Finnish astrophotographer J-P Metsavainio's epic photograph of the Milky Way galaxy is the most finely-detailed, enormous, and full-color image of the Milky Way galaxy ever made.
The size of this incredible image is too large to do it justice in the space available here. I strongly recommend that you click on the image to access the full-size image on the photographer's site. When you access the original image, click on it at various places to enlarge the view. This will allow you to get a better sense of depth of detail in the image. I offer a few examples below of small areas within the larger image, but you don't get the full impact of what Metsavainio has achieved without looking at the original images, and peering down into their depth. The image directly below is a close up of a small area of the larger image above. Notice the incredible detail he captures.
J-P Metsavainio - The astrophotographer's official website. In addition to the ground-breaking image above, you'll see hundreds of other space images, in what is surely one of the grandest "universe photography" portfolios anywhere.
3D-Animated Astronomical Images - The astrophotographer has also converted some of his 2D images into beautifully-done 3D video formats. This 14-minute video showcases several of his original 2D images, which have been transformed into 3D animated visualizations using technical data, amazing photo/video skill, and a bit of artistic license. You can read a short article about how the photographer made the 3D images here.
