Over the last ten years, space missions have shared breathtaking pictures of fascinating places in our solar system. We've uncovered ancient Martian floods that buried rivers and even ventured past icy Pluto.

But what if we could broaden our horizons and explore even further? Imagine if we could tour our Milky Way galaxy like a tourist.

Here is a guide for an interstellar sightseeing journey.

S1 Stream

S1 Stream is a cosmic river encircling the entire Milky Way. To grasp the grandeur of the S1 Stream, we must consider its immense scale, as it spans thousands of light-years in both length and width.

The solar system, in comparison, is as tiny as a speck of sand in the vastness of the Amazon.

To trace the origins of the S1 Stream, you must journey back nearly 9 billion years to a time of galactic turmoil. The Milky Way is surrounded by various "dwarf galaxies," which are like its cosmic companions.

When one such dwarf galaxy ventured too close, it fell prey to the Milky Way's gravitational pull.

Though the unfortunate dwarf galaxies were torn apart, their stars continued their celestial journey through the interstellar expanse of the Milky Way, mainly in a thin region of space.

In 2017, utilizing the Galileo Space Telescope, astronomers stumbled upon 94 stars moving in a direction distinct from the rest of the Milky Way's stars.

Their distinct chemical makeup, characterized by lower iron content compared to the Milky Way's local stars, confirmed that these stars constitute the remnants of ancient dwarf galaxies, which people now know as the S1 Stream.

Proxima Centauri b

When contemplating visits to exoplanets, the most enticing destinations would naturally be those where life could potentially thrive. However, people remain uncertain whether life can develop under conditions significantly different from those on Earth or during various planet formation scenarios.

Proxima Centauri b, orbiting the closest star to the earth, Alpha Centauri.

The planet's host star is a red dwarf, one-eighth the mass of our sun and nearly a thousand times fainter. This unique characteristic is advantageous for Proxima Centauri b, as it prevents the planet from being incinerated.

It also offers a promising environment for potential life to thrive.

Even if signs of life remain elusive, it can be assured that this distant world offers some of the most spectacular sunsets in the entire galaxy.

Proxima Centauri b is tidally locked, which means it experiences perpetual daylight on one side and perpetual darkness on the other. If you can endure it, you'll be treated to an otherworldly spectacle: the sunset that never sets.

Sculptor Dwarf Galaxy

The Sculptor Dwarf Galaxy may appear as a faint halo on the outskirts of the Milky Way.

Approximately 13.8 billion years ago, following the Big Bang, the universe remained in darkness.

This era persisted for hundreds of millions of years until the birth of the first stars.

These early stars differed significantly from their modern counterparts, as they lacked elements like oxygen and carbon that evolved in subsequent generations of stars.

The first-generation stars were composed primarily of hydrogen, helium, and a small amount of lithium, produced shortly after the Big Bang. Consequently, these third-generation stars were more massive and hotter.

These initial stars played a pivotal role in the universe's evolution, and their size and composition provide insights into the formation and progression of early galaxies.

This is where the Sculptor Dwarf Galaxy enters the narrative. Most of its ancient stars formed around 12 billion years ago, not long after the first stars.