Gaia spacecraft retires, data exploitation begins

This is a Gaia news story, published by Phys Org, that relates primarily to The European Space Agency news.

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Farewell, Gaia! Spacecraft operations come to an end

Summary

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The European Space Agency has powered down its Gaia spacecraft after more than a decade spent gathering data that are now being used to unravel the secrets of our home galaxy.

Launched in 2013 , Gaia has transformed our understanding of the cosmos by precisely mapping the positions, distances, motions, and properties of nearly 2 billion stars and other celestial objects.

The mission uncovered evidence of past galactic mergers, identified new star clusters, contributed to the discovery of exoplanets and black holes.

As part of its decommissioning, the names of about 1,500 team members who contributed to its mission were used to overwrite some of the back-up software stored in Gaia 's onboard memory. Personal farewell messages were also written into the spacecraft's memory, ensuring that Gaia will forever carry a piece of its team with it as it drifts through space. As Gaia Mission Manager Uwe Lammers put it: "We will never forget Gaia , and Gaia will never forget us." Provided by European Space Agency .

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