Symmetry: Our galactic neighborhood

[Fred the Cat]

Our galactic neighborhood
Symmetry | 2015 Aug 30

Our galactic neighborhood is quite a melting pot of groups of stars.

As far as our stellar neighborhood mark your calendar for September 14th. I hope we get some good surprises but how does one go about analyzing the data about a billion stars? Think exoplanet hunters are waiting in the wings? Maybe it will clear the skies with respect to Tabby's star?

[Ann]

I'm waiting impatiently for what Gaia has discovered. What will we be told? I'd love to be told about the true distance to and brightness of some massive blue stars, like, say, Alnilam - but Alnilam is too bright for Gaia, sadly. Well, what about Alpha Camelopardalis? We sure don't know enough about that one. And Rho Leonis? And HD 150136, the nearest O3 star?

And, come on. How far is Eta Carina really?

And I want to know about Pismis 24-1, the most massive star in the Lobster Nebula, NGC 6357. And I want to know about NGC 3603! And I want to know about Zeta-1 Scorpii, and Tau Canis Majoris, and Trumpler 14, and the Arches cluster already!

And I want to know how big our galaxy really is, and come on! I want to know about the Tarantula Nebula... and I want to know about NGC 604 in M33...and I want to know about NGC 206 in Andromeda... and I want to know about 9 Sagittae...and...

Ann

[BMAONE23]

Ann,
I love the way your inquisitive mind works

[neufer]

I'm waiting impatiently for what Gaia has discovered. What will we be told?

[b][color=#0000FF][size=150]Gaia map of the sky by star density.[/size][/color][/b]

---

<<On September 12, 2014, Gaia discovered its first supernova in another galaxy. On July 3, 2015, a map of the Milky Way by star density was released, based on data from the spacecraft. The first data release will take place on September 14, 2016. So far, "more than 50 billion focal plane transits, 110 billion photometric observations and 9.4 billion spectroscopic observations have been successfully processed." The data release is expected to include: position and magnitudes for objects over at least 90% of the sky; photometry for RR Lyrae and Cepheid variables near the ecliptic poles; full astrometric solutions based on a combination of Gaia and Tycho-2 data for those objects in both catalogues.>>

[alcor]

Adding to neufers posting I recommend the press release 'Gaia's second anniversary marked by successes and challenges' at http://sci.esa.int/gaia/58135-gaia-s-se ... hallenges/, published 16 August 2016. Which is the latest posting from the mission centre of Gaia http://sci.esa.int/gaia/.