The European Space
Agency's Gaia mission will release new data on June 13, and scientists can't wait.
The coming data
dump will contain information about nearly two billion of the brightest objects in the sky.
The release will supercharge
the mapping of our Milky Way galaxy, experts say, allowing astronomers to see to the farthest fringes of the galaxy
Gaia has been mapping our
stellar neighborhood since 2014, and each of its data releases have led to giant leaps in our understanding of the Milky Way.
Thanks to Gaia,
information about the stars' trajectories and motions in three-dimensional space is getting more and more precise.
The upcoming release will add
some previously unavailable information, including about the chemical compositions, ages and masses of millions of stars.