Looking at home from afar

Studying our cosmic neighbourhood from 'outside' is an eye-opener

- Prof Chris Lintott

Travel is all very well, but sometimes you can learn more by staying close to home. As astronomers get excited by the views of distant galaxies provided by JWST, it's good to be reminded that we can benefit from paying close attention to our surroundings.

Some of the most exciting areas of research happening at the moment consider our local galaxies as if they were observed from a distance, something that can be done thanks to extensive surveys of stars in the Milky Way and deep imaging of other members of our Local Group of galaxies. Considering our own home in this way allows us to test the accuracy of techniques used to study the distant Universe - though in the case of the Milky Way, living in our object of study does make things slightly more complicated at times.