The European Space Agency’s (ESA) Gaia Observatory is a mission dedicated to astrometry, a branch of astronomy that measures the speed and proper motion of celestial objects to learn more about the formation and evolution of space. In the last eight and a half years, this space-based study of more than two billion objects in the universe. This includes stars in the Milky Way, but also planets, comets, asteroids and distant galaxies. This information obtained from this mission will be used to create the most detailed 3D catalog of the Milky Way.
Since the beginning of the mission in 2013, two major catalogs have been launched, known as Gaia Data Release 1 and 2 (DR1 and DR2), accompanied by a smaller set of data – Early Data Release 3 (EDR3). The third complete catalog of Gaia (DR3) will be released on June 13, containing new and improved details about the two billion celestial objects it observes. The edition will coincide with a virtual press event organized by the Gaia Data Processing and Analysis Consortium (DPAC), where speakers will share the importance of this latest version and how it revolutionizes our understanding of the galaxy.
Impression of the artist from the Gaia Observatory, observing the Milky Way galaxy. Credit: ESA
Gaia DPAC consists of expert scientists and software developers from Europe and around the world. In cooperation with ESA, the Consortium is responsible for the processing and analysis of Gaia data and the compilation of Gaia catalogs. The press event will take place on Tuesday, June 12, from 04:00 to 05:00 EDT (01:00 to 02:00 PDT). The event will include a panel of speakers, which will include:
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- Josef Ashbacher – Director General of ESA
- Günther Hazinger – Director of Science at ESA
- Timo Prousti is a Gaia project scientist
- Anthony Brown – Chairman of the Gaia Data Processing and Analysis Consortium
- Antonella Valenari – Vice-Chair of the Gaia Data Processing and Analysis Consortium
- Connie Aerts is a professor at the University of Leuven and a member of the Gaia Collaboration
DPAC also organizes a series of local events in 13 countries and many languages (English, French, German, Dutch, Spanish and Italian). The event will be broadcast live on ESA WebTV, and media representatives are encouraged to download the Gaia DR3 Media Kit in advance. A full overview of DR3 events can be found here.
This latest dataset (collected from July 25, 2014 to May 28, 2017) contains improved information on the many stars observed by Gaia during his mission, most of which consist of a newly released spectroscopy that reveals the chemical composition, the temperature, color, mass and age of these stars. The edition also includes measurements of radial velocity for 33 million stars, five times more than DR2. Also new in this dataset is information on thousands of solar system objects (such as asteroids and moons), millions of galaxies and quasars outside the Milky Way, and the largest catalog of binary stars in the Milky Way to date.
Gaia data release 3 (DR3) media cover page. Credit: ESA
Equally important is the interstellar environment, the space between the stars, which largely consists of traces of dust and gas. By mapping this, astronomers can also learn more about the movement of stars, the formation of stars, and how our galaxy has evolved over billions of years. This is where the Gaia All-sky Dust Map comes into play, a three-million-pixel map based on proper movement and speeds of 470 million stars. Overall, the DR3 contains several record-breaking features. They include:
- The largest low-resolution spectroscopy study to date
- The largest study of radial velocity to date
- The largest collection of astrophysical data on stars in the Milky Way so far For many classes of variable stars: the largest study ever
- The most comprehensive study of binary stars in the last two centuries
- The most accurate study of asteroids, which contains data on their composition and orbits
- The first space-based study of quasars and galaxies in the local universe
- Photometric study of the Andromeda Galaxy
A series of 50 reports is forthcoming, nine of which are specifically dedicated to demonstrating the great potential of this latest edition of Gaia data. Astronomers expect that these new measurements will allow them to reconstruct the 13.61 billion-year history of the Milky Way and its future evolution. They also expect that the data will improve our understanding of the life cycle of stars and the place of the solar system in the universe. This has always been the greater goal of the Gaia Observatory: to answer the deeper questions of cosmology and existence.
Further reading: ESA
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