bornagainathiest Posted May 1, 2016 Share Posted May 1, 2016 Hello. The European Space Agency launched the Gaia satellite Dec 12 2013 and it's been performing it's mission with excellent efficiency. http://www.cosmos.esa.int/web/gaia/science The list of what it's been tasked to do is far larger than any other spacecraft ever launched. If anyone's interested, I'd be happy to have a shot at explaining it's science objectives and goals (see above), but for now I'd just like to highlight a few items of interest. Extra-solar planetary systems Gaia will perform a complete census of every large (Jupiter-sized) planet out to a distance of 500 parsecs. (1,630 light years). It will obtain the orbital characteristics (number of planets and how far they orbit from their stars) for several thousand extra-solar planetary systems. It's expected to discover approximately 15,000 extra-solar planets. Mapping the Milky Way galaxy It will take measurements of the distance, brightness and motion of 1 billion stars. (1,000,000,000) 10,000,000 of these stars will have their distances measured to a 99% level of accuracy. 20,000,000 stars will be measured to a 98% level of accuracy 50,000,000 will be measured to a 95% level of accuracy. 100,000,000 will be measured to a 90% level of accuracy. Gaia will collect so much data that even when it's primary mission comes to an end, years more work will be needed to reduce that data into a usable form. http://www.cosmos.esa.int/web/gaia/release So we won't really know much of the above until some time in 2022. Factoid about Gaia's telescopes They are so accurate that if located on Earth, they could spot a flea on the surface of the Moon. Factoid about Prof. Michael Perryman http://sci.esa.int/hipparcos/48776-michael-perryman-awarded-2011-tycho-brahe-prize/ He began laying the groundwork for the optics used in Gaia's telescopes in 1982. Thanks, BAA. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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