“Fa un any que es va enlairar la missió Gaia i ja ha detectat 8 supernoves” (TV3 news, 7 Oct 2014)
TV show: Noticies (TV3) Title: “Fa un any que es va enlairar la missió Gaia i ja ha detectat 8 supernoves” Emission date: 7 October 2014 Link to the documentary: Fa un any que es va enlairar la missió Gaia i ja ha detectat 8 supernoves
read moreGaia discovers its first supernova
Date: 12 September 2014 Original link: ESA webpage While scanning the sky to measure the positions and movements of stars in our Galaxy, Gaia has discovered its first stellar explosion in another galaxy far, far away. This powerful event, now named Gaia14aaa, took place in a distant galaxy some 500 million light-years away, and was revealed via a sudden rise in the galaxy’s brightness between two Gaia observations separated by one month. Gaia, which began its scientific work on 25 July, repeatedly scans the entire sky, so that each of the roughly one billion stars in the...
read more“La misión Gaia. Una máquina de descubrimientos” (Congreso Estatal de Astronomía, Granada, 2 May 2014)
Conference: XXI Congreso Estatal de Astronomía (Granada, 2 May 2014) Title: “La misión Gaia. Una máquina de descubrimientos” Emission date: 2 May 2014 Link to the video of the talk given by F. Figueras during the XXI Congreso Estatal de Astronomía (Granada, 2 May 2014), giving an overview of the Gaia mission. Here you have the video of her talk (in spanish).
read moreGaia first discovery: surprise space debris
Original link: New Scientist A robotic galaxy mapper may have just made its first discovery – by surviving an unexpected onslaught of space debris. Scientists working with the European Space Agency’s Gaia satellite have found that the spacecraft is being peppered by far more micrometeoroids – tiny specks of space dust – than had been anticipated. The strikes shouldn’t put Gaia in danger, although mission scientists will have to watch closely as the spacecraft begins its scientific observations. And the discovery might spell trouble for future spacecraft headed to the same orbital...
read moreRaising Gaia, Europe’s Brainchild (El País, 4 July 2014)
Newspaper: El País Title: “Raising Gaia, Europe’s Brainchild” Webpage: elpais.com Publication date: 4 July 2014 Raising Gaia, Europe’s Brainchild By Xavier Luri Carrascoso, University of Barcelona Working on a space mission is a bit like raising children: it takes years, patience and some suffering, but it is also very rewarding. For me parenthood and the work on a space mission started around 2001, when my wife, Isabel, gave birth to our daughter Ana and the European Space Agency (ESA) approved the Gaia mission. Gaia’s main goal is to measure the distance to one billion...
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