Gaia: Here Comes the Sun

Gaia: Here Comes the Sun

Credit:
Galaxy Illustration: N. Risinger
(skysurvey.org);
Star Data: Gaia Mission,
ESA,
A. S. Sellés
(U. Heidelberg)
et al.

Explanation:
What would it look like to return home from outside our galaxy?

Although designed to answer
greater questions,
data from ESA’s robotic
Gaia mission is helping to provide a uniquely
modern perspective on humanity’s place in the universe.

Gaia
orbits the
Sun near the
Earth and resolves
stars’ positions so precisely that it can determine a
slight shift from its changing vantage point over the course of a year, a shift that is proportionately smaller for more
distant stars — and so
determines distance.

In the first sequence of
the video,
an illustration of the
Milky Way is shown that soon
resolves into a three-dimensional
visualization of Gaia star data.

A few notable stars are labelled with their
common names, while others stars are labelled with numbers from a
Gaia catalog.

Eventually, the
viewer arrives in our stellar neighborhood
where many stars were tracked by Gaia, and soon at our home star Sol,
the Sun.

At the video’s end, the reflective glow of Sol’s third planet becomes visible:
Earth.