Around 2015, astronomers took on the painstaking task of stitching together Hubble Space Telescope images of this galaxy, but that effort had focused on the galaxy's northern half. Still, however, the resulting image showcased a sweeping view of 100 million stars packed into about 1.5 billion pixels.

The Hubble Space Telescope completes a high-resolution portrait of our galaxy's gorgeous neighbor, which will help scientists better understand our Milky Way.