European Southern Observatory (ESO) has published a nine-gigapixel image from the VISTA infrared survey telescope, allowing a team of astronomers to create a catalogue of more than 84 million stars in the central parts of the Milky Way.

Normally, gas and dust obscure the central stars, making observations difficult. By using infrared wavelengths, the team was able to bypass the gas and dust and build a new dataset of central Milky Way stars.

If printed in normal resolution, the image would be 7 meters high and nine meters long. A (probably somewhat reduced but) zoomable version is now online and can be found here:

https://www.eso.org/public/images/eso1242a/zoomable/

Stargazing can be a humbling experience, and so is zooming into this image, but remember to wait for a moment for the details to load.