The cosmic circle that is our revolving the Milky Way galaxy might not be the cause as to why stars are seemingly flying off and whizzing by at high speeds.
A group of astronomers observed something attractive when they were going through the lately posted 2nd data issue from the Gaia mission. The ESA (European Space Agency) in 2013 launched the Gaia spacecraft, and the new release of data comprises observations made from July 25, 2014, to May 23, 2016, claimed ESA to the media in an interview.
The data provides the locations of almost 1.7 Billion stars, and their movements can inform astronomers a lot about the history of our galaxy. Stars journey at different accelerations and the very fastest are dubbed as hypervelocity stars. “Employing a level of accuracy that sometimes equals to Earthbound observers being capable of spotting a coin on the moon’s surface,” ESA executives claimed to the media in an interview.
Speaking of ESA, the hunt for exoplanets (planets revolving around other stars) has actually increased in recent times, with fresh telescopes, both ground-based and space, being rolled out, developed, and positioned on the drawing board. Those efforts have already found a number of exoplanets. On October 4, 2018, the early development of one of the newest inclusions to the exoplanet-search family was declared. It was the Plato mission by ESA. The declaration was made in Bremen, Germany at the 69th International Astronautical Congress and a new deal was inked.
The deal comprises delivery of the satellite, the testing stage leading to roll out, the in-orbit commissioning stage, and support at the time of launch campaign. Plato will be assembled and built by OHB System (the satellite manufacturer) together with RUAG Space in Switzerland and Thales Alenia Space (in the U.K. and France), as well as by different ESA member states’ contributors.
