GAIA (ESA SATELLITE)

The great advances in any science tend to come in sudden leaps. April 25th of 2018 marks the beginning of just such a leap for much of astronomy. In the early hours of the morning, the Gaia mission’s second data release dropped. Our understanding of our own galaxy will never be the same again. You can further support us on Patreon at https://www.patreon.com/pbsspacetime Get your own Space Time t­-shirt at http://bit.ly/1QlzoBi Tweet at us! @pbsspacetime Facebook: facebook.com/pbsspacetime Email us! pbsspacetime [at] gmail [dot] com Comment on Reddit: http://www.reddit.com/r/pbsspacetime Help translate our videos! https://www.youtube.com/timedtext_cs_panel?tab=2&c=UC7_gcs09iThXybpVgjHZ_7g Previous Episode: The Star at the End of Time https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-iWGtQ03OZM The Gaia satellite was launched in late 2013, entirely built and operated by the European Space Agency. It’s primary goal is to map the stars of the Milky Way with a scale and precision orders of magnitude greater than ever before. Gaia’s predecessor, Hipparcos, catalogued 120 thousand stars, Gaia blows it out of the water with positions, colors and brightnesses of nearly 1.7 billion stars. Gaia can see orders of magnitude fainter and further away than previous missions. But its greatest superpower is its precise astrometry – Gaia can pin down a star’s position to the equivalent of a human hair’s width at 1000 km. That’s one-to-two thousand times smaller than the resolution of the Hubble Space Telescope. Hosted by Matt O'Dowd Written by Drew Rosen and Matt O'Dowd Graphics by Grayson Blackmon Assistant Editing and Sound Design by Mike Petrow and Linda Huang Made by Kornhaber Brown (www.kornhaberbrown.com) Special thanks to our Patreon Big Bang, Quasar and Hypernova Supporters: Big Bang CoolAsCats David Nicklas Anton Lifshits Joey Redner Fabrice Eap Quasar Tambe Barsbay Mayank M. Mehrota Mars Yentur Mark Rosenthal Dean Fuqua Roman Pinchuk ColeslawPurdie Hypernova Edmund Fokschaner Matthew O’Connor Eugene Lawson Barry Hatfield Martha Hunt Joseph Salomone Chuck Zegar Craig Peterson Jordan Young Ratfeast John Hofmann Thanks to our Patreon Gamma Ray Burst Supporters: James Hughes Fabian Olesen Kris Fernet Jane Meyers James Flowers Greg Allen Denys Ivanov Nick Virtue Alexey Eromenko Nicholas Rose Scott Gossett Mark Vasile Patrick Murray Sultan Alkhulaifi Alex Seto Michal-Peanut Karmi Erik Stein Kevin Warne JJ Bagnell Avi Goldfinger John Pettit Florian Stinglmayr Benoit Pagé-Guitard Nathan Leniz Brandon Labonte David Crane Greg Weiss Shannan Catalano Brandon Cook

The European Space Agency just dropped an enormous amount of data onto the scientific community. The location and position of 1.7 billion stars in the Milky Way. Sign up to my weekly email newsletter: https://www.universetoday.com/newsletter Support us at: http://www.patreon.com/universetoday More stories at: http://www.universetoday.com/ Follow us on Twitter: @universetoday Like us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/universetoday Google+ - https://plus.google.com/+universetoday/ Instagram - http://instagram.com/universetoday Team: Fraser Cain - @fcain / [email protected] Karla Thompson - @karlaii / https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCEItkORQYd4Wf0TpgYI_1fw Chad Weber - [email protected] Chloe Cain - Instagram: @chloegwen2001 References: http://sci.esa.int/gaia/60169-gaia-s-sky-in-colour/ http://sci.esa.int/gaia/58209-gaia-s-first-sky-map/ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bZfFdCknTQc https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rgE3bHLFqOw https://m.esa.int/spaceinimages/Images/2018/04/Rotation_of_the_Large_Magellanic_Cloud2

