Gaia telescope’s new map of the Milky Way will allow us rewind time

The European Room Agency has produced a new tranche of information from its Gaia house observatory, and it could enable us rewind the path of stars to see the historical past of the Milky Way

By Alex Wilkins

Our map of the Milky Way has been upgraded and it now lets us rewind the paths of stars to seem again in time. The data set that permits this, unveiled by the European Space Company (ESA)’s Gaia place telescope, incorporates the in depth chemical make-up and speeds of practically 2 billion stars.

From its vantage level 1.5 million kilometres from Earth, Gaia has been measuring now regarded stars and trying to find new ones because its start in 2013. The first knowledge release, revealed in 2016, contained data on the brightness and positions of 1.1 billion stars, and a 2nd release …