Satellite launches map a 1 billion star cluster

Paris-based European Aeronautics Agency (ESA) said it had reached an agreement with Arianespace to launch a celestial probe satellite called Gaia to sketch map of 1 billion star beams in the universe.

Artwork: globalchange.umich.edu

Under the signed agreement, Gaia satellite will be launched into space by Russia's "Combined" boosters at the Space Center in Kourou (French Guiana). The satellite will be tasked with sketching a detailed and sophisticated map of 1 billion stellar beams in the universe, and through a 'statistical survey' method to study the origins and history of the galaxy. .

It is expected that Gaia satellite will be launched into space by the end of 2011, with a 5-year observation period, the satellite will perform an 'average' scan of 70 times / a monitoring objective to locate, distance and brightness variation of stellar beams. In addition, ESA also hopes Gaia satellite can detect new celestial bodies.

Previously in 1989, ESA launched the Hipparcos satellite to search for celestial objects, during which four years the satellite collected detailed data on the location of about 118,000 stellar stars./.