IoW_20131212 - Gaia

Image of the Week

The sky in G magnitude

As part of the preparations for the Gaia mission, DPAC's CU2 has been preparing a set of simulators, including a simulator of the Gaia data products and the end of mission catalogue. The Gaia Object Generator (GOG) and its universe model simulates the observable universe down to 20th magitude, including stars, planets, solar system objects, supernovae, unresolved galaxies and quasars. GOG contains a full set of predicted error models describing the latest predictions of the performance of the Gaia spacecraft, and as such is capable of producing a simulated "observed" catalogue, including expected observational errors.

A full sky simulation has recently been completed, covering the full five years of the mission, producing a catalogue of more than one billion objects. Here we present a map of the sky brightness in G magnitude. The intensity of each pixel is calculated from the integrated G magnitude of the simulated objects contained in it. It is easy to make out the disk and bulge components of the milky way galaxy running through the centre of the image, along with darker regions due to the extinction caused by dust obscuration. The colour bar represents a relative scale, from maximum flux in white to minimum flux in black. The figure is plotted in galactic coordinates with the galactic-longitude orientation left-right swapped.

Image: courtesy of Max Palmer

[Published: 12/12/2013]