Mark McCaughreanMar 27

Wow – didn’t think I’d be in tears today, but this message sent home from Gaia as it was shut down forever today hits hard 😭

What you’re seeing is a map of the 106 CCD detectors that Gaia used to measure the positions of billions of stars in the Milky Way for the past 11 years 🛰️✨

They were turned off in a special sequence … 😕

#SpaceScience #Astronomy #Science

Show threadJustin ScholzMar 27
@markmccaughrean @bert_hubert why was it shut down? For technical reasons or financial reasons?
Show threadMark McCaughreanMar 27

@jmovs @bert_hubert It ran out of propellant – it had a finite lifetime from the beginning, as it used micropropulsion to keep it rotating very precisely according to on-board atomic clocks. The tanks are now empty.

So this is a case of a spacecraft operations ending by design – but there is still so much more to come from the mission.

Show threadMike Taylor 🦕Mar 27
@markmccaughrean @jmovs @bert_hubert Honestly, I'm just relieved it's not being shut down for being woke or some such idiocy.
Show threadMark McCaughreanMar 27
@mike @jmovs @bert_hubert Err, it’s a fully European mission, so we run our programmes on a rational basis.
Show threadITsec Agentur
@markmccaughrean @mike @jmovs @bert_hubert That is so good to know!! And keep up the good work!
Mar 27 at 12:34pmWeb