The legendary spacecraft Gaia maps the entire galaxy, and is immediately retired

The European Space Agency’s Gaia mission has completed one of its key missions: delivering a map of the Milky Way, consisting of trillions of observations taken over 10 years.

Between July 24, 2014 and today, Gaia has recorded more than three trillion observations of two billion stars and other objects in our galaxy. The result of the spacecraft’s endeavors is nothing less than the largest and most accurate map of our galaxy to date. Its work is complete, and with the spacecraft running out of fuel, Gaia is now scheduled to retire.

The data set collected by Gaia has enabled scientists to produce the best reconstructed view of how our Galaxy appeared to an outside observer; Edge reconstruction at the top and the face-to-face view at the bottom.

Gaia data revealed that the Milky Way Galaxy has more than two spiral arms, which are less prominent than previously thought. The brightest spot in the center of the galaxy is the galactic bulge (which appears more bulging in the image above), where Sagittarius is in A*A supermassive black hole.

Gaia data has revealed a large number of interesting objects in our galaxy; In April 2024, scientists revealed… The heaviest stellar mass black hole In the Milky Way Galaxy, only 2,000 light-years from Earth. (In 2022, Gaia data included The closest known black hole to Eartha relatively small-sized object located only 1,600 light-years away.)

In June of last year, Examine Gaia data He noted that interactions between the Milky Way and another galaxy may have occurred billions of years later than previously thought, shaking theories of the evolution of our galaxy.

“Gaia has changed our impression of the Milky Way,” Stefan Payne-Wardenaar, a science photographer at Haus der Astronomie in Germany, said in a report. press release. “Even basic ideas have been refined, such as the rotation of our Galaxy’s central bar, the warp of the disk, the detailed structure of the spiral arms, and the interstellar dust near the Sun.”

Among the spacecraft’s many accomplishments: Gaia has accurately measured the orbits of more than 150,000 asteroids, and produced a 3D map of more than a million quasars, the largest of its kind.

“The distant parts of the Milky Way remain just guesses based on incomplete data,” Payne-Wardenaar added. As more Gaia data becomes available, “our view of the Milky Way will become more accurate,” he said.

The spacecraft is now running out of fuel; When its tank is fully depleted, Gaia will be transferred to retirement orbit. In the coming weeks, Gaia will undergo several technological tests that will prepare the spacecraft for endgame orbit.

But the story of the spacecraft will continue after the monitoring work is completed. The mission is expected to release its next data release next year, with another scheduled to be released at the end of the decade. Gaia has produced 500 terabytes of data so far, and that’s just from 5.5 years of spacecraft observations.

“After 11 years in space and surviving micrometeor impacts and solar storms along the way, Gaia has finished collecting scientific data,” said Johannes Sahlmann, Gaia project scientist at ESA. He releases. “Now all eyes are on preparing the next data releases.” At least 500 terabytes of data are expected to be released into the data warehouse next year, which could include data on new exoplanets and binary star systems.

Jaya will be PassivationIt became electrically inactive on March 27, to mitigate any interference between the veteran mission and other spacecraft that were still operational.