The new data include exceptionally accurate measurements of the 300,000 stars within the closest 326 light years to the Sun. The researchers use these data to predict how the star background will change in the next 1.6 million years. They also confirm that the Solar system is accelerating in its orbit around the Galaxy.
This acceleration is gentle, and is what would be expected from a system in a circular orbit. Over a year the Sun accelerates towards the centre of the Galaxy by 7 mm per second, compared with its speed along its orbit of about 230 kilometres a second.
Gaia data additionally deconstruct the two largest companion galaxies to the Milky Way, the Small and Large Magellanic Clouds, allowing researchers to see their different stellar populations. A dramatic visualisation shows these subsets, and the bridge of stars between the two systems.
Dr. Floor van Leeuwen of the Institute of Astronomy at the University of Cambridge, and UK Gaia DPAC Project Manager, comments: “Gaia is measuring the distances of hundreds of millions of objects that are many thousands of light years away, at an accuracy equivalent to measuring the thickness of hair at a distance of more than 2000 kilometres. These data are one of the backbones of astrophysics, allowing us to forensically analyse our stellar neighbourhood, and tackle crucial questions about the origin and future of our Galaxy.”
Gaia will continue gathering data until at least 2022, with a possible mission extension until 2025. The final data releases are expected to yield stellar positions 1.9 times as accurate as those released so far, and proper motions more than 7 times more accurate, in a catalogue of more than 2 billion objects.
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Provided by: Royal Astronomical Society
More information: The new results will be presented in a special online briefing hosted by the Royal Astronomical Society, at 0915 GMT on Thursday 3 December.
Image: A diagram of the two most important companion galaxies to the Milky Way, the Large Magellanic Cloud or LMC (left) and the Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC) made using data from the European Space Agency Gaia satellite. The two galaxies are connected by a 75,000 light-years long bridge of stars, some of which is seen extending from the left of the SMC.
Credit: ESA/Gaia/DPAC
