In a rare double-whammy space assault, the European Space Agency's Gaia spacecraft was recently slammed by a micrometeoroid and struck by a solar storm, leaving it unable to function properly. But the satellite is now back to routine operations after the near-devastating impact, scientists say.
Gaia orbits at more than 932,000 miles (1.5 million kilometers) from Earth at what is known as the L2 Lagrange Point, where the combined gravitational forces of our planet and the sun create a stable orbit. The spacecraft's goal is to create a 3D map of the individual stars in the Milky Way.
