Ever heard the term "galactic archaeology"? It refers to astronomers using stars as fossils to understand the history of the Milky Way and some nearby galaxies.
My colleague Rebecca Forsberg, one our science communication interns at ESO, is working on this topic for her PhD, and she just wrote this lovely piece about how ESO's Very Large Telescope and ESA's Gaia mission joined forces to unveil the secrets of our home galaxy:
➡️ https://www.eso.org/public/blog/galactic-archaeology/
📷 ESO/B. Tafreshi