Phillips Auditorium Joao Alves University of Vienna Host: Alyssa Goodman Abstract: Most of what we know about star and planet formation has been obtained from spatial 2D observations of the local Galactic neighborhood (d ~ 1 kpc), collected over the last 70 years. During this time we have built a pragmatic, ​although simplified, view of the local complexes, establishing a series of ground truths that guide today's star formation research. For example, we use Orion as the template for massive star formation and Taurus for low-mass star formation. We have embraced supersonic turbulence as a fundamental pillar of the star formation process, but have not identified its source. We have organized groups of young stars as either bound clusters or associations and wondered about the origin of an all-sky structure we call Gould’s belt. Recently, we found that this view might be up for revision, as we have seen evidence for a new and more significant arrangement of young massive stars in the local neighborhood we call Blue Streams. These streams appear to be several hundred pc long and display monotonic age sequences, suggestive of a common origin at Galactic scales. If real, Blue Streams would play a critical role in understanding the structure of ​the ​local ISM, would give a much-needed context to local star formation, and even allow the prediction of the "galactic weather" our solar system will face in the future. In this talk, a week and a day after Gaia Data Release 2, I will present the very latest from the 3D view of the local neighborhood and will try to validate or reject old and new ideas.

The ESA Gaia mission was used to create a survey of 14,099 asteroidsin our solar system. 200 of the brightest asteroids seen by the spacecraft are highlighted. -- Gaia's Latest Data Release is a Treasure Trove: https://www.space.com/40406-gaia-release-color-milky-way-map.html Credit: ESA/Gaia/DPAC

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A virtual flight that takes the viewer from the Solar System through our Milky Way Galaxy. The journey starts by looking back at the Sun, moving away and travelling between the stars. The animation is based on data from the second release of ESA’s Gaia satellite, specifically on the 3D position of nearly 97 million stars, the majority of which have the most accurate parallax measurements in the dataset. Accurate parallaxes can be used to directly estimate distances to individual stars. Full story: http://sci.esa.int/gaia/60192-gaia-creates-richest-star-map-of-our-galaxy-and-beyond/ More information about this video and download options can be found at http://sci.esa.int/gaia/60225-fly-between-gaia-stars/ A similar animation comparing the data from the first and second release of Gaia is at https://youtu.be/648xGDdNz_g Credit: ESA/Gaia/DPAC, CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/igo/ Acknowledgement: Gaia Data Processing and Analysis Consortium (DPAC); Gaia Sky (https://zah.uni-heidelberg.de/institutes/ari/gaia/outreach/gaiasky/) ; S. Jordan / T. Sagristà, Astronomisches Rechen-Institut, Zentrum für Astronomie der Universität Heidelberg, Germany

Measurements from the European Space Agency's (ESA) Gaia mission were used to create this animation of the motion of constellation stars. The "apparent shift caused by Earth’s yearly motion around the Sun," called parallax, were taken into account while creating the visualization, according to ESA. -- Learn about the Gaia mission's latest data release: https://www.space.com/40406-gaia-release-color-milky-way-map.html Credit: ESA

The second data release of ESA’s Gaia satellite, based on the observation of nearly 1.7 billion stars, was published on 25 April 2018 during a media briefing at the ILA Berlin Air and Space Show in Germany. Anthony Brown of Leiden University, chair of the Gaia Data Processing and Analysis Consortium Executive, explains the content of this unprecedented dataset, including positions, distance indicators and motions of more than one billion stars, along with high-precision measurements of other celestial objects in the Solar System and beyond our Galaxy. Gaia’s extraordinary data will greatly advance our understanding of stars in the Milky Way, and how the Galaxy formed and evolves. ★ Subscribe: http://bit.ly/ESAsubscribe

An incredible amount of data on tens of millions of Milky Way galaxy stars, that was collected by the European Space Agency's Gaia mission, was released on April 25, 2018. -- See the constellations 'dance' and more from ESA Gaia: https://www.space.com/40406-gaia-release-color-milky-way-map.html Credit: ESA

The second data release of ESA’s Gaia mission has produced an extraordinary catalogue of over one and a half billion stars in our galaxy. Based on observations between July 2014 to May 2016, it includes the most accurate information yet on the positions, brightness, distance, motion, colour and temperature of stars in the Milky Way as well as information on asteroids and quasars. ★ Subscribe: http://bit.ly/ESAsubscribe Learn more: http://bit.ly/GaiaRickestStarMap

