Comment on European Space Agency: Milky Way telescope ready after glitches

European Space Agency: Milky Way telescope ready after glitches

A billion-dollar telescope designed to provide the most detailed map yet of the Milky Way is ready to start work after teething problems, the European Space Agency (ESA) said on Tuesday. “Following extensive in-orbit commissioning and several unexpected challenges… Gaia is now ready to begin its science mission,” the agency said. Launched on December 19, the 740-million-euro ($990-million) device is the most advanced space telescope ever built by Europe. It seeks to compile an “astronomical census” of around a billion stars, repeatedly observing them from the so-called Lagrange point L2, a position 1.5 million kilometres (937,000 miles) from Earth. Data on the distance, speed, direction and motion of these stars will help astronomers build an unprecedented 3-D map of our section of the galaxy, ESA hopes. Gaia’s commissioning phase was supposed to last only four months, but engineers ran into problems as they prepared it for its five-year mission. One was water that may have been trapped in the telescope before launch and which froze on some parts of the optics, affecting visibility.

 

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