It is unclear how many stars the Milky Way, the galaxy to which the Sun-and Earth belongs. They will be between 100,000 and 400,000 million million. Now a new space, Gaia telescope will map three-dimensional high resolution, so that would be equivalent to the Earth seen from the pupil of the eye of a person who was on the moon, says astronomer Jordi Torra, professor of Barcelona University and principal investigator of the Spanish participation in the mission.
telescope is ready to go on a Soyuz rocket from the European spaceport in Kourou (French Guyana) and the launch is scheduled for tomorrow at 10:12 (GMT). It will take a month to reach its working position, to a million and a half miles from Earth and from there begin the systematic observation of the sky, which is designed to last for five years. In the end it will provide the scientific community a large dimensional map a billion stars. The first data ready to begin arriving research astronomers in a couple of years, says Torras.
The telescope will make a full scan of the sky every six months
“is investigating the history and evolution of the Milky Way, study multiple star systems and exoplanets … Gaia even see asteroids in the solar system and will take action very tight general relativity Einstein “explains José Hernández, operations engineer and calibration of Gaia, the European Space Agency (ESA). You will also see thousands of new supernovae explosions. “How are they distributed the stars in the Milky Way? How many arms have the galaxy and what is its origin and speed? How is distributed dark matter? Several of these questions can be answered with Gaia, “he adds. The new telescope of ESA’s Hipparcos heir, in 1989, cataloged 120,000 stars.
Gaia telescope operation is absolutely essential to be deployed, and in space, the huge umbrella that will keep you insulated from the heat and light of the star. It will begin to open a few hours after launch. “It measures 10.4 meters in diameter and open consists of 12 petals, some carbon fiber frames, and thermal blanket with straps on the edge so that it is completely flat, weighs 125 kilos in total,” says Diego Rodríguez, director department space Sener, the Spanish company that has developed and built this great umbrella. “It is the deployable structure of a larger piece that has ever been done on a space mission,” he adds. The umbrella will take eight minutes to open and, as engineers, a single point of failure, that is, if not achieve deploy (there may be a second attempt), say there is no alternative to save the mission.
The hardest part, explains Rodriguez, has been simulated deployment conditions on Earth, considering that in space without gravity make this operation, 30 degrees below zero and the vacuum. The cost of the hood is about 12 million euros. Besides Sener eight other Spanish companies have participated in Gaia, accounting for 11.5% of the total money contracted with industry, although the Spanish participation in the ESA is 8.5%, says Jorge Lomba, chief aerospace programs of the Center for Industrial Technological Development.
Gaia will orbit of a point in space called Lagrange Point 2 to a million and a half miles away, in the opposite direction to the star. It is a point of gravitational equilibrium of the Sun / Earth system that have been placed and several observatories. The new satellite, 2,030 kilos (400 including fuel), work in space to 170 degrees below zero and it is imperative to obtain the expected accuracy, the telescope has a high thermal stability. Its cost is 700 million, just over a euro for every European citizen, remember Torra. It is an entirely European mission in which they have participated directly and over 400 scientists, 45 of them Spanish. Already in the network data mining’s 140 scientists from 30 Spanish institutions.
“We will also see some of the stars neighboring galaxies, the Magellanic Clouds, although with less precision than the
The cost of 650 million euros is just over a euro european
Gaia has perfectly defined the observation plan consisting of surveying the sky again and again. There will be no point to this or that astro studies at the request of different teams of astronomers, but the overall mission data will be freely available to all for everyone to use them in their research.
observe each star from different points as the telescope moves in its orbit, scientists can precisely calculate each star’s position by triangulation. It is as if one puts a finger in front of face and alternately opening and closing the eyes, the different position of the finger can be seen against the background. From there the distance is calculated. “Every six months will make a full scan of the sky, 10 times in total in five years,” said Hernandez. The Gaia data processing is one of the most complex components of this mission and six European centers, one of them will be responsible in the Barcelona Supercomputing Center, explains Torra.
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