Finding Lost Star Siblings: Star Clusters Are Only the Tip of the Iceberg
“Clusters form big families of stars that can stay together for large parts of their lifetime. Today, we know of roughly a few thousand star…
GAIA
Gaia Space Observatory Revolutionizes Asteroid Tracking
ESA’s Gaia space observatory is an ambitious mission to construct a three-dimensional map of our galaxy by making high-precision measurements of over one billion stars….
Unlocking Clues to the Origins of the Stars and Planets With Artificial Intelligence
An artificial intelligence (AI) system analyzing data from the Gaia space telescope has identified more than 2,000 large protostars, young stars that are still forming…
The Milky Way Captured Several Tiny Galaxies From Its Neighbor
University of California Riverside-led research shows our galaxy is undergoing a massive merger with its largest satellite galaxy, the Large Magellanic Cloud. Just like the…
Gaia Makes First Direct Measurement of the Galactic Bar in the Milky Way
The first direct measurement of the bar-shaped collection of stars at the center of our Milky Way galaxy has been made by combining data from…
Hubble & Gaia Reveal Weight of the Milky Way: 1.5 Trillion Solar Masses
In a striking example of multi-mission astronomy, measurements from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope and the ESA Gaia mission have been combined to improve the…
GAIA Reveals For the First Time Crystallization in White Dwarfs
Data captured by ESA’s galaxy-mapping spacecraft Gaia has revealed for the first time how white dwarfs, the dead remnants of stars like our Sun, turn…
Astronomers Determine the Distance of the Cygnus Loop
The Cygnus Loop (also known as the Veil Nebula) is a supernova remnant, the detritus of the explosive death of a massive star about ten…
The Merger That Led to the Formation of the Milky Way
ESA’s Gaia mission has made a major breakthrough in unravelling the formation history of the Milky Way. Instead of forming alone, our Galaxy merged with…
Gaia Mission Helps Improve Classification Scheme for Exoplanet Sizes
There are about 4433 exoplanets in the latest catalogs. Their radii have generally been measured by knowing the radius of their host star and then…
Gaia Satellite Detects a Shake in the Milky Way
A team led by researchers from the Institute of Cosmos Sciences of the University of Barcelona (ICCUB, UB-IEEC) and the University of Groningen has discovered,…
Gaia Spacecraft Observes Almost 500 Explosions in Galaxy Cores
Apart from a billion Milky Way stars, ESA’s Gaia spacecraft also observes extragalactic objects. Its automated alert system notifies astronomers whenever Gaia spots a transient…
Gaia Satellite Refines Properties of Polaris Aa, Significantly Different Than Earlier Values
The North Star, Polaris, is a Cepheid variable: one whose mass, age and physical conditions generate periodic oscillations with a period proportional to the star’s…
Gaia and Hipparcos Satellites Reveal the Mass of an Infant Exoplanet
The mass of a very young exoplanet has been revealed for the first time using data from ESA’s star mapping spacecraft Gaia and its predecessor,…
New Hubble and Gaia Data Fuel Cosmic Conundrum
Using the power and synergy of two space telescopes, astronomers have made the most precise measurement to date of the universe’s expansion rate. The results…
New GAIA Data Reveal Relics of Merger Events in the Milky Way
University of Groningen astronomers have discovered relics of merger events in the Milky Way halo. Five small groups of stars appear to represent mergers with…
Hubble and Gaia Measure 3D Stellar Motion with Record Precision
Astronomers used data from Hubble Space Telescope and ESA’s Gaia satellite to directly measure the 3D motions of individual stars in a nearby galaxy, achieving…
ESA’s Gaia Satellite Reveals the Rate of Stellar Encounters with the Sun
The movements of more than 300,000 stars surveyed by ESA’s Gaia satellite reveal that rare close encounters with our Sun might disturb the cloud of…