A virtual journey, from our Solar System through our Milky Way Galaxy, based on data from the first (left) and second (right) release of ESA’s Gaia satellite. The journey starts by looking back at the Sun, moving away and travelling between the stars. A comparison between the two views shows the huge increase in number of stars and distances from the Sun between the two data releases. The view on the left is based on the 3D position of 1.4 million stars for which parallaxes had been estimated using the Tycho-Gaia astrometric solution (TGAS) as part of the first Gaia data release, published in 2016. The view on the right is based on the 3D position of nearly 97 million stars from the second data release, published in 2018. The majority of these stars have the most accurate parallax measurements in the dataset, which can be used to directly estimate distances to individual stars. More about Gaia's second data release: http://sci.esa.int/gaia/60192-gaia-creates-richest-star-map-of-our-galaxy-and-beyond/ More information about this video and download options can be found at http://sci.esa.int/gaia/60221-comparison-between-gaia-s-first-and-second-data-releases/ Credit: ESA/Gaia/DPAC, CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/igo/ Acknowledgement: Gaia Data Processing and Analysis Consortium (DPAC); Gaia Sky (https://zah.uni-heidelberg.de/institutes/ari/gaia/outreach/gaiasky/) ; S. Jordan / T. Sagristà, Astronomisches Rechen-Institut, Zentrum für Astronomie der Universität Heidelberg, Germany

Explore Gaia's all-sky view of our Milky Way Galaxy and neighbouring galaxies in 360 degrees. The map, based on measurements of nearly 1.7 billion stars, shows the total brightness and colour of stars observed by the ESA satellite in each portion of the sky between July 2014 and May 2016. Brighter regions indicate denser concentrations of especially bright stars, while darker regions correspond to patches of the sky where fewer bright stars are observed. The colour representation is obtained by combining the total amount of light with the amount of blue and red light recorded by Gaia in each patch of the sky. The bright horizontal structure that dominates the image is the Galactic plane, the flattened disc that hosts most of the stars in our home Galaxy. In the middle of the image, the Galactic centre appears vivid and teeming with stars. Darker regions across the Galactic plane correspond to foreground clouds of interstellar gas and dust, which absorb the light of stars located further away, behind the clouds. Many of these conceal stellar nurseries where new generations of stars are being born. Sprinkled across the image are also many globular and open clusters – groupings of stars held together by their mutual gravity, as well as entire galaxies beyond our own. The two bright objects in the lower right of the image are the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds, two dwarf galaxies orbiting the Milky Way. Other nearby galaxies are also visible, most notably the Milky Way's largest galactic neighbour the Andromeda galaxy (also known as M31), seen in the lower left of the image along with its satellite, the Triangulum galaxy (M33). In small areas of the image where no colour information was available – to the lower left of the Galactic centre, to the upper left of the Small Magellanic Cloud, and in the top portion of the map – an equivalent greyscale value was assigned. The second Gaia data release was made public on 25 April 2018 and includes the position and brightness of almost 1.7 billion stars, and the parallax, proper motion and colour of more than 1.3 billion stars. It also includes the radial velocity of more than seven million stars, the surface temperature of more than 100 million stars, and the amount of dust intervening between us and of 87 million stars. There are also more than 500 000 variable sources, and the position of 14 099 known Solar System objects – most of them asteroids – included in the release. A high-resolution version of this image is available for download from http://sci.esa.int/jump.cfm?oid=60196 More information about this video and download options can be found at http://sci.esa.int/gaia/60219-360-view-of-gaia-s-sky/ The Virtual Reality application "GaiaVR" allows you to explore this map in detail and up close. It is available for Mac and Windows. You can download the application from http://sci.esa.int/gaia-vr Credit: ESA/Gaia/DPAC; ATG medialab Acknowledgement: Gaia Data Processing and Analysis Consortium (DPAC); A. Moitinho / A. F. Silva / M. Barros / C. Barata, University of Lisbon, Portugal; H. Savietto, Fork Research, Portugal.

Animated 3D view of the sky as observed by ESA’s Gaia satellite using information from the mission’s second data release. The bright band in the left half of the image is the Milky Way, where most of the stars in our Galaxy reside. The animation starts with the Orion constellation at the centre; we then move towards the neighbouring Taurus constellation and to the Hyades star cluster, which is part of this constellation. Hyades is the closest open cluster to the Solar System, some 150 light-years away. The animation first shows the 3D structure of the cluster, based on accurate position and distance information from Gaia. Then an animated view of the future motions of stars is shown – both in Hyades and beyond. This is based on Gaia’s measurements of the velocity of stars across the sky, also known as proper motion. Credit: ESA/Gaia/DPAC, CC BY SA 3.0 IGO Acknowledgement: Gaia Data Processing and Analysis Consortium (DPAC); Gaia Sky; S. Jordan / T. Sagristà, Astronomisches Rechen-Institut, Zentrum für Astronomie der Universität Heidelberg, Germany ★ Subscribe: http://bit.ly/ESAsubscribe Learn more: bit.ly/GaiaRickestStarMap

