Gaia (spacecraft)
Artist's impression of the Gaia spacecraft
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| Mission type | Astrometric observatory |
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| Operator | ESA |
| COSPAR ID | 2013-074A |
| SATCAT no. | 39479 |
| Website | sci |
| Mission duration | planned: 5 years; possible extension by one to four years elapsed: 3 years, 3 months and 7 days |
| Spacecraft properties | |
| Manufacturer |
EADS Astrium e2v Technologies |
| Launch mass | 2,029 kg (4,473 lb) |
| Dry mass | 1,392 kg (3,069 lb) |
| Payload mass | 710 kg (1,570 lb) |
| Dimensions | 4.6 m × 2.3 m (15.1 ft × 7.5 ft) |
| Power | 1910 watts |
| Start of mission | |
| Launch date | 19 December 2013, 09:12:14 UTC |
| Rocket | Soyuz ST-B/Fregat-MT |
| Launch site | Kourou ELS |
| Contractor | Arianespace |
| Orbital parameters | |
| Reference system | Sun–Earth L2 |
| Regime | Lissajous orbit |
| Periapsis | 263,000 km (163,000 mi) |
| Apoapsis | 707,000 km (439,000 mi) |
| Period | 180 days |
| Epoch | planned |
| Main telescope | |
| Type | Three-mirror anastigmat |
| Diameter | 1.45 m × 0.5 m (4.8 ft × 1.6 ft) |
| Collecting area | 0.7 m2 |
| Transponders | |
| Band |
S Band (TT&C support) X Band (data acquisition) |
| Bandwidth | few kbit/s down & up (S Band) 3-8Mbit/s download (X Band) |
| Instruments | |
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ASTRO: Astrometric instrument BP/RP: Photometric instrument RVS: Radial Velocity Spectrometer |
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ESA astrophysics insignia for the Gaia mission
Gaia is a space observatory of the European Space Agency (ESA) designed for astrometry. The mission aims to construct the largest and most precise 3D space catalog ever made and totalling approximately 1 billion astronomical objects, mainly stars but also planets, comets, asteroids and quasars among others. The spacecraft will monitor each of its target stars about 70 times over a period of five years to study the precise motion of each star relative to the Milky Way galaxy. This will involve approximately 1% of the Milky Way population with all stars brighter than magnitude 20 in a broad photometric band that covers most of the visual range. Additionally, Gaia is expected to detect thousands to tens of thousands of Jupiter-sized exoplanets beyond the Solar System, 500,000 quasars and tens of thousands of new asteroids and comets within the Solar System.
Gaia will create a precise three-dimensional map of astronomical objects throughout the Milky Way and map their motions, which encode the origin and subsequent evolution of the Milky Way. The spectrophotometric measurements will provide the detailed physical properties of all stars observed, characterizing their luminosity, effective temperature, gravity and elemental composition. This massive stellar census will provide the basic observational data to tackle a wide range of important questions related to the origin, structure, and evolutionary history of our galaxy.
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