Astronomers from the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy have revealed a revolutionary three-dimensional map of cosmic dust in the Milky Way. This unique visualization, created from 130 million spectra collected by the Gaia mission, provides a detailed study of the distribution and properties of dust clouds that obscure starlight and distort our observations.
Cosmic dust not only “obscures” objects, making them faint and red (interstellar absorption), but also hides clues to understanding galaxy structure. The new map indicates where dust most affects observations and where its impact is minimal. For example, red areas on the map indicate regions with intense wavelength-dependent attenuation, while blue areas indicate more stable conditions.
How was the map created?
The team used data from the European Space Agency’s Gaia mission, gathering more than three trillion observations since 2014. Out of 220 million spectra, the scientists selected 130 million that were most informative for analyzing dust. Next, a neural network trained on the properties of stars and dust modeled the distribution of particles in space. The result is an interactive model covering a radius of 8,000 light-years around the Sun.
Unexpected discoveries
The map showed that in dense dusty regions (the equivalent of 10 kg of dust in an Earth-sized sphere), absorption is more intense than models predicted. The researchers speculate that the prevalence of carbon compounds in space may be the cause. This hypothesis is planned to be tested with future observations.
This hypothesis is planned to be tested with future observations
Although the Gaia mission ended in early 2025, its data has already helped create the most accurate model of the Milky Way, detect the most massive stellar-mass black hole (2024) and the closest object of its type to Earth (2022).
Understanding its distribution and chemical composition will help “clean up” images of distant objects, improve the accuracy of astronomical measurements, and even shed light on the formation of stars and planets. And although dust seems like a trifling obstacle, it becomes the key to new discoveries in the vastness of the galaxy.
Earlier we reported on how astronomers made the first 3D map of an exoplanet’s atmosphere.
According to mpia.de
