Ancestors

Written by Mark McCaughrean on 2025-01-15 at 22:18

After more than a decade ceaselessly surveying the sky to measure the positions, distances, & motions of stars in our Milky Way & beyond, ESA’s Gaia mission stopped taking data today.

After some tech tests it will be moved away from L2 & turned off forever in March.

This amazing mission has transformed modern astronomy in ways that will live on deep into the future & its final two catalogue releases still to come promise new treasures galore.

Ad astra, Gaia ✨

https://www.cosmos.esa.int/web/gaia/end-of-observations

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Written by Mark McCaughrean on 2025-01-15 at 22:23

Although Gaia lasted years longer than originally planned, its life was always going to be limited – it uses a cold gas propellant to maintain its extremely precise spin rate as it scans the sky & that has nearly now run out.

There are no meaningful science operations to be done if the spin rate can’t be maintained, hence the end of mission.

For some insights into the tech tests yet to be done & how those may help deliver better calibration for Gaia’s data:

https://www.cosmos.esa.int/web/gaia/technology-tests

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Written by Mark McCaughrean on 2025-01-15 at 22:38

By measuring the positions & motions of billions of stars, Gaia has revolutionised our understanding of the dynamics & evolution of our home galaxy.

But it has also enabled a wide range of other science, including fundamental physics, star formation, asteroids, & more, & its catalogues provides the best basic distances & other parameters used across many studies.

Its final catalogues will also enable the discovery of huge numbers of new exoplanets.

It is indispensable to modern astronomy.

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Written by Mark McCaughrean on 2025-01-15 at 22:42

As just one metric of its influence, there are far more papers published annually based on Gaia data than from any other astronomical telescope or mission, over 2000 per year.

https://www.cosmos.esa.int/web/gaia/peer-reviewed-journals#

To dip your toes into the wide range of scientific discoveries enabled by Gaia, take a look at this archive of result summaries:

https://www.cosmos.esa.int/web/gaia/image-of-the-week

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Toot

Written by Mark McCaughrean on 2025-01-15 at 22:47

I was lucky enough to work alongside the Gaia team at ESA’s ESTEC, including the project scientist Timo Prusti, to work a little on some of the results including the first Gaia all-sky images.

I was at ESA’s ESOC Mission Control in Darmstadt for the launch in December 2013, speaking in the press & public event.

And I also had the privilege to see Gaia up close in its EADS Astrium Toulouse clean room as it neared completion – I’ll post some of my pictures tomorrow.

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Descendants

Written by Eye on 2025-01-16 at 06:48

@markmccaughrean

Truly one of humankind's most important missions.

Looking forward to seeing the photos you took 👍

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