An international team of sky scholars, including a key researcher from Johns Hopkins, has produced new maps of the material located between the stars in the Milky Way. The results should move astronomers closer to cracking a stardust puzzle that has vexed them for nearly a century.

The maps and an accompanying journal article appear in the Aug. 15 issue of the journal Science. The researchers say their work demonstrates a new way of uncovering the location and eventually the composition of the interstellar medium—the material found in the vast expanse between star systems within a galaxy.

For more information about the article, and professor Rosemary Wyse, who played a prominent role in the research, follow the link to the Johns Hopkins news network hub: http://hub.jhu.edu/2014/08/14/milky-way-maps