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                           Astronomy Picture of the Day   
      
       Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our   
         fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation   
                       written by a professional astronomer.   
      
                                    2025 May 12   
       A dark field of space surrounds a thin but colorful band horizontally   
      across the center. The band is nearly straight but curves at its outer   
         edges. Please see the explanation for more detailed information.   
      
                    Gaia Reconstructs a Side View of our Galaxy   
           Illustration Credit: ESA, Gaia, DPAC, Stefan Payne-Wardenaar   
      
      Explanation: What does our Milky Way Galaxy look like from the side?   
      Because we are on the inside, humanity canCÇÖt get an actual picture.   
      Recently, however, just such a map has been made using location data   
      for over a billion stars from ESACÇÖs Gaia mission. The resulting   
      featured illustration shows that just like many other spiral galaxies,   
      our Milky Way has a very thin central disk. Our Sun and all the stars   
      we see at night are in this disk. Although hypothesized before, perhaps   
      more surprising is that the disk appears curved at the outer edges. The   
      colors of our Galaxy's warped central band derive mostly from dark   
      dust, bright blue stars, and red emission nebulas. Although data   
      analysis is ongoing, Gaia was deactivated in March after a successful   
      mission.   
      
                   Explore Your Universe: Random APOD Generator   
                      Tomorrow's picture: again from the top   
        __________________________________________________________________   
      
          Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)   
               NASA Official: Amber Straughn Specific rights apply.   
                     NASA Web Privacy, Accessibility, Notices;   
                         A service of: ASD at NASA / GSFC,   
                              NASA Science Activation   
                                & Michigan Tech. U.   
      
   --- BBBS/Li6 v4.10 Toy-7   
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