The 800-million-pixel panorama shows an edge-on view of the plane of our galaxy . The image is composed of almost 1,200 photos , which were taken by French astrophotographer Serge Brunier with a regular digital camera from ESO observatories at La Silla and Paranal in Chile and from one of the Canary Islands . This image is a combination of visible and infrared light, which allows scientists to trace out structures in space that are invisible from Earth because they lie beyond the range of human vision. The image can be explored in magnificent detail , showing millions of individual stars . The image is the first of three to be released as part of the GigaGalaxy Zoom project .
The 800-million-pixel panorama shows an edge-on view of the plane of our galaxy . This image is a combination of visible and infrared light, which allows scientists to trace out structures in space that are invisible from Earth because they lie beyond the range of human vision. The image can be explored in magnificent detail , showing millions of individual stars . The image is the first of three to be released as part of the GigaGalaxy Zoom project .