Gaia Space Telescope Team Battles ‘Stray Light’ Problems At Start Of Mission

(Before It's News)

Artist’s conception of the Gaia telescope backdropped by a photograph of the Milky Way taken at the European Southern Observatory. Credit: ESA/ATG medialab; background: ESO/S. Brunier

Europe’s powerful Milky Way mapper is facing some problems as controllers ready the Gaia telescope for operations. It turns out that there is “stray light” bleeding into the telescope, which will affect how well it can see the stars around it. Also, the telescope optics are also not transmitting as efficiently as the design predicted.

Controllers emphasize the light problem would only affect the faintest visible stars, and that tests are ongoing to minimize the impact on the mission. Still, there will be some effect on how well Gaia can map the stars around it due to this issue.

(…)
Read the rest of Gaia Space Telescope Team Battles ‘Stray Light’ Problems At Start Of Mission (727 words)

© Elizabeth Howell for Universe Today, 2014. |
Permalink |
No comment |

Post tags: Gaia

Feed enhanced by Better Feed from Ozh

• The Hydroplate theory by Dr. Walt Brown, Ph.D. in mechanical engineering from (MIT)
• Heart Of James Webb Space Telescope Lowered Into Chamber
• New Recipe For Saturn’s Orangey Moon Titan Is ‘Aromatic’ And Hazy
• ‘Weird’ Dust Ring Baffles In Cloud That Will Give Birth To Giant Stars
• New Horizons Wakes Up for the Summer
• Astronomers using the Chandra X-Ray Observatory Discover’s a “Baby Black Hole”
• ISSpresso
• NASA’s Kepler Spacecraft Makes Monumental Landmark Discovery, Astronomers Speechless
• Reincarnation Invalidates Racism, Religion, Nationalism, etc.
• LARGE, POWERFUL Earth-Directed Solar CME’s Now Through July 9th (Video)