Gaia Live in School

N. A. Walton , R. Barnes (1) , C. Soubiran (2) , S. Vogt

1 APL - Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory [Laurel, MD]
2 M2A 2014

Gaia is the European Space Agency's (ESA) next major astronomy telescope mission that was launched December 19, 2013. Gaia will measure accurate distances to about one billion stars across our Milky Way, allowing us to better understand how our galaxy formed and evolved. Gaia will have a profound impact on our understand ing of the Universe and the nature of dark matter, and provide a deeper understanding of how planets form around stars in our local neighbourhood. Gaia scientists and science education advisors are organising a Gaia post-launch event to link approximately forty schools across Europe. The event will include a live stream connection to ESA Gaia Mission Control and local Gaia research students to act as "explainers" and give practical demonstrations in each school. This paper describes the challenges in conducting this Europe-wide event.

Domaines: Instrumentation et méthodes pour l'astrophysique [astro-ph.IM]

N. A. Walton, R. Barnes, C. Soubiran, S. Vogt. Gaia Live in School. Ensuring Stem Literacy: A National Conference on STEM Education and Public Outreach. ASP Conference Series, Vol. 483, proceedings of a conference held 20-24 July 2013 at San Jose State University, San Jose, California, USA. Edited by James G. Manning, Mary Kay Hemenway, Joseph B. Jensen, and Michael G. Gibbs. San Francisco: Astronomical Society of the Pacific, 2014., p.325, Jul 2013, San Jose, United States. pp.325. ⟨hal-01061843⟩