The European Space Agency released the most accurate census yet of stars in the Milky Way and neighboring galaxies Wednesday, providing astronomers with a wealth of new data for further research. The high-precision measurements about the distance, motion, brightness and color of almost 1.7 billion stars were collected by the space agency's Gaia probe between July 2014 and May 2016. (Be sure to watch the 3 minute video. dg)




