It took five years and 194 gigabytes of data, but a team of astronomers' work culminated into a 46 billion megapixel image of what German astronomers claim is the largest-ever astronomical image.
The team of astronomers, led by Dr. Rolf Chini from the Ruhr University Bochum, have been following the Milky Way in search of cosmic objects that exude variable brightness. These materials may entail stars located in front of a passing planet and numerous systems where stars rotate and sometimes abstruse each other, according to Tech Times.
The team utilized the telescopes of the university's observatory in the Atacama Desert in Chile for the project. So far, over 50,000 new variable materials have been discovered and recorded.
Moritz Hackstein, who was working on his thesis as part of his doctoral studies, compiled pictures of objects with medium brightness.
The image itself reveals over 50,000 variable objects that will help astronomers discover previously unknown parts of the Milky Way. The objects are called variable objects because over time the light that we receive from them varies over time.
The team's work spanned such a large region of the sky that they first divided the photos up into 268 sections and then combined them, forming what is the largest single astronomical image to date, according to Business Insider.
The resulting image enables viewers to zoom in to closely look at the entities that make up the Milky Way. They can also search for specific objects such as the Eta Carinae (a star) or the Lagoon Nebula.
There are also two new scientific papers that have been released that show, in detail, the efforts of the team that led to this key discovery, according to UPI.
Such a picture is sure to draw the attention of many at a time when humanity is at its most inquisitive. There could be answers and many more questions that reside within the image, but you'll need to have at least 200 gigabytes of storage to fully appreciate it.
