🔭 Tomorrow is the last day of observations for @esa.int's Gaia. It has observed for over a decade, revolutionising our view of the Milky Way. The work is far from done. Thus far only 3 years of data are reflected in the public release. Nonetheless this is a moment to celebrate Gaia... 🔭 #MilkyWay - ThreadSky

mcmillan-astro.bsky.social • 82 days ago

🔭 Tomorrow is the last day of observations for @esa.int's Gaia. It has observed for over a decade, revolutionising our view of the Milky Way.

The work is far from done. Thus far only 3 years of data are reflected in the public release. Nonetheless this is a moment to celebrate Gaia... 🔭 #MilkyWay

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annfinkbeiner.bsky.social•82 days ago

Why is Gaia over with? It certainly has been a game changer.

mcmillan-astro.bsky.social•82 days ago

It needs cold gas to keep itself spinning in a precisely controlled way, and that gas is running out (and they need enough to safely move it away so it doesn't end up hitting anything!)

The game will continue to change for many years to come as more data makes its way through the processing

annfinkbeiner.bsky.social•82 days ago

That's interesting -- I hadn't heard it before. So the orbit will change or something? that's public-spirited of it.

mcmillan-astro.bsky.social•82 days ago

Yes, it will stop sitting near-ish to the Earth and will be sent on its own orbit around the Sun that doesn't stay as near to us (and won't visit for the foreseeable future)

I think it's self-interest to be honest, there would be hell to pay if it rammed into JWST by accident!

annfinkbeiner.bsky.social•82 days ago

It and all the other zillion things in orbit. Thank you for the information!

mcmillan-astro.bsky.social•82 days ago

therefore I'm going to post a thread of Gaia-inspired items I have made or been given in the last decade.

escctrl.bsky.social•81 days ago

Is there a 7+ year long delay before data is made public?

mcmillan-astro.bsky.social•81 days ago

We're working as fast as we can to make it public in a useful way (I hasten to add that I am a tiny cog in this machine). The last data release in 2022 was public 5 years after the data were taken (with some of released early in 2020, i.e., 3 years after).

mcmillan-astro.bsky.social•81 days ago

One difficulty is that the data processing required grows faster than linearly with the amount of data, because new things become possible and have to be done before publication.

escctrl.bsky.social•81 days ago

So the raw data is not generally distributed? Is that because it is too huge? I know the ground based telescopes still send shipping containers full of hard drives because the internet simply does not have pipes big enough

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