Stellar nurseries up to 4000 light-years from the Sun

Scientists created the most accurate 3D map of star-formation regions in our Milky Way galaxy, based on data from the European Space Agency’s Gaia space telescope. This map will teach us more about these obscure cloudy areas, and the hot young stars that shape them.

In this animation we fly around the star-formation map in our Milky Way galaxy. The areas that are mapped reach out to 4000 light-years from our Sun. They are shown as reddish clouds.

Read more: https://www.esa.int/Science_Exploration/Space_Science/Gaia/Fly_through_Gaia_s_3D_map_of_stellar_nurseries

Credit: ESA/Gaia/DPAC, S. Payne-Wardenaar, L. McCallum et al (2025), CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO
Music:
My Story – Echoes Of The Heart

Access the video on the ESA video library: https://www.esa.int/ESA_Multimedia/Videos/2025/09/Stellar_nurseries_up_to_4000_light-years_from_the_Sun

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