Gaia Telescope

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  Space Telescope Gaia Sent Into 'Retirement' But Legacy Endures

  Europe's Gaia space telescope was powered down and sent into "retirement" on Thursday after a decade revealing the secrets of the Milky Way, but its observations will fuel discoveries for decades to come.

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  A Neptune-Like Exoplanet Is Racing Through Space at Record Speed

  Scientists have detected an exoplanet racing through space at 1.2 million mph, making it the fastest known planet. The Neptune-sized world orbits a hypervelocity star, first hinted at in 2011 via gravitational microlensing. Astronomers, using Keck Observatory and Gaia data, have confirmed the system’s extreme speed, suggesting it may even leave t...

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  A Star With a Planet May Be Racing Through the Galaxy at Record Speed

  Astronomers have identified a potential record-breaking exoplanet system moving at 1.2 million mph. Detected through microlensing, the discovery suggests a low-mass star with an orbiting planet is racing through the Milky Way. Data from the Keck Observatory and ESA’s Gaia satellite indicate a high-speed celestial body that may eventually escape t...

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  Astronomers Discover Rare Triple Black Hole System in Milky Way, Challenging Formation Theories

  Astronomers has revealed a rare triple system in the Milky Way consisting of a black hole and two stars, known as V404 Cygni. Located approximately 8,000 light-years away, this system poses new questions about black hole formation, suggesting that they may arise through a less violent "direct collapse" process rather than the expected explosive eve...

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  Milky Way and Andromedia Fated Collision Might Not Happen, Reveals New Study

  Recent research has cast doubt on the certainty of the Milky Way-Andromeda galaxy collision, suggesting the event may not be as inevitable as once thought. Traditionally, astronomers have predicted that our galaxy would merge with Andromeda within the next 5 billion years, creating a new elliptical galaxy often referred to as "Milkomeda." However, ...

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  Gaia Telescope Reportedly Discovers Hidden Moons Orbiting 350 Asteroids

  Gaia’s recent data release reveals that over 350 asteroids, once believed to be solitary, have hidden moons. This discovery nearly doubles the known binary asteroid systems, highlighting Gaia’s ability to find new asteroid-moon pairs. The detailed observations from Gaia’s DR3 release offer a glimpse into the early solar system and asteroid fo...

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  Ancient Stars Found Near Sun Suggest Milky Way is Older Than Previously Thought

  The discovery of 13 billion-year-old stars near the Sun challenges previous understandings of the Milky Way's formation, suggesting that our galaxy's history may be far older than once believed.

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  Astronomers Find Likely Source Of "Wow Signal" Received In 1977

  Fifty years since a mysterious radio signal was received by a radio telescope on Earth, astronomers have claimed that they have found its source.

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  ESA Maps More Than a Billion Stars in Our Galaxy

  The images were captured by Gaia's twin telescopes and a billion-pixel camera, the largest ever put into space.

• Europe launches billion-dollar Milky Way telescope

  The European Space Agency on Thursday launched an advanced telescope designed to detect a billion stars and provide the most detailed map yet of the Milky Way.

• Billion-dollar 'discovery machine' set for launch

  Europe on Thursday will place a billion-dollar bet on a space telescope designed to provide the biggest and most detailed 3-D map of the Milky Way.