Huge bite of Milky Way

Scientists produced the picture by combining infra-red light images from two telescopes in the northern and southern hemispheres.

Astronomers from the UK and Chile gathered the data which was then processed and archived by teams at the universities of Edinburgh and Cambridge who, in turn, have made it available to studies around the world.

Dr Nick Cross, of the University of Edinburgh, said: “This incredible image gives us a new perspective of our galaxy and illustrates the far-reaching discoveries we can make from large sky surveys.”

Dr Cross said the archived information on the billions of stars, known as the Vista Data Flow System, will allow scientists to carry out research in future without needing to generate further data.

The image was unveiled at the National Astronomy Meeting in Manchester yesterday.