Gaia space telescope’s billion pixel camera to map galaxy

A billion-pixel camera aims to map the galaxy in greater detail than ever before. Built by Astrium for the European Space Agency, the camera — attached to the Gaia telescope — is so sensitive that it can detect the width of a human hair from 1,000 km away. Scientists hoped to learn more about the origin of the universe through the camera’s three-dimensional picture of the Milky Way, which would measure the distances to a billion stars. Scientists said astronomers have relied on very indirect methods to estimate distances to most stars. The Gaia telescope’s camera will be used to build the first accurate charts of the galaxy and to help look for exoplanets, or new planets beyond our solar system.

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