Interstellar dust is an important part of the Milky Way, and its distribution and properties are important for understanding the structure, formation, and evolution of the Milky Way. Dust absorption and scattering of starlight changes the luminosity and color of observed objects. Understanding the effects of dust is the key to carrying out various studies. However, depicting the three-dimensional distribution of the absorption and scattering characteristics of starlight from dust in the Milky Way has always been an important challenge in the field of astronomy. Recently, Zhang Xiangyu, a Chinese PhD student at the Max Planck Institute in Germany, collaborated with his mentor Dr. Gregory Green to use data from China's Guo Shoujing telescope and the ESA Gaia space telescope to construct the world's first database of 100 million stars describing the absorption and scattering characteristics of interstellar dust, and successfully mapped the three-dimensional dust distribution and characteristics of the Milky Way covering the whole day for the first time. This is essential for understanding the effects of dust on starlight absorption and scattering, providing a new perspective for astronomical observations, galaxy evolution, and cosmology. This result was published in the international academic journal “Science” on March 14, Beijing time.

Interstellar dust is an important part of the Milky Way, and its distribution and properties are important for understanding the structure, formation, and evolution of the Milky Way. Dust absorption and scattering of starlight changes the luminosity and color of observed objects. Understanding the effects of dust is the key to carrying out various studies. However, depicting the three-dimensional distribution of the absorption and scattering characteristics of starlight from dust in the Milky Way has always been an important challenge in the field of astronomy. Recently, Zhang Xiangyu, a Chinese PhD student at the Max Planck Institute in Germany, collaborated with his mentor Dr. Gregory Green to use data from China's Guo Shoujing telescope and the ESA Gaia space telescope to construct the world's first database of 100 million stars describing the absorption and scattering characteristics of interstellar dust, and successfully mapped the three-dimensional dust distribution and characteristics of the Milky Way covering the whole day for the first time. This is essential for understanding the effects of dust on starlight absorption and scattering, providing a new perspective for astronomical observations, galaxy evolution, and cosmology. This result was published in the international academic journal “Science” on March 14, Beijing time.