GAIA - 1 billion stars and counting

[Borg]

The GAIA telescope has been mapping stars in the Milky Way with unprecedented quality and quantities. It has been assembling the most detailed 3D map ever made of our Milky Way galaxy and has currently mapped over 1 billion stars. There are already hints that the Milky Way may be shaped differently from what we thought.

Gaia's billion-star map hints at treasures to come

The data from Gaia's first release can be accessed at http://archives.esac.esa.int/gaia

 

[davenn]

The GAIA telescope has been mapping stars in the Milky Way with unprecedented quality and quantities. It has been assembling the most detailed 3D map ever made of our Milky Way galaxy and has currently mapped over 1 billion stars. There are already hints that the Milky Way may be shaped differently from what we thought.

Gaia's billion-star map hints at treasures to come

The data from Gaia's first release can be accessed at http://archives.esac.esa.int/gaia

yup, this is pretty impressive :)


Dave

 

[Greg Bernhardt]

Would it be possible to develop a program from this data where you could move through the galaxy in 3D or like Google Maps?

 

[patmurris]

There is a visualization tool being developed as an open source project - Gaia Sky:
https://zah.uni-heidelberg.de/gaia/outreach/gaiasky/

 

[Borg]

Would it be possible to develop a program from this data where you could move through the galaxy in 3D or like Google Maps?

My thoughts as well. Unfortunately, I'm much too busy at work or I would.

 

[Planobilly]

Where is the "you are here" sign?...lol

Joking aside, it is a cool map and a fascinating project.

Cheers,

Billy

 

[patmurris]

AFAIU Gaia DR1 is just a 'preview' after only 14 month of operation out of five years. It does not include much more then the Hipparcos catalog - at least regarding parallax data and a few bright stars are not there yet. So right now Gaia Sky is probably not better then the mature and well established Celestia software... which will certainly incorporate the final data release when it will be available in a few years.

Note that there is a WebGL version of Gaia Sky that can run right off the net into a browser window - when it doesn't crash.

 

[hsdrop]

would you happen to have the link to the browser based vr.?
also could we do the same for whole galaxy to get a good sense of the out would shape of the cosmos?


i also wanted to thank you for the post very much

 

[patmurris]

would you happen to have the link to the browser based vr.?
also could we do the same for whole galaxy to get a good sense of the out would shape of the cosmos?

Gaia Sky WebGL:
http://wwwstaff.ari.uni-heidelberg.de/gaiasandbox/webgl

At a larger scale we have the Sloan Digital Sky Survey that has mapped distant objects and produced some remarkable maps showing 'sponge' like structures:
http://www.sdss.org

 

[hsdrop]

Gaia Sky WebGL:
http://wwwstaff.ari.uni-heidelberg.de/gaiasandbox/webgl

At a larger scale we have the Sloan Digital Sky Survey that has mapped distant objects and produced some remarkable maps showing 'sponge' like structures:
http://www.sdss.org

thank you so very much for the links