Animated view of the 14 099 asteroids in our Solar System, as viewed by ESA’s Gaia satellite using information from the mission’s second data release. The orbits of the 200 brightest asteroids are also shown, as determined using Gaia data. In future data releases, Gaia will also provide asteroid spectra and enable a complete characterisation of the asteroid belt. The combination of dynamical and physical information that is being collected by Gaia provides an unprecedented opportunity to improve our understanding of the origin and the evolution of the Solar System. Credit: ESA/Gaia/DPAC, CC BY SA 3.0 IGO Acknowledgement: Gaia Data Processing and Analysis Consortium (DPAC); Orbits: Gaia Coordinating Unit 4; P. Tanga, Observatoire de la Côte d'Azur, France; F. Spoto, IMCCE, Observatoire de Paris, France; Animation: Gaia Sky; S. Jordan / T. Sagristà, Astronomisches Rechen-Institut, Zentrum für Astronomie der Universität Heidelberg, Germany ★ Subscribe: http://bit.ly/ESAsubscribe Learn more: bit.ly/GaiaRickestStarMap

A 360° animated view of the entire sky on 25 April 2018. After a few seconds, the stars start moving in the sky according to parallax, an apparent shift caused by Earth’s yearly motion around the Sun. Then, constellation outlines appear as visual aids. Finally, stars start moving according to their true motion through space, which is visible on the sky as proper motion. Parallaxes have been exaggerated by 100 000 and proper motions have been speeded up by one trillion (10^12) to make them visible in this animation. This animation is based on data from the second data release of ESA’s Gaia satellite, which has measured the positions, parallaxes and motions of more than one billion stars across the sky to unprecedented accuracy. ESA/Gaia/DPAC, CC BY SA 3.0 IGO Acknowledgement: Gaia Data Processing and Analysis Consortium (DPAC); Gaia Sky; S. Jordan / T. Sagristà, Astronomisches Rechen-Institut, Zentrum für Astronomie der Universität Heidelberg, Germany ★ Subscribe: http://bit.ly/ESAsubscribe Learn more: http://bit.ly/GaiaRickestStarMap

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 Learn more about Gaia: bit.ly/ESAsGaia ★ Subscribe: http://bit.ly/ESAsubscribe

Last year, ESA's Gaia mission helped astronomers make unique observations of Neptune's large 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. For more about this story see http://sci.esa.int/gaia/60011-chasing-a-stellar-flash-with-assistance-from-gaia/

