Updates ESA GAIA mission updates

[Notebook]

Europe’s Gaia space telescope has been used to clock the expansion rate of the Universe and - once again - it has produced some head-scratching.
The reason? The speed is faster than what one would expect from measurements of the cosmos shortly after the Big Bang.
Some other telescopes have found this same problem, too.
But Gaia’s contribution is particularly significant because the precision of its observations is unprecedented.
“It certainly ups the ante,” says Adam Riess from the Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) and the Johns Hopkins University, both in Baltimore, Maryland, US.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-37438458

 

[Notebook]

http://sci.esa.int/gaia/58546-gaia-spies-two-temporarily-magnified-stars/

27 October 2016
While scanning the sky to measure the position of over one billion stars in our Galaxy, ESA's Gaia satellite has detected two rare instances of stars whose light was temporarily boosted by other celestial objects passing across their lines of sight. One of these stars is expected to brighten again soon. Gaia's measurements will be instrumental to learn more about the nature of these 'cosmic magnifying glasses'.

 

[Notebook]

http://sci.esa.int/gaia/59628-gaia-...elestial-alignment-of-neptune-s-largest-moon/

03 October 2017
On 5 October 2017, the largest moon of Neptune will pass in front of a distant star. This rare event will temporarily block the star's light from Earth and provide an excellent opportunity to study the moon's intriguing atmosphere. Data from ESA's Gaia mission is allowing astronomers to precisely plan their observations.

 

[Notebook]

http://www.esa.int/spaceinvideos/Videos/2017/09/ESA_Euronews_60_years_since_Sputnik

ESA Euronews: 60 years since Sputnik
Released: 22/09/2017
Length 00:08:30
Language English, French, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Greek, Hungarian
Footage Type Documentary
Copyright ESA/Euronews
Description
Sixty years ago, Sputnik became the first satellite in space and changed the world forever.
Launched by the Soviet Union on 4 October 1957, this shiny orb kick-started the space race, and opened up the heavens for mankind to explore.
To mark the occasion ESA Euronews arranged access to the private museum of RSC Energia, the Russian state company that actually built the world’s first satellite, officially called Sputnik-1. Hanging in this Moscow treasure trove of pioneering space probes is one of the original Sputnik flight spares, built in 1957. Compact, at just over 80 kilogrammes, its polished surfaces and distinctive antennae are now unmistakable - look at this satellite, and the first word in your mind is 'Sputnik'.

 

[Notebook]

http://www.esa.int/spaceinimages/Images/2017/10/Cloudy_with_a_chance_of_protons

In September, Gaia unexpectedly detected a large quantity of protons – subatomic particles – emitted by a solar flare. 
In this image, captured by Gaia’s Wave Front Sensor – a sort of ‘camera within a camera’ in its main star-sensing instrument – the streaks of ‘snow’ are trails of individual protons. During normal space weather conditions, the image would only include one or two proton trails. The long trail running horizontally across the image indicates a particularly energetic proton. 
This proton storm was also reported by NASA’s GOES weather satellite, which is equipped with a particle-sensing instrument. 

 

[Notebook]

http://sci.esa.int/gaia/59741-how-do-you-find-a-star-cluster-easy-simply-count-the-stars/

15 November 2017
It's the perfect meeting of old and new. Astronomers have combined the latest data from ESA's Gaia mission with a simple analysis technique from the 18th century to discover a massive star cluster that had previously escaped detection. Now, subsequent investigations are helping reveal the star-forming history of our Galaxy, the Milky Way.

 

[Notebook]

http://sci.esa.int/gaia/59806-stellar-motions-in-nearby-galaxy-hint-at-underlying-dark-matter/

27 November 2017
By pinning down, for the first time, the three-dimensional motions of individual stars in the nearby Sculptor dwarf galaxy, astronomers have shed new light on the distribution of invisible dark matter that pervades the galaxy. This study combined the positions of stars measured by ESA's Gaia mission with observations from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope taken twelve years earlier.

 

[Notebook]

ate: 29 November 2017
Copyright: ESA/Gaia/DPAC

While scanning the sky, ESA's Gaia mission maps not only the stellar content of our Galaxy, but also the Solar System's asteroid population.

http://sci.esa.int/gaia/59821-selected-asteroids-detected-by-gaia-between-august-2014-and-may-2016/

 

[Notebook]

http://sci.esa.int/gaia/60011-chasing-a-stellar-flash-with-assistance-from-gaia/

27 February 2018
Last year, ESA's Gaia mission helped astronomers make unique observations of Neptune's largest moon, Triton, as it passed in front of a distant star. This is a preview of the superb quality and versatility of the Gaia data that will be released in April.

N

 

[Nicholas Kang]

On 25 April 2018, ESA’s Gaia mission will publish its much awaited second data release, including high-precision measurements of nearly 1.7 billion stars in our Galaxy.

