Gaia und der Grau Wald

Now by 'Gaia', we do not mean the 'whole Earth'.  What we mean is the announcement this week of the first data release from the Gaia satellite which is a 'big deal' and has been anticipated for at least a decade.  This European space-based telescope is mapping the local Galaxy with unprecedented precision and we'll see many new results as to just what our Galaxy really looks like.  Here is a link for you.

Which puts the emphasis this week where it belongs -- on the astronomy.  All week was the annual meeting of the German Astronomical Society which we attended with interest.  Both of us gave talks in the 'splinter meetings' (i.e. parallel sessions).  But what struck us at the end of the week was the incredible data that are coming down the pipeline.  For example, we can now clearly see the rotation of the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC, a nearby galaxy) via proper motions!  What this means is that the star positions in this galaxy can be seen to actually move with time, like watching a very distant train going by -- it doesn't seem to be moving much but if you keep watching, you can see its apparently slow progress across the background landscape.  Think about this.  The LMC is 50 kpc away; that's 50 times 1000 times 3.2 light years away and a light year is 150 million km.  And yet we can see a star in that galaxy moving 'through the landscape' of the galaxy.  It is a new age and there's much more to come.  We are in an age of 'big data'.  Sometimes it feels as if we are like Magellan, sailing across the ocean, mapping new islands and discovering new lands.  Or at least one of his crew.  But even swabbing the decks is a privilege.

There aren't many pictures in this post.  On Wednesday night, the Gaia day, we had a lovely banquet at the university on a patio under the full moon.  To get back home of course required a walk through the grey forest (der grau wald) in the dark -- or we thought so, but take a close look at this picture and you'll see that the grey forest had street lights!


We leave this post with a couple of pictures that we took today while shopping downtown.  Bye for now.