Gaia’s snapshot of another galaxy;

MISSION NEWS AS OF THURSDAY 20 APRIL 2017

• GAIA’S SNAPSHOT OF ANOTHER GALAXY

While compiling an unprecedented census of one billion stars in our Galaxy, ESA’s Gaia mission is also surveying stars beyond our Milky Way. A new image of M33, also known as the Triangulum galaxy, shows tens of thousands of stars detected by Gaia, including a small stellar census in its star-forming region NGC 604. This is a striking example of the mission’s potential to detect and characterise stars in nearby galaxies.

Read more: http://sci.esa.int/jump.cfm?oid=59023

• TWO MILLION STARS ON THE MOVE

The changing face of our Galaxy is revealed in a new video from ESA’s Gaia mission. The motion of two million stars is traced 5 million years into the future using data from the Tycho-Gaia Astrometric Solution, one of the products of the first Gaia data release. This provides a preview of the stellar motions that will be revealed in Gaia’s future data releases, which will enable scientists to investigate the formation history of our Galaxy.

Read more: http://sci.esa.int/jump.cfm?oid=59004

• HUBBLE CELEBRATES 27 YEARS WITH TWO CLOSE FRIENDS [HEIC1709]

This stunning cosmic pairing of the two very different looking spiral galaxies NGC 4302 and NGC 4298 was imaged by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope. As a perfect demonstration of Hubble’s capabilities, the spectacular view has been released as part of the telescope’s 27th anniversary celebrations.

Read more: http://sci.esa.int/jump.cfm?oid=59018

• HUBBLE OBSERVES FIRST MULTIPLE IMAGES OF EXPLOSIVE DISTANCE INDICATOR

• [HEIC1710]

A Swedish-led team of astronomers used the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope to analyse the multiple images of a gravitationally lensed type Ia supernova for the first time. The four images of the exploding star will be used to measure the expansion of the Universe.

Read more: http://sci.esa.int/jump.cfm?oid=59029