Drop the mass, drop the past
cphlo.net
By measuring the positions & motions of billions of stars, Gaia has revolutionised our understanding of the dynamics & evolution of our home galaxy.
But it has also enabled a wide range of other science, including fundamental physics, star formation, asteroids, & more, & its catalogues provides the best basic distances & other parameters used across many studies.
Its final catalogues will also enable the discovery of huge numbers of new exoplanets.
It is indispensable to modern astronomy.
Content-scrapers publishing space imagery without proper credit is very frustrating, but it’s even worse when august scientific organisations like The Royal Society do it as well 🙄
How does anyone gain from this? It’s vital that the public knows how their money’s being spent, not least in the UK & Europe where many still think only NASA “does space”.
FYI, Huygens was an ESA-led spacecraft with participation from NASA & ASI, part of the NASA-led Cassini-Huygens mission to Saturn & its moons.
Posted: Hayabusa also returned solar wind traces of mega-flare. Itokawa records a mega-solar flare.
https://cphlo.net/abc/index.php/2025/01/18/note-paper-asteroid-blast-gas/
The Astrophysical Journal for Jan. 10 (vol. 978 issue 2) contains: Obase, T. Bajo, K-i. Otsuki, Y. et al. Extreme Solar Particle Ejection Event in the Last Few Million Years from Asteroid Itokawa Sample art. 142 ad9919 The solar wind contains hydrogen and helium. Meteorites (and therefore, asteroids that spawn meteorites) contain trapped solar wind.… Read More »Note, Paper: Asteroid Blast-Gas
New Post: Sorry I was a bit slow on the draw, but: Polarimetry. Period. (review paper- the last word)
cphlo.net/abc/index.php/2024/12/30/pola-review-paper
Mark McCaughrean
Casey Newton
mcc
Wolfie Christl
Terence Eden
Jeff Jarvis