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Gaia launched into orbit with the Hubble telescope. This new telescope is a project of the European Space Agency. Into space he will fall with the help of the Russian Soyuz launch vehicle. What are the secrets are going to reveal astronomers? To this point, engineers Space agency prepared for 20 years: for the stars the Gaia telescope is leaving. His task is to make a three-dimensional map our galaxy. A heavy vehicle in a distant calculated orbit could withdraw only the Russian Soyuz rocket with the booster block “Frigate”. She had to start from the most convenient for the project Cosmodrome, which is located in French Guiana. Mission start was successful. “We watched the spacecraft separate from launch vehicles, says the director of manned programs in European Space Agency Thomas Reuters. – We are fast managed to establish a connection with the satellite. Our team continues check the performance of all systems, everything still works in normal mode. “After about a month, Gaia should go into orbit, one and a half million distant from the surface of our planet kilometers. At this point, neither the Earth, nor the Sun, nor other celestial luminaries will not prevent the telescope from observing the Milky Way Galaxy. The device will determine not only the location of a billion stars, but also their temperature, physical composition, speed and spectrum of the emitted Sveta. “The data we receive will allow us to compile much a more accurate star map than the one we are currently using, – says deputy chief of mission Gaia Micah Schmidt. – Spacecraft and satellite navigation systems today work on the basis of images of the Hipparcos telescope, whose mission ended 20 years ago. Accuracy of images and measurements of the ship Gaia will be incomparably higher. “The device installed the largest and the most sensitive digital matrix ever created for space projects. A billion pixel resolution would allow with Earth make out a coin on the lunar surface. Using Gaia scientists plan to discover thousands of new space objects, including including planets and potentially dangerous asteroids. And answer main question: how exactly from star clusters, gas, dust and dark matter under the influence of gravity forms a galaxy. “We for the first time we can so fully examine our galaxy, – Promises Mark McCougrin, Gaia Mission Supervisor. – The telescope will determine the position of a billion stars, measure their speed and trajectory of movement. This will allow us to create a video model of the Milky Ways to predict future processes and understand how it will be evolve galaxy. And also look into the past and see how the Milky Way formed. “The project budget has already exceeded 750 million euros. But there’s another important step ahead – processing information received. Snapshots and graphics will be analyzed a supercomputer in Toulouse and six astronomical centers. By According to scientists, Gaia will send more than a petabyte of data to Earth. But there will be much more questions in them than answers.
Galaxy Milky Way Rocket Telescope