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 (see http://sci.esa.int/gaia/58562-challenges-closer-to-home-gaia-s-asteroids/). This visualisation shows the detection by Gaia of more than 13 000 asteroids as the spacecraft (represented by the pale blue dot) scanned the sky between August 2014 and May 2016. This is a subset of the total number of asteroids seen by Gaia – the sample shown here is of bright asteroids that have been detected more than ten times during the period. The corresponding data for the position on the sky for each detection of every asteroid – the epoch astrometry – will be included in Gaia's Data Release 2, the second intermediate data release from the mission, expected in April 2018 (see https://www.cosmos.esa.int/web/gaia/release). Gaia sweeps the sky with two fields of view, separated by an angle of 106.5 degrees (see http://sci.esa.int/gaia/58214-gaia-scanning-the-sky/). Each of these sweeps takes six hours, the time it takes for Gaia to make one rotation on its spin axis. The spin axis also undergoes a slow precession, so that the slice of sky captured by the two fields of view shifts slightly for each rotation. In this way a map of the distribution of stars and asteroids is built up. Not all regions of the sky are accessible to Gaia at any one time. In particular, as indicated in the opening sequence, there are two large cones of exclusion (with boundaries indicated by the dashed lines) where Gaia never observes (see http://sci.esa.int/gaia/58710-asteroid-search-region/). One cone includes the direction of the Sun (represented by the large white dot), and the other is directly opposite. As Gaia orbits the Sun, these cones sweep across new regions of the sky and the previously excluded regions can be observed. Eventually the entire sky is covered. In this visualisation, asteroids detected during a six-hour scan are marked yellow, turning blue when the next scan begins. As time progresses the impressive accumulation of detected asteroids can be clearly seen and the main asteroid belt, located between Mars and Jupiter, emerges. Asteroids can be detected more than once, as they may be detected during several scans. Most of the asteroids depicted here are detected ten or more times in the period covered by this visualisation. In the time between detections, a given asteroid moves through the Solar System and is detected at a different position each time. Although none of the asteroids depicted here are newly discovered, mapping known asteroids in this way is very valuable. By doing so, the mission plays an important role in contributing to our understanding of the physical and dynamical characteristics of asteroid populations. In particular, the precise measurement of each position provided by Gaia helps astronomers to refine their models of asteroid orbits. The time stamp in the upper left of the animation shows the progression of time; the counter shows the accumulated number of asteroids detected at that time. As time passes, the sample approaches completeness and the rate of detection decreases. The view on the left is a projection of the asteroid positions on the ecliptic plane – the plane of Earth's orbit around the Sun. On the right, the view is side-on. Both views are from the perspective of an observer following Gaia along its path around the Sun and thus Gaia appears to remain in one place. The transition at the beginning of the animation from the Gaia ecliptic pole scanning law (EPSL), which was used for the first 28 days of commissioning, to the nominal scanning law (NSL) which was used subsequently (see https://www.cosmos.esa.int/web/gaia/iow_20140602), can be discerned from the emerging pattern of detections. The animation was made by P. Tanga, Observatoire de la Côte d'Azur, France. Credit: ESA/Gaia/DPAC Video downloads available at http://sci.esa.int/gaia/59821-selected-asteroids-detected-by-gaia-between-august-2014-and-may-2016 See also: Asteroids all around https://www.cosmos.esa.int/web/gaia/iow_20150731 Gaia reveals the composition of asteroids https://www.cosmos.esa.int/web/gaia/iow_20170424 Follow-up network for Solar System Objects https://gaiafunsso.imcce.fr/ DPAC consortium: https://www.cosmos.esa.int/web/gaia/dpac/consortium

Astronomers from the European Space Agency (ESA), gathered combined data from the Gaia mission to discover a massive star cluster that has been hidden for centuries due to the glare of Sirius, the brightest star in the night sky. They said it "reveals the star-forming history of our galaxy."

It's the perfect meeting of old and new. Astronomers have combined recent 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. Subsequent investigations are helping to reveal the star-forming history of our Galaxy, the Milky Way. For more about this story see How do you find a star cluster? Easy, simply count the stars at http://sci.esa.int/gaia/59741-how-do-you-find-a-star-cluster-easy-simply-count-the-stars/

This video shows how to access the Gaia data and use ADQL in the ESA Gaia archive and also shows the main functionalities of the archive. Open the archive here: https://archives.esac.esa.int/gaia

Gaia is a space observatory of the European Space Agency designed for astrometry: measuring the positions and distances of stars with unprecedented precision. Credit: ESA Follow Us: Facebook: https://goo.gl/QapZAe Twitter: https://goo.gl/RoQSmJ

Published on Apr 12, 2017 This video shows the 2 057 050 stars from the TGAS sample, which was published as part of the first data release of ESA's Gaia mission (Gaia DR1) on 14 September 2016, with the addition of 24 320 bright stars from the Hipparcos Catalogue that are not included in Gaia's first data release. The stars are plotted in Galactic coordinates and using a rectangular projection: in this, the plane of the Milky Way stands out as the horizontal band with greater density of stars. The video starts from the positions of stars as measured by Gaia between 2014 and 2015, and shows how these positions are expected to evolve in the future, based on the proper motions from TGAS. The frames in the video are separated by 750 years, and the overall sequence covers 5 million years. The stripes visible in the early frames reflect the way Gaia scans the sky and the preliminary nature of the first data release; these artefacts are gradually washed out in the video as stars move across the sky. The shape of the Orion constellation can be spotted towards the right edge of the frame, just below the Galactic Plane, at the beginning of the video. As the sequence proceeds, the familiar shape of this constellation (and others) evolves into a new pattern. Two stellar clusters – groups of stars that were born together and consequently move together – can be seen towards the left edge of the frame: these are the alpha Persei (Per OB3) and Pleiades open clusters. Credit: ESA/Gaia/DPAC More information about this video can be found at: http://sci.esa.int/gaia/59005-the-mot... Subscribe For More Videos Like This: http://www.youtube.com/user/ouramazingspace?sub_confirmation=1 See my latest videos : https://www.youtube.com/user/ouramazingspace/videos Bringing you the BEST Space and Astronomy videos online. Showcasing videos and images from the likes of NASA,ESA,Hubble etc. Join me on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/spaceisamazing Twitter: https://twitter.com/AmazingSpace2 Google+ : http://goo.gl/1WCBn9 Music by Keving Macleod http://incompetech.com/music/royalty-free/

