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In a rare double - whammy space assault , theEuropean Space Agency ’s Gaia spacecraft was latterly slammed by a micrometeoroid and struck by a solar tempest , leaving it ineffectual to function properly . But the artificial satellite is now back to unremarkable operations after the near - devastating impact , scientist say .
Gaia orbit at more than 932,000 international nautical mile ( 1.5 million kilometers ) from Earth at what is know as the L2Lagrange Point , where the combine gravitational force of our planet and the sun create a stable orbit . The space vehicle ’s destination is to create a 3D single-valued function of the individual star in theMilky Way .
An illustration of the European Space Agency’s Gaia spacecraft mapping the Milky Way
But in April , ameteoroidsmaller than a grain of sand hit Gaia and damage the protective shield surrounding its orchestration . In the calendar month since , sunshine abstract through this midget go has disrupted the spacecraft ’s sensors , according to ESA . In May , for unknown rationality , another composition of electronics failed — part of the system that enable Gaia to corroborate its detection of stars — result in K of false detections .
" Gaia typically sends over 25 gibibyte of datum to Earth every daylight , but this amount would be much , much higher if the spacecraft ’s onboard software did n’t winnow out false virtuoso detections first , " Edmund Serpell , Gaia space vehicle operations engineer at the European Space Operations Centre , said in astatement . " Both late incident disrupt this cognitive operation . As a resultant role , the spacecraft begin generating a vast number of false detections that overwhelmed our systems . "
The second unsuccessful person might have been stimulate by the same burst of solar molecule from the sunshine thattriggered widespread auroras around the globein May , according to ESA .
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Though there is piffling the Gaia team can do about the spacecraft ’s hardware , they were able to piece its software to keep the spacecraft going , alter the threshold at which Gaia class an physical object as a star topology . The craft , establish in 2013 , was originally plan to spend six years in infinite but has live for more than a X .
Gaia has previously helped astronomersdetect the Milky Way ’s oldest stars , which were born more than 12.5 billion years ago . The craftiness has also detecteddim companions to major starsanda binary star systemin which one star ’s disk overshadow another . Data from Gaia has even give scientists an appraisal of when theMilky Waywill merge with its neighbour , the Andromeda Galaxy — indicating the colossal collision will occur4.5 billion years from now .
Gaia is expected to proceed collecting datum until theend of 2025 , when it will run out of gas in its propulsion system .
