nPosted on December 19, 2017
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Key points
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nDo you know the name Gaia?
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In Greek mythology, Gaia is the personification of the planet Earth. She is a sort of Mother Earth figure who is the mother of all life on Earth.
In Greek mythology, Gaia is the personification of the planet Earth. She is a sort of Mother Earth figure who is the mother of all life on Earth.n
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nBut when we say that Gaia was launched on this date in 2013, we of course mean a spacecraft named Gaia. It’s a space observatory that was created by the European Space Agency. Its mission is to build the biggest and best 3-D space catalog ever created. The goal is to include a billion objects in space, including planets, stars, comets, asteroids, quasars, and more.
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nThe planned mission is five years, so Gaia may be near the end of its life. However, the mission may be extended up to four years if conditions allow it.
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nOne of the big things about Gaia is that the measurements taken of, say, the yearly motion of a star are really precise –
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nnthe equivalence of measuring the size of a pinhead on the Moon, as seen from the Earth!
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nScientists can use the data gathered by Gaia, and published in a series of increasingly exact star catalogs, in all sorts of research. One astronomer has used the data to compute the orbit of a dwarf galaxy around the Milky Way Galaxy (our own galaxy). Gaia scientists were also able to detect a supernova in another galaxy.
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nAlso on this date:
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nInventor Rudolph Hell’s birthday
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nSaint Nicholas Day in the Ukraine
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nIt’s still time for Las Posadas!
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nAnniversary of Samuel Clemens’s first patent
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nNational Heroes and Heroines Day in Anguilla
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nPlan ahead:
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nCheck out my Pinterest pages on:
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nHistorical anniversaries in December
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nAnd here are my Pinterest boards for:
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nJanuary birthdays
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