RAL Space Involvement
Set-up of the data applications centre and processing of photometric data in collaboration with industrial and academic partners. Supporting the exploitation of scientific data to be yielded from the mission.
Mission Objectives
Gaia will conduct a census of a billion stars in our Galaxy, monitoring each of its target stars about 70 times over a five-year period. It will precisely chart their positions, distances, movements and changes in brightness. It is expected to discover hundreds of thousands of new celestial objects, such as extra-solar planets and failed stars called brown dwarfs. Within our Solar System, Gaia should also observe hundreds of thousands of asteroids.
Launch Date
19 December 2013
Partners
ESA, IoA, Cambridge University
Further Project Information
ESA
For more information please contact, RAL Space Enquiries
