Last month, the Gaia project published its first catalog of more than one billion stars. That's the largest survey of celestial bodies to date. The European Space Agency hopes to get multiple catalogs to render a complete 3D map of our galaxy.

So how does the world's most powerful camera work? How can it capture all of those stars?

The ESA explains exactly how Gaia uses a billion-pixel camera to do the impossible in the above video. Be sure to follow the ESA as they document Gaia's progress.

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