The European Space Agency has published data from the “Gaia” spacecraft that sheds new light on two billion stars in our galaxy.

One of the most surprising discoveries was that so-called starquakes could be detected, which change the shape of stars. Some people compare these aftershocks to a tsunami.

Timo Prusti, who worked on the Gaia project, explains: “This is a very interesting insight into the interior of stars and allows a better understanding of their structure, which can be combined with theoretical models. It was a very important step forward in stellar physics.”

For almost ten years, the Gaia space observatory has been observing the sky and recording the positions of all visible celestial objects. The goal is to create a multidimensional map of the galaxy that is as accurate and complete as possible.

The data now released provide new information about the chemical composition, stellar temperature, color, mass, age and speed at which stars are moving further and further away from us.

Scientists from the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy in Heidelberg and the Astronomical Computing Institute at the Center for Astronomy at Heidelberg University.