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Gaia Spacecraft Finds Previously Hidden Star Cluster (Video)
By Harrison Tasoff, Space.com Staff Writer | December 5, 2017 11:00am ET
Sometimes, even the most dazzling celestial wonder might be hiding right before your eyes. Case in point: Gaia 1, a brilliant star cluster scientists have found by mining observations from the European Space Agency's Gaia space observatory.
Astronomers use a surprisingly simple method to find clusters of stars: measure a star's distance and position, count its neighbors, repeat. The method of cataloguing stars was pioneered in the 1700s and 1800s by sibling astronomers William and Caroline Herschel, who used it to estimate the shape of our galaxy, the video said. This is similar to the way cartographers used to create maps from surveying measurements.
- click for image -
https://img.purch.com/h/1400/aHR0cDovL3d3dy5zcGFjZS5jb20vaW1hZ2VzL2kvMDAwLzA3Mi8yNDUvb3JpZ2luYWwvRVNBX0dhaWFfQ2x1c3Rlcl9HYWlhMV82MjUuanBnPzE1MTI0MzA4NTA=
The massive star cluster Gaia 1, discovered by scientists who were mining data from the European Space Agency's Gaia mission, is visible in the center of this image from NASA's WISE mission, just left of the brilliant star Sirius.
Credit: Sergey Koposov; NASA/JPL; D. Lang, 2014; A.M. Meisner et al. 2017
More:
https://www.space.com/38979-gaia-satellite-reveals-hidden-star-clusters.html?utm_source=notification