The Milky Way's 219 MILLION stars mapped: Scientists spend 10 years creating world's most detailed chart of our galaxy

  • Astronomers created the map using a 8.2ft mirror on the Isaac Newton Telescope (INT) in the Canary Islands
  • INT charted stars brighter than 20th magnitude – or a million times fainter than can be seen with the human eye
  • It shows the visible part of the northern region of our home galaxy with darker regions showing galactic dust
  • Scientists hope the map will give them a new insight into the structure of this system of stars, gas and dust
By ELLIE ZOLFAGHARIFARD FOR MAILONLINE
PUBLISHED: 10:32 EST, 17 September 2014 | UPDATED: 11:24 EST, 17 September 2014
From Earth, the Milky Way appears as a glowing band stretching across the sky.
For centuries, people have peered up at this hazy light, attempting to discover and make sense of the objects within it.
Now astronomers have managed to chart 219 million stars in the Milky Way in an incredible new map, which is the largest of its kind ever produced.
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Astronomers have managed to chart 219 million stars in the Milky Way in an incredible new map, which is the largest of its kind ever produced. Scientists at the University of Hertfordshire spent 10 years creating a map using a 8.2ft (2.5 metre) mirror on the Isaac Newton Telescope (INT) in the Canary Islands
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Astronomers have managed to chart 219 million stars in the Milky Way in an incredible new map, which is the largest of its kind ever produced. Scientists at the University of Hertfordshire spent 10 years creating a map using a 8.2ft (2.5 metre) mirror on the Isaac Newton Telescope (INT) in the Canary Islands
Scientists at the University of Hertfordshire spent 10 years creating the map using a 8.2ft (2.5 metre) mirror on the Isaac Newton Telescope (INT) in the Canary Islands.
The chart shows the visible part of the northern region of our home galaxy and includes details on different features for each of the 219 million detected objects.
The INT programme charted all the stars brighter than 20th magnitude – or one million times fainter than can be seen with the human eye.
The darker fog-like region is galactic dust that obscures astronomer’s view 
The Milky Way is thought to be 120,000 light years across and contains more than 200 billion stars. On a clear night, when you look up into the night sky the most you can see from any one point on the Earth is about 2,500 stars. This image was taken by an amateur photographer at in Dorset
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THE MILKY WAY: KEY FACTS 

The Milky Way is thought to be 120,000 light years across and contains more than 200 billion stars.
This makes it a ‘middleweight’ galaxy with the largest galaxy known, IC 1101, containing more than 100 trillion stars.
On a clear night, when you look up into the night sky the most you can see from any one point on the Earth is about 2,500 stars.
Like more than two-thirds of the known galaxies, the Milky Way has a spiral shape. 
At the centre of the spiral, a lot of energy and, occasionally, vivid flares are created. 
Astronomers believe the Milky Way wasn’t always a stunning barred spiral. It formed into its current size by ‘eating’ other galaxies.