This week we’ll be staying local—but not here on Earth, or even in our solar system. We are zooming through our own galaxy, the Milky Way, because the European Space Agency just has released the long-awaited data set from its Gaia spacecraft. Gaia’s mission is to survey the galaxy and go about counting stars, measuring their distances, and generally studying the larger environment that houses our solar system and so many others. The Gaia team already has cataloged more than 1 billion stars in its enormous data trove. What’s more, the ESA now exactly how far 100 million of them are from Earth. It’s an out-of-this-world accomplishment for the space agency and the mission team.
Astronomers tap Gaia’s data to better understand the workings of the galaxy, including the motion of stars, their speed, and also how interstellar dust interacts with galactic objects. It’s fun to learn about other places in the universe, but there really is no place like our Milky Way.
Want to keep zooming around in space? Check out Wired’s full collection of space photos here.
Source:WIRED
