One billion stars and still counting
The Gaia space observatory has mapped more than one billion stars in our Milky Way galaxy. The first catalogue was made available to the public by the European Space Agency (ESA) at a conference on Sept. 14, 2016 in Madrid, Spain.
Gaia was launched on Dec. 19, 2013, and since its landing on Jan. 8, 2014, Gaia has been orbiting around the sun and is currently drifting approximately 1.5 million km from Earth.
Between 1989 and 1993, the Hipparcos satellite generated the precise location of 100,000 stars. In its first year, Gaia has successfully mapped more than one billion stars, significantly surpassing its predecessor.
This unprecedented outcome is just the beginning, and as Gaia continues stargazing in the remaining of its journey, astronomers at ESA expect an enormous amount of data closer to two to three billion light sources by the end of its five-year mission, according to a BBC News report.
“Between 1989 and 1993, the Hipparcos satellite generated the precise location of 100,000 stars. In its first year, Gaia has successfully mapped more than one billion stars…”
Cambridge University’s Gerry Gilmore, who is involved in the mission, told BBC News, “Gaia is going to be a revolution. It’s as if we as astronomers have been bluffing up until now. We’re now going to see the truth.”
Distance and motion form the basis of astronomical studies. The main goal of Gaia’s mission is to map star positions and monitor their movement in the Milky Way, thereby obtaining a 3D structure of the galaxy.
The Gaia observatory, equipped with two telescopes, sweeps space for any kind of astronomical objects including stars, planets, asteroids, and other related celestial bodies. Light captured by the telescopes’ mirrors are captured by huge camera detector with one billion pixel optical resolution generating images and data.
The observatory also consists of instruments that measure location, luminosity, and velocity, as well as physical parameters like temperature, brightness, and composition of astronomical objects over time. Gaia is designed to determine the coordinates of even the faintest stars in the galaxy.
The ESA has released the data gathered by Gaia to the public through an open web portal. The second data release will be made available by December 2017.
Photo courtesy of ESA/Gaia/DPAC