Two of the SDSS observational programs, APOGEE and APOGEE-2, target stars within the Milky Way. The Max Planck Institute for Astronomy (MPIA) was a partner in the original SDSS and in the ongoing fourth incarnation SDSS IV, and MPIA research has made ample use of data from all the four SDSS surveys so far. The Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS), which started systematic observations with a dedicated 2.5 meter telescope at Apache Point Observatory in New Mexico in 2000, has played a key role in this development. In the last two decades, astronomy has entered the realm of big data, with surveys tracking and analyzing millions of astronomical objects, both distant galaxies and stars within our home galaxy, the Milky Way. In-depth information: Making (galactic) history with big data: First global age map of the Milky Way Notably, the map confirms that our home galaxy has grown inside out: in the present epoch, most old stars can be found in the middle, more recently formed ones in the outskirts. Determining the ages of nearly 100 000 red giant stars, at distances of up to 50 000 light-years from the galactic center, the astronomers, led by Melissa Ness and Marie Martig of the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy, were able to test key ideas about the growth of the Milky Way. Using completely new ways of deducing the ages of so-called red giant stars from observational data, astronomers have created the first large-scale map that shows stellar ages in the Milky Way.
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