Posted on 09/14/2016 5:36:58 PM PDT by LibWhacker
The most precise map of the night sky ever assembled is taking shape.
Astronomers working on the Gaia space telescope have released a first tranche of data recording the position and brightness of over a billion stars.
And for some two million of these objects, their distance and sideways motion across the heavens has also been accurately plotted.
Gaia's mapping effort is already unprecedented in scale, but it still has several years to run.
Remarkably, scientists say the store of information even now is too big for them to sift, and they are appealing for the public's help in making discoveries.
To give one simple example of the scope of Gaia: Of the 1.1 billion light sources in Wednesday's data release, something like 400 million of these objects have never been recorded in any previous catalogue.
"You're imaging the whole sky in basically [Hubble] space telescope quality and because you can now resolve all the stars that previously maybe looked as though they were merged as one star at low resolution - now we can see them," explained
(Excerpt) Read more at bbc.com ...
Does Hillary know of this vast plot?
Have they found the void where socks lost in the dryer go to?
Cool project.
A snapshot in time. Ever onward.
The first person to find it gets a sock full of quarters
and their pick of any machine in the joint!
They have only begun to map that. Its a huge area.
However, if you sent $25 dollars, we'll record the name of someone special in book form in the U.S. patent office! Give someone a gift that will last forever!
Your certificate will be printed on high-quality premium paper and laminated. Consequently, we guarantee that your certificate will stay indelible and brightly-coloured for a lifetime.
You will receive an individual star chart prepared just for you. By using this star chart, you will be able to effortlessly orient yourself to the night sky and find your star within seconds.
Your star will be registered in the Registry. By means of the naming number, which you will find on your certificate, you can retrieve your record anywhere in the world, at any time.
They just had to name the project for their Earth Goddess? Pagans have never advanced science one iota. I put a spell on ‘em.
“Have they found the void where socks lost in the dryer go to?”
Center of the Galaxy - massive Black Hole.
Milky Way’s Supermassive Black Hole
That was my first thought, that by the time it is done it is out of date.
When you look up in the sky and see a star, remember that you are seeing it where it was millions or billions of years ago.
This ‘map’ starts off being at least millions of years out of date.
Don’t we already have a map to the stars? (Hollywood)
This is going to make a great addition to Celestia.
It is not a million years out of date if they also plot direction and speed. With that info, you can determine the present location. I wonder if anyone has attempted to generate a side-by-side picture of the night sky with/without light delay. I’ll bet that would be interesting.
Oh they have known where that is for a long time. After you arrive in Somewhere you go past the Sea of Lost Keys, take a right at the Forest of Lost Time and the Valley of Lost Socks is straight ahead.
Do not take a left otherwise you will find yourself at the Canyon of Lost Ethics and downtown DC is no place to be at this hour.
I was thinking the same thing. Unless one were really well acquainted with the sky(constellations), they might not even notice the difference.
Actually, you could not accurately plot present location. I think you are presuming that all objects in the Universe move in straight paths. They do not.
of course all Billion stars just sprung into existence out of nothing at all, all by themselves with zero help from anyone other than Obama of course
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