The universe is about to get a lot bigger

 awesomeness, photography, reshaping the world, science, spacecraft
Jul 062011
 

Billion-pixel camera set to snap Milky Way shots

ESA says that Gaia’s measurements will be so accurate that, if it were on Earth, it could measure the thumbnails of a person on the Moon.

  • The numbers foreseen in Gaia’s celestial census are breathtaking. Every day it will discover, on average, 10 stars possessing planets, 10 stars exploding in other galaxies, 30 ‘failed stars’ known as brown dwarfs, and numerous distant quasars, which are powered by giant black holes.
  • Estimates suggest that Gaia will detect about 15, 000 planets beyond our Solar System.

    •  Posted by at 5:33 pm

      2 Responses to “The universe is about to get a lot bigger”

    1. Michel Van says:
      July 7, 2011 at 3:23 am

      So long the Sojus-Fregat rocket work and bring Gaia (pronounced: Gaea) to
      the Sun-Earth L2 Lagrangian point.

      Its predecessor Hipparcos, had bad luck, never reach geostationary orbit
      because failure in a rocket engine, it been stuck in a geostationary transfer orbit.

    2. Jeff Wright says:
      July 9, 2011 at 12:43 pm

      I’m hoping they will get some shots of DM 61+366, (the star in the Mallove and Matlov’s Starflight Handbook?) that is said to come within .29 ly of us in 800,000 yrs–with 1 ly error.

    Sorry, the comment form is closed at this time.