September 14, 2018 8-10PM

Event Type: Lecture and Stargazing
Title: Cosmic Cartography: A Billion Stars in Six Dimensions and the Gaia Revolution
Lecturer: Erik Petigura
Position: Hubble Fellow
Institution: Caltech
Abstract:
A million miles from Earth, there is a peculiar point in space called "L2," where the gravity from the Sun and Earth strike a special balance. There, a spacecraft called Gaia is slowly rotating, once every six hours. As it rolls, its two telescopes scan the sky making the most precise map of the cosmos ever created. This talk will be an overview of the science of mapping the heavens, stretching back to the ancient Greeks and extending to the ongoing Gaia mission. I will share some of the ways that Gaia is revolutionizing all aspects of astronomy from quasars to stars to exoplanets.