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 threadNoBorg
@markmccaughrean We can't hear it anymore, but it's still somewhere there. It's like when we lose contact with friends or family but deep in our hearts we're happy because we know they are living their lives somewhere. And sure, they are always in our hearts.
Hugs,
Mar 27 at 5:14pmWeb