Gaia second data release
The second data release of ESA?s Gaia mission has produced an extraordinary catalogue of over one and a half billion stars in our galaxy. Based on observations between July 2014 to May 2016, it includes the most accurate information yet on the positions, brightness, distance, motion, colour and temperature of stars in the Milky Way as well as information on asteroids and quasars.
? Subscribe: http://bit.ly/ESAsubscribe
Learn more: http://bit.ly/GaiaRickestStarMap
Well, I was surprisingly disappointed in Gaia DR2. The cutoff for star Teff and luminosity data was at magnitude 17.
Use star parallax values to take a slice around any well known Messier object, globular or open star cluster with a result set of thousands of Gaia DR2 stars, only to find you are unable to make a valid H-R Diagram, because most of the stars are dimmer than magnitude 17, and thus have not Teff or luminosity values. This is across all popular NGC and Messier objects. It?s typical to have a result set with thousands or stars, but less than 100 with Teff, luminosity, or radial velocity values. It?s a long wait till Gaia DR3…???????????????
Can you imagine the people who build these things..
This is ridiculously big data. ESA are really doing something incredible.
Isn't space black and white?
They brag about having better data, yet use an old representation in the beginning showing a normal spiral galaxy when we already know that our galaxy is a barred spiral.
Inspirational.