At this point, the spacecraft is able to remain in a stable spot due to the balance of gravitational forces between Earth and the sun. The spacecraft, launched in 2013, carries two telescopes that can scan our galaxy from a location called the Lagrange 2, or L2, point. Gaia is uniquely positioned about 930,000 miles from Earth in the opposite direction from the sun. There are at least 300 million potentially habitable planets in our galaxy, NASA finds After nine years in deep space collecting data that revealed our night sky to be filled with billions of hidden planets - more planets even than stars - NASA's Kepler space telescope ran out of fuel needed for further science operations in 2018. The so-called “Galaxy Surveyor” telescope helped scientists produce the most accurate three-dimensional map of our galaxy to date.Īn illustration representing the legacy of NASA's Kepler space telescope. This is the third publicly available data release from the space telescope. This acceleration information will allow astronomers to measure the mass of our galaxy and better understand the origins of our solar system within our galaxy. Overall, the sun’s orbit around the Milky Way is about 230 kilometers per second, or 514,495 miles per hour. Over the course of a year, our sun accelerates toward the Milky Way’s center by 7 millimeters a second. The new data confirms that the solar system is accelerating in its orbit around the Milky Way. ![]() The European Space Agency’s Gaia space observatory also tracked the movement, colors and brightness of these stars as well as the first visible measurement of the acceleration of our solar system. Astronomers have mapped the most extensive atlas of our Milky Way galaxy yet, including the positions of each and every one of those stars. There are nearly 2 billion stars in our galaxy.Īt least that’s what the most current map shows.
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