Scientists who have been working on creating and validating the data contained in the catalogue tell us why they are waiting for this extraordinary release.

Featured in the video: Antonella Vallenari (INAF, Astronomical Observatory of Padua), Anthony Brown (Leiden University), Timo Prusti (European Space Agency), Annie Robin (Institut UTINAM, OSU THETA Franche-Comté-Bourgogne), Laurent Eyer (University of Geneva) and Federica Spoto (IMCCE, Observatory of Paris).

A media briefing on the second Gaia data release will be held at the ILA Berlin Air and Space Show in Germany on 25 April 11:00-12:15 CEST. Watch the webstream at www.esa.int/live

 

[Notebook]

http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/S...tes_richest_star_map_of_our_Galaxy_and_beyond

25 April 2018
ESA’s Gaia mission has produced the richest star catalogue to date, including high-precision measurements of nearly 1.7 billion stars and revealing previously unseen details of our home Galaxy.
A multitude of discoveries are on the horizon after this much awaited release, which is based on 22 months of charting the sky. The new data includes positions, distance indicators and motions of more than one billion stars, along with high-precision measurements of asteroids within our Solar System and stars beyond our own Milky Way Galaxy.

http://sci.esa.int/gaia/60036-gaia-data-release-2-virtual-reality-resources/

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-43900834

 

[Notebook]

http://sci.esa.int/gaia-stellar-family-portrait/

Gaia’s Stellar Family Portrait

Nice presentation.

 

[Notebook]

Title Star density map
Released 20/08/2018 9:00 am
Copyright Galaxy Map / K. Jardine
Description
The second data release of ESA’s Gaia mission, made in April, has marked a turning point in the study of our Galactic home, the Milky Way. With an unprecedented catalogue of 3D positions and 2D motions of more than a billion stars, plus additional information on smaller subsets of stars and other celestial sources, Gaia has provided astronomers with an astonishing resource to explore the distribution and composition of the Galaxy and to investigate its past and future evolution.

http://www.esa.int/spaceinimages/Images/2018/08/Star_density_map

https://www.cosmos.esa.int/web/gaia/iow_20180614

 

[Notebook]

19 September 2018
ESA’s star mapping mission, Gaia, has shown our Milky Way galaxy is still enduring the effects of a near collision that set millions of stars moving like ripples on a pond.
The close encounter likely took place sometime in the past 300–900 million years. It was discovered because of the pattern of movement it has given to stars in the Milky Way disc – one of the major components of our Galaxy.

http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Space_Science/Gaia/Gaia_hints_at_our_Galaxy_s_turbulent_life

 

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25 September 2018
Using data from ESA’s Gaia stellar surveyor, astronomers have identified four stars that are possible places of origin of ‘Oumuamua, an interstellar object spotted during a brief visit to our Solar System in 2017.

http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/S...s_candidates_for_interstellar_Oumuamua_s_home

 

[Notebook]

2 October 2018
A team of astronomers using the latest set of data from ESA’s Gaia mission to look for high-velocity stars being kicked out of the Milky Way were surprised to find stars instead sprinting inwards – perhaps from another galaxy.
In April, ESA’s stellar surveyor Gaia released an unprecedented catalogue of more than one billion stars. Astronomers across the world have been working ceaselessly over the past few months to explore this extraordinary dataset, scrutinising the properties and motions of stars in our Galaxy and beyond with never before achieved precision, giving rise to a multitude of new and intriguing studies.

http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Space_Science/Gaia/Gaia_spots_stars_flying_between_galaxies

 

[mahdavi3d]

 

[Notebook]

31 October 2018
ESA’s Gaia mission has made a major breakthrough in unravelling the formation history of the Milky Way.
Instead of forming alone, our Galaxy merged with another large galaxy early in its life, around 10 billion years ago. The evidence is littered across the sky all around us, but it has taken Gaia and its extraordinary precision to show us what has been hiding in plain sight all along.
Gaia measures the position, movement and brightness of stars to unprecedented levels of accuracy.

http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/S...major_event_in_the_formation_of_the_Milky_Way

 

[Notebook]

09 January 2019
Data captured by ESA's galaxy-mapping spacecraft Gaia has revealed for the first time how white dwarfs, the dead remnants of stars like our Sun, turn into solid spheres as the hot gas inside them cools down.

http://sci.esa.int/gaia/61044-gaia-reveals-how-sun-like-stars-turn-solid-after-their-demise/

 

[Notebook]

7 February 2019
ESA’s Gaia satellite has looked beyond our Galaxy and explored two nearby galaxies to reveal the stellar motions within them and how they will one day interact and collide with the Milky Way – with surprising results.

http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/S..._new_speeds_for_Milky_Way-Andromeda_collision