Back to Blog
Gaia project galaxy6/10/2023 ![]() ![]() This is what allows scientists to calculate the distance between Earth and each star, which is a crucial measure. It pinpoints the location of the stars but the probe can also plot their movement, by scanning each star about 70 times. Gaia maps the position of the Milky Way's stars in a couple of ways. Gaia's mapping effort is already unprecedented in scale, but it still has several years left to run. This first data dump 'opens a new chapter in astronomy,' he added, and is certain to generate hundreds of scientific studies. ![]() 'But never have we achieved anything so complete or precise-it is a massive undertaking.' 'Over the centuries we have sought to catalogue the content of the skies,' said Francois Mignard, an astronomer at France's National Centre for Scientific Research and a member of the Gaia science team. This means nearby stars have been located with unprecedented accuracy. The satellite's billion-pixel camera, the largest ever in space, is so powerful it would be able to gauge the diameter of a human hair at a distance of 621 miles (1,000 km). 'The beautiful map we are publishing today shows the density of stars measured by Gaia across the entire sky, and confirms that it collected superb data during its first year of operations,' said Timo Prusti, a Gaia project scientist at ESA. This sounds like a lot, but is still only one per cent of the Milky Way's estimated stellar population, that lies scattered over an area 100,000 light years in diameter. The satellite is now just over half-way through its five-year mission, and Gaia's two telescopes have located a billion stars. ![]()
0 Comments
Read More
Leave a Reply. |