News- The European Space Agency (ESA) has officially decommissioned its Global Astrometric Interferometer for Astrophysics (GAIA) mission after more than a decade of operation. GAIA Mission.
About GAIA Mission
- It aimed to create the largest and most precise 3D map of the Milky Way by surveying about 1% of its 100 billion stars.
- It was launched in 2013.
Location and Instruments
- Position: Gaia orbits the Sun at Lagrange Point 2, about 1.5 million kilometers (930,000 miles) from Earth.
- Equipment: It carried two telescopes and a 1-billion-pixel camera, the largest ever sent to space.
- Key Instruments:
- Astrometer – Measured star positions and motions.
- Photometer – Measured the brightness of celestial objects.
- Spectrometer – Analyzed star composition and movement.
Major Discoveries and Contributions
- Milky Way Mapping: Created a detailed 3D map, revealing the galaxy’s shape, structure, and movement.
- Black Holes: Identified new types by detecting their gravitational effects.
- Asteroids: Tracked over 150,000 asteroids, helping predict future impacts on Earth.
- Stellar Evolution: Provided insights into how stars, including the Sun, form and evolve.
