telescopes located in Chile'southward Atacama Desert.

In order to view the image in its most detailed format, yous'll need to use this online tool. "For five years, the astronomers from Bochum take been monitoring our Galaxy in the search of objects with variable brightness," the squad said in a statement. "Those objects may, for example, include stars in front of which a planet is passing, or multiple systems where stars orbit each other and which obscure each other at present and and so."

Heading the team of astronomers at the German Academy, Professor Rolf Chini from the astrophysics section had the herculean task of assembling 268 sections of unlike images. Chini arranged these images in a flawless manner and ended upwards with a breathtaking, comprehensive epitome of our milky way. Even later assembling the prototype, it took another seven weeks to create a 194GB file, which contained dissimilar angles of the image paired with a variety of filters.

"Using the online tool, any interested person tin can view the consummate ribbon of the Galaxy at a glance, or zoom in and inspect specific areas," the group said in the statement.

The online tool for viewing the main image lets you dig in deep to view specific sections. Not only that, merely the university has fabricated the image "searchable," which ways you lot tin search for specific information about whatever space object nowadays in the Milky Way. For example, if you blazon "R Leporis," the tool will accept you to the respective star in the image. It'due south an exciting piece of work by Rolf Chini and his team for other reasons: The compiled epitome shows more than 50,000 variable-brightness stars present in the Milky Way, that accept never been recorded in the history of space scientific discipline.

Prototype credit: Lehrstuhl für Astrophysik, RUB