After so many years, scientists were able to come up with a detailed map of the entire stretch of the milky way's hydrogen map. This made possible using the two world's largest radio telescope in Germany and Australia. This allows them to see the details of the hydrogen map very clear.
The researchers created the unprecedented map of the Milky Way's hydrogen atoms called the HI4PI. The image created is the result of their 10 years of work that included more than a million of observations as well as the collection of billions of data.
"What it gives us is a map of the sky in hydrogen that normal telescopes, normal optical telescopes, can't see," Australian professor Lister Staveley-Smith from the International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research (ICRAR) told ABC.
"It's very important to understand the structure of gas in our own galaxy and the amount of gas in our own galaxy, its dynamics, in order that we can study the past evolution of the Milky Way and its likely future evolution. The new map gives us a much more coherent view of the sky and enables a better understanding of the Milky Way."
According to CNN, Naomi McClure-Griffiths from the Australian National University (ANU) said the study revealed for the first time the fine details of structures between stars in the Milky Way.
"Very small gas clouds appear to have helped form stars in the Milky Way over billions of years," she said in a statement.
She said that the map would be used to answer the big questions about the Milky Way and neighboring galaxies.
"How does the Milky Way get the new gas it requires to continue forming stars? And where are all of the small dwarf galaxies that must surround our Milky Way? The next steps will be exciting," she said.