The Spacecraft Creating the Largest and Star Map Ever
The European Space Agency’s Gaia mission has been building the largest and most detailed star map humanity has ever known. Here’s more from MOTHERBOARD:
As a result of this exceptional astronomical catalog from Gaia, humans have gained our cosmic bearings at a level never achieved before.
“Before Gaia, we roughly had a map of the city where we lived, but then everything beyond that was a little unclear and gray,” said [Timo Prusti, a Gaia scientist at the European Space Agency]. “What Gaia is doing is not mapping a state or a country, but a continent. We are just making this huge leap from the surroundings of our Sun to, really, a large section of our Milky Way galaxy.”
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