This video shows the 2 057 050 stars from the TGAS sample, which was published as part of the first data release of ESA's Gaia mission (Gaia DR1) on 14 September 2016, with the addition of 24 320 bright stars from the Hipparcos Catalogue that are not included in Gaia's first data release. The stars are plotted in Galactic coordinates and using a rectangular projection: in this, the plane of the Milky Way stands out as the horizontal band with greater density of stars. The video starts from the positions of stars as measured by Gaia between 2014 and 2015, and shows how these positions are expected to evolve in the future, based on the proper motions from TGAS. The frames in the video are separated by 750 years, and the overall sequence covers 5 million years. The stripes visible in the early frames reflect the way Gaia scans the sky and the preliminary nature of the first data release; these artefacts are gradually washed out in the video as stars move across the sky. The shape of the Orion constellation can be spotted towards the right edge of the frame, just below the Galactic Plane, at the beginning of the video. As the sequence proceeds, the familiar shape of this constellation (and others) evolves into a new pattern. Two stellar clusters – groups of stars that were born together and consequently move together – can be seen towards the left edge of the frame: these are the alpha Persei (Per OB3) and Pleiades open clusters. Credit: ESA/Gaia/DPAC, CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/igo/ More information about this video can be found at: http://sci.esa.int/gaia/59005-the-motion-of-two-million-stars/ Full story: http://sci.esa.int/gaia/59004-two-million-stars-on-the-move/

Lennart Lindegren - Lund University Presentation recorded during the first Gaia data workshop at ESA's European Space Astronomy Centre (ESAC) 2-4 November 2016. The slides to this presentation are available here: https://www.cosmos.esa.int/documents/915837/915858/GaiaDR1-Astrometry-LL.pdf

Bruno Merín - ESA Presentation recorded during the first Gaia data workshop at ESA's European Space Astronomy Centre (ESAC) 2-4 November 2016. The slides to this presentation are available here: https://www.cosmos.esa.int/documents/915837/915858/20161104_ESASky_GaiaDR12016WS_ESAC.pdf ESASky can be accessed here: http://sky.esa.int

André Moitinho - Lisbon University Presentation recorded during the first Gaia data workshop at ESA's European Space Astronomy Centre (ESAC) 2-4 November 2016. The slides to this presentation are available here: http://www.cosmos.esa.int/documents/915837/915858/Moitinho_visualisation_v2.pdf

Timo Prusti - ESA Presentation recorded during the first Gaia data workshop at ESA's European Space Astronomy Centre (ESAC) 2-4 November 2016. The slides to this presentation are available here: http://www.cosmos.esa.int/documents/915837/915858/20161102_Gaia_TPrusti_web.pdf

Consider supporting SFN: https://patreon.com/DeepAstronomy Space Fan News Theme by Stephen Dubois available for download here: http://ancienteyesmusic.com Here are the links to this week's stories: GAIA Makes First All-Sky Map of a Billion Stars http://sci.esa.int/gaia/58272-gaia-s-billion-star-map-hints-at-treasures-to-come/ NASA Likes LISA Again http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2016/09/nasa-moves-rejoin-sped-gravitational-wave-mission http://nasawatch.com/archives/2016/09/nasa-likes-lisa.html China Launches Second Space Station https://www.inverse.com/article/21014-china-launches-second-space-station-into-orbit Download the DeepAstronomy App and stay current on all content: Android: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=me.dwnld.vrf985&hl=en_GB Apple: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/deep-astronomy/id1098749154?ls=1&mt=8 Follow DeepAstronomy on Twitter: @DeepAstronomy Like DeepAstronomy on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/DeepAstronomy/ Like Space Fan News on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SpaceFanNews/ Follow DeepAstronomy on Google+ http://google.com/+DeepAstronomy http://google.com/+TonyDarnell We also have a great Google+ Community, come share your thoughts and join the discussion! https://plus.google.com/communities/109849939648748938781t

