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Credit & Copyright: Galaxy Illustration: Nick Risinger (skysurvey.org),
Star Data: Gaia Mission,
ESA,
Antoni SagristÞ SellÈs
(U. Heidelberg)
et al.
Explanation:
What would it look like to return home from outside our galaxy?
Although designed to answer
greater questions,
recent data from ESA's robotic
Gaia mission is helping to provide a uniquely
modern perspective on humanity's place in the universe.
Gaia
orbits the
Sun near the Earth
and resolves
star's positions so precisely that it can determine a
slight shift from its changing vantage point over the course of a year, a shift
that is proportionately smaller for more
distant stars -- and so
determines distance.
In the first sequence of
the video,
an illustration of the
Milky Way is shown that soon
resolves into a three-dimensional
visualization of Gaia star data.
A few notable stars are labelled with their
common names, while others stars are labelled with numbers from
Gaia's catalog.
Eventually the
viewer arrives at our home star
Sol
(the Sun),
then resolving the reflective glow of its third planet:
Earth.
The
featured video
is based on just over 600,000 stars, but
Gaia
is on track to measure the
parallax
distances to
over
one billion stars over its
planned five year mission.
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NASA Web Site Statements, Warnings, and Disclaimers
NASA Official: Jay Norris. Specific rights apply.
A service of: LHEA at NASA / GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.
Based on Astronomy Picture
Of the Day
Publications with keywords: Sun - Milky Way
Publications with words: Sun - Milky Way
See also:
- APOD: 2024 September 2 Á A Triangular Prominence Hovers Over the Sun
- APOD: 2024 August 18 Á A Solar Prominence Eruption from SDO
- APOD: 2024 August 4 Á Gaia: Here Comes the Sun
- APOD: 2024 July 29 Á Milky Way over Uluru
- APOD: 2024 July 28 Á Sun Dance
- Prominences and Filaments on the Active Sun
- APOD: 2024 May 29 Á Stairway to the Milky Way