A new map containing more than a billion stars has been revealed, courtesy of data collected by the Gaia Space Telescope, and scientists consider this to be the most complete map of the Milky Way to date.

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This new map also contains important information about the trajectory and distances of the 2 million stars, and more data will be added to the map over time, according to scientists from the European Space Agency. The space telescope was launched in 2013 and began consolidating data in 2014.

According to ESA project scientist, Timo Prusti, this beautiful map, which was published recently, measures the density of stars in the entire sky, confirming superb data accumulated during the first year of the telescope's operations.

Gaia's latest map is now twice as accurate and features 20 times more stars than the previous attempt to chart the universe, known as the Hipparcos Catalogue of NASA.

The new data shows how the universe contains a vast majority of stars in gigantic clusters, which proves Gaia's ability to analyze and identify the contents of star clusters.

According to astronomer Antonella Vallenari from the Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica, Gaia's first set of data can now measure the distances and motions of stars of up to 400 clusters from a distance of 4,800 light years.

The mission would continue until 2018, as Gaia scans the skies to measure temperatures and chemical compositions of stars, which is crucial to identify the age and classification of stars. This would mean that Gaia will have to scan these stars more than once, to allow the space telescope to obtain data about their movement and host galaxy.

Scientists will then create a timelapse video of the universe's evolution after obtaining data for five years. It is expected to be the most accurate model yet of the cosmos.