Gaia: "We will always discover unexpected things"

The European Gaia satellite was launched by a Soyuz rocket, Thursday, Dec. 19, from Kourou, French Guiana. For five years, he will draw a 3D map of a billion stars in the Milky Way. A treasure trove of unpublished data, a special astral catalog which should be finalized in 2020.

Gaia will indeed provide a sort of "Facebook of the Milky Way." With, like social networking, a page devoted to each star, with, as a "profile", its position in the Universe, its trajectory and its physical characteristics and bright.

"We will always discover unexpected things, promises Catherine Turon, an astronomer at the Observatoire de Paris-Meudon. Read the full interview in" Gaia, to create the Facebook of the Milky Way ", on the site of Sciences and future.