One of ESA’s most ambitious current projects has the aim of compiling the most precise map of one thousand million stars in our Galaxy.

Gaia, a spacecraft which will carry two of the most sensitive cameras ever made, is due to be launched in 2010.
It will take five years to detect such a vast quantity of objects, some of which are incredibly faint, and another three years to plot them all in a giant three-dimensional computerised model that shows not only their current position, but their direction of motion, colour and even their composition.

In short, Gaia will produce a completely new view of the Galaxy and everything in it. It will produce the ultimate map, a star catalogue that could be used by every other space mission of the future.

Another exciting aspect of this amazing mission is that it could find objects that we did not know existed - until Gaia turns its supersensitive cameras in their direction. As well as stars, we may find other objects that are very faint, or in areas of the sky where we have not looked in depth yet.

You can read the rest of the story here.

Greetings from Belgium.

[/url] [/url]

cool, i want one :( . How much they cost?