The European Space Agency released the first data it is using to create the largest and most precise 3D map of the Milky Way. WSJ's Monika Auger reports. Photo: ESA/Gaia/DPAC Subscribe to the WSJ channel here: http://bit.ly/14Q81Xy More from the Wall Street Journal: Visit WSJ.com: http://www.wsj.com Follow WSJ on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/wsjvideo Follow WSJ on Google+: https://plus.google.com/+wsj/posts Follow WSJ on Twitter: https://twitter.com/WSJvideo Follow WSJ on Instagram: http://instagram.com/wsj Follow WSJ on Pinterest: http://www.pinterest.com/wsj/ Don’t miss a WSJ video, subscribe here: http://bit.ly/14Q81Xy More from the Wall Street Journal: Visit WSJ.com: http://www.wsj.com Visit the WSJ Video Center: https://wsj.com/video On Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pg/wsj/videos/ On Twitter: https://twitter.com/WSJ On Snapchat: https://on.wsj.com/2ratjSM

Humankind has just been presented with the precise position and brightness of 1,140,622,719 stars in the first data release from the European Space Agency's (ESA) Gaia mission. It is the "largest all-sky survey of celestial objects" according to the space agency and they've also created a visualization of a 150 light-year flight to the Hyades Star Cluster using the data. -- Full Story: https://goo.gl/QoeQRr Credit: Space.com / footage courtesy: ESA/Gaia/DPAC / edited by @SteveSpaleta

Launched in December 2013, Gaia is destined to create the most accurate map yet of the Milky Way. By making accurate measurements of the positions and motions of stars in the Milky Way, it will answer questions about the origin and evolution of our home galaxy. The first intermediate data release, containing among other things three-dimensional positions and two-dimensional motions of a subset of two million stars, demonstrates that Gaia’s measurements are as precise as planned, paving the way to create the full map of one billion stars to be released towards the end of 2017.

The European Space Agency has released the first batch of data from the Gaia satellite which is mapping one billion stars in the Milky Way. . Report by Lydia Batham.

Launched in December 2013, Gaia is destined to create the most accurate map yet of the Milky Way. By making accurate measurements of the positions and motions of roughly 1% of the total population of stars in the Milky Way, it will answer questions about the origin and evolution of our home galaxy. The first intermediate data release, containing, among other things, three-dimensional positions and two dimensional motions of a subset of two million stars, demonstrates that Gaia’s measurements are as precise as planned, paving the way to create the full map of one billion stars to be released towards the end of 2017. Find out more about Gaia: http://www.esa.int/gaia

A visualisation of how Gaia scanned the sky during its first 14 months of operations, between July 2014 and September 2015. The oval represents a projection of the celestial sphere, with different portions of the sky gradually appearing, according to when and how frequently they were scanned by Gaia. The satellite scans great circles on the sky, with each scan lasting about 6 hours. During the first month, the scanning procedure was such that the ecliptic poles were always included. This meant that Gaia observed the stars in those regions many times, providing an invaluable database for the initial calibration of the observations. Then, starting on 21 August 2014, the satellite started its main survey, employing a scanning ‘law’ designed to achieve the best possible coverage of the whole sky. Data collected over Gaia's first 14 months make up the mission’s first data release. Based on these observations, scientists produced a map of the sky, showing the density of stars observed by Gaia. Brighter regions indicate denser concentrations of stars, while darker regions correspond to patches of the sky where fewer stars are observed. The Galactic Plane, where most of the Milky Way’s stars reside, is visible as the brightest portion of the map: a horizontal strip that is especially bright at the centre. Darker regions across the Galactic Plane correspond to dense clouds of interstellar gas and dust that absorb starlight along the line of sight. Stellar clusters also appear, sprinkled across the image alongside a handful of nearby galaxies – most notably the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds in the lower right. A number of artefacts, reflecting Gaia's scanning law, are also visible on the all-sky map. As this map is based on observations performed during the mission’s first year, the survey is not yet uniform across the sky. These artefacts will gradually disappear as more data are gathered during the five-year mission. For more information on Gaia, visit: http://www.esa.int/Gaia Credit: ESA/Gaia/DPAC; Acknowledgement: B. Holl (University of Geneva, Switzerland), A. Moitinho & M. Barros (CENTRA – University of Lisbon), on behalf of DPAC

Teresa Antoja holds a PhD in Physics and works as Research Fellow on the Gaia Mission. She gets everything ready so that the data coming down from the spacecraft can be used quickly and efficiently, contributing to its scientific exploitation by scientists all over the world that will revolutionise our view of our galaxy.

