The European Space Agency ( ESA ) ’s Gaia mission is creating the most detailed map ever of our galaxy , the Milky Way . In December 2020 , it deliver the situation , brightness , color , and right motion of1.8 billion stars . Now ESA isreleasing the full data , revealing a true treasure trove of observations that spans from the Solar System to some of the furthest range of the universe .
The full release , which is accompanied by 50 different scientific papers , includes the classification of 1.5 billion stars in our galaxy , which can already tell us a lot about the objects in doubt . But Gaia depart further by providing a Brobdingnagian database of alchemy for zillion of superstar ; the spectrum of light of a ace secernate us the chemical components and can be used to exploit out age , temperature , coloring material , mass , metallicity , the fastness at which they move toward or away from us , and more .
Thanks to this touch , Gaia was even capable to recognize and track stars that did not form in the Milky Way but were taken in during retiring Galax urceolata amalgamation , as our own galaxysnacked and cannibalizedseveral of its numerous astronomic satellites .
“ Our extragalactic nebula is a beautiful melting pot of superstar , ” Dr Alejandra Recio - Blanco of the Observatoire de la Côte d’Azur in France , and phallus of the Gaia collaboration , read in a statement .
“ This diverseness is super important , because it tell us the story of our galax ’s establishment . It reveals the processes of migration within our galaxy and accretion from external galaxies . It also clearly show that our Sun , and we , all belong to to an ever - changing system of rules , formed thanks to the assembly of wizard and gas of different origins . ”
The deputation also reports the largest catalog yet of binary principal , with detailed observations of 813,000 binary genius and measurements of their billet , distance , orbit , and mass . And that ’s not all . Gaia not only tracks how the stars move but also how they change in themselves . It measured the variation in luminance in 10 million variable stars .
One of the most surprising uncovering is Gaia is so brawny it has been able to detect " starquakes " ( motions on a star ’s surface ) for M of star , something that it was not actually designed for .
“ Starquakes teach us a lot about stars , notably their inner workings . Gaia is opening a goldmine for ‘ asteroseismology ' of massive stars , ” add Conny Aerts of KU Leuven in Belgium and phallus of the Gaia collaboration .
It ’s not just stars that " star " in this mathematical function . Gaia has used the light of 470 million stars to produce a 3 million pixel map of the dust in the Milky Way . It has also observed 156,000 asteroid near our planet , all the agency out beyond the orbit of Neptune , and targeted 31 moon of the giant planets and Mars . Beyond our galaxy , it measure out 1.9 million quasars and 2.9 million galaxy .
“ Unlike other commission that aim specific objects , Gaia is a survey mission . This means that while surveying the entire sky with 1000000000 of star multiple times , Gaia is take a hop to make uncovering that other more consecrate missions would miss , " excuse Dr Timo Prusti , Project Scientist for Gaia at ESA . " This is one of its strength , and we ca n’t await for the astronomy community to plunk into our new data to ascertain out even more about our galaxy and its surroundings than we could ’ve guess . "
commonly , the mission will terminate with the quaternary and final data handout , which will make all these observations even more precise . However , there ’s the possibility of a two - yr extension and a fifth datum vent come no sooner than 2027 .
