What is Gaia?
Q: What is Gaia?
A: Gaia is a space observatory launched by the European Space Agency (ESA) in 2013.
Q: What is the mission of Gaia?
A: The mission of Gaia is to compile a 3D space catalogue of about one billion astronomical objects, and study about 1% of the Milky Way population.
Q: How long will it take for Gaia to monitor each target star?
A: Gaia will monitor each target star approximately 70 times over a period of five years.
Q: What data does Gaia provide?
A: Gaia provides data on the physical properties of stars such as their luminosity, temperature, gravity and elemental composition, as well as distances to about 20 million stars measured by annual parallax.
Q: What are astronomers hoping to achieve with this data?
A: Astronomers hope to use this data to tackle important problems related to the origin, structure, and evolutionary history of our galaxy. Additionally, large numbers of quasars, galaxies, extrasolar planets and Solar System bodies will be measured at the same time.
Q: How was Gaia launched? A:Gaia was launched using a Soyuz rocket from its Guiana Space Centre (GSC) in French Guiana. It is in a Lissajous orbit around the Sun–Earth L2 Lagrangian point.
