Gaia's instruments installed and ready for testing
Tuesday, September 18, 2012 - 09:03
in Astronomy & Space
(Phys.org)—The payload module of ESA's billion-star surveyor Gaia is integrated and ready for the next stage of rigorous testing it must undergo before launch next year. Once in space, Gaia will make precise measurements of the positions and motions of a billion stars. The information will be used to create a 3D map of stars in our home Galaxy, the Milky Way, revealing information about its composition, formation and evolution.