Gaia showed us that our galaxy's disk, the dark brown horizontal spanning from one side to the other, has a bit of a wave to it. Gaia also showed us that the Milky Way has more than two spiral arms and that they aren't as pronounced as we thought. Image Credit: ESA/Gaia/DPAC, Stefan Payne-Wardenaar CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO
Technology The WorldThe Milky Way is Clearer Than Ever
An important and impressive space mission has provided us with a precise, 3D map of our elusive galaxy: the Milky Way.
Gaia, a European Space Agency mission, is coming to a close, and with it, many new, compelling ideas about the Milky Way galaxy have emerged.
The Gaia mission is updating science’s understanding of the history of our galaxy, offering glimpses of what the Milky Way looked like over eight billion years ago. For the past 11 years, the Gaia mission has taken over three million observations, creating an impressive, non-static map of our galaxy. The map precisely measures the position and motion of nearly two billion individual stars, with astronomers suggesting it is the most accurate view of the Milky Way ever created thus far. Though the mission is now completed, Gaia will leave us with one final data release – expected to be available by the end of 2030 – perhaps leading to even more discoveries about our extraordinary galaxy.