Soyuz flight VS06, with the Gaia space observatory, lifted off from Europe's Spaceport, French Guiana, on 19 December 2013. This timelapse movie shows Gaia sunshield deployment test, the transfer of the Soyuz from the assembly building to the launch pad and the lift off. ESA--S. Corvaja, M. Pedoussaut, 2013

Watch the full replay of the launch coverage of ESA's billion-star surveyor Gaia. Liftoff occurred at 09:12UT/10:12CET on 19 December and the successful deployment of Gaia's sunshield was confirmed approximately 90 minutes later. Gaia is now on its way to L2, where it will study the characteristics of 1 billion stars to create the most precise 3D map of our home galaxy, the Milky Way. Credt: ESA / CNES / Arianespace

Watch a replay of ESA's billion-star surveyor Gaia lift off at 09:12UT/10:12CET on 19 December Credits: ESA / CNES / Arianespace

A space mission to create the largest, most-accurate, map of the Milky Way in three dimensions will revolutionise our understanding of the galaxy and the universe beyond. On 19th December 2013, a rocket blasted into the sky from a launch site in French Guiana and travelled 1.5 million km to reach its destination in orbit around the Sun. The spacecraft is called Gaia. Its mission, funded by the European Space Agency and involving scientists from across Europe, is to make the largest, most precise, three-dimensional map of the Milky Way ever attempted. It will be a census of a billion stars spread across our galaxy. The results, says Professor Gerry Gilmore from Cambridge's Institute of Astronomy and the Principal Investigator for UK involvement in the mission, "will revolutionise our understanding of the cosmos as never before." http://www.gaia.ac.uk http://sci.esa.int/gaia/

The Gaia telescope is successfully launched into orbit onboard a Soyuz rocket from the European Space Agency's base in Kourou, French Guiana Get the latest headlines http://www.telegraph.co.uk/ Subscribe to The Telegraph http://www.youtube.com/subscription_center?add_user=telegraphtv Like us on Facebook http://www.facebook.com/telegraph.co.uk Follow us on Twitter https://twitter.com/telegraph Follow us on Google+ https://plus.google.com/102891355072777008500/ Telegraph.co.uk and YouTube.com/TelegraphTV are websites of The Daily Telegraph, the UK's best-selling quality daily newspaper providing news and analysis on UK and world events, business, sport, lifestyle and culture.

Animation showing Gaia launch and journey to its operating orbit. The animation begins by visualising the launch from Europe's Spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana, on a Soyuz-STB/Fregat-MT vehicle. The rocket's four boosters are jettisoned 118 seconds after launch, and the spacecraft fairing is jettisoned after 220 seconds. Following two burns, the Fregat upper stage separates from Gaia 42 minutes after launch. The separation activates an automatic sequence onboard Gaia, including switching on the spacecraft's transmitters, pressurisation of the propulsion system, initial attitude acquisition and deployment of the sunshield. By then Gaia will be on its transfer orbit from Earth towards L2, a virtual point in space some 1.5 million kilometres 'behind' Earth as seen from the Sun. Gaia will take about a month to cruise and manoeuvre into a 'Lissajous' orbit around L2. The size of the orbit is typically 340 000 x 90 000 km and takes 180 days. There, Gaia will spin slowly in order to make systematic repeated observations of stars covering the whole sky with its two telescopes. Over its five-year mission, Gaia will monitor the positions, motions, temperatures, luminosities and compositions of a billion stars. Credit: ESA--C. Carreau/ATG medialab

ESA's Gaia mission will produce an unprecedented 3D map of our Galaxy by mapping, with exquisite precision, the position and motion of a billion stars. The key to this is the billion-pixel camera at the heart of its dual telescope. This animation illustrates how the camera works. See http://sci.esa.int/gaia/53281-inside-gaias-billion-pixel-camera/ for a more detailed description. Credits: ESA

Subscribe to MonkeySee for more great videos: http://goo.gl/Py1pN0 10-22-13: On this episode of On Science, the Gaia mission readies for launch, researchers use Flickr to study tourism, and Pew releases a study about online dating.