Gaia reveals the most accurate mapping of the Milky Way ever produced

It is the most complete and accurate mapping of our galaxy revealed by the European Space Agency, on Monday 13 June in the morning: a map resulting from several years of observation of the Gau moon, scattered in space since 2013. About this 3D map of the Milky Way, inserted what Approximately two billion stars, and strip them, with an accuracy never before achieved in terms of their relative position, displacement, and age.

It took the scientists several years to process Recorded data By Gaia from its observation site located 1.5 million kilometers from Earth. The satellite also made it possible for the first time to study the chemical composition of these millions of stars, explains Alexandra Recio Blanco, an astronomer at the Observatory of the Côte d’Azur: “Looking at the chemical composition of stars, which is somewhat similar to their DNA, we can conclude that there are stars as old as the galaxy that tell us about the most primitive times. They are survivors of 13 billion years of age. And then we also have witnesses to the recent history of the galaxy of It is a few hundred million years old.”

To read: Among the novelties from the third dataset Tweet embedwhich is the largest catalog of binary stars to date, thousands of objects in the Solar System (asteroids and moons), and beyond the Milky Way, millions of galaxies and quasars. https://t.co/W58mPX9tbY # GaiaDR3 pic.twitter.com/PbLh2ygfJC

– ESA France (@ESA_fr) June 13, 2022

The European satellite also enriches the catalog of knowledge about other celestial bodies in our galaxy such as asteroids, all of which are signs of the history of the Milky Way. And it’s not over, the satellite will continue to collect data until 2025.