A billion stars in the Milky Way Galaxy form this newly released image from Gaia, a European space telescope designed to measure the positions and motions of the stars. Dark areas are clouds of cold dust, which absorb the light of the stars behind them. The galactic center shines especially brightly near the enter of the image. The Magellanic Clouds, two companion galaxies, are at lower right. An animated view of the observations is available here [2].  [ESA/Gaia/DPAC]