ESA - Gaia - Archive

ESA title

The mission

Gaia is creating an extraordinarily precise three-dimensional map of more than a thousand million stars throughout our Milky Way galaxy and beyond, mapping their motions, luminosity, temperature and composition. This huge stellar census will provide the data needed to tackle an enormous range of important questions related to the origin, structure and evolutionary history of our galaxy.

Launch: 19 December 2013
Orbit: L2 Lagrange point
Previous data release milestones:
Data Release 1: 14 September 2016
Data Release 2: 25 April 2018
Early Data Release 3: 3 December 2020
Data Release 3: 13 June 2022
Focused Product Release: 10 October 2023

1 billion pixel camera
10 m sunshield
1800 million objects

Gaia

Science & Exploration

Gaia spots possible moons around hundreds of asteroids

08/08/2024 6703 views 60 likes

Gaia mapping the stars of the Milky Way

Enabling & Support

Double trouble: Gaia hit by micrometeoroid and solar storm

17/07/2024 22275 views 170 likes

Science & Exploration

Scientists spot hidden companions of bright stars

20/06/2024 2655 views 13 likes

Science & Exploration

Gaia: Milky Way’s last major collision was surprisingly rec…

06/06/2024 6615 views 45 likes

Science & Exploration

Sailing among the stars – Gaia's role in discovering distan…

22/04/2024 2434 views 16 likes

Science & Exploration

Sleeping giant surprises Gaia scientists

16/04/2024 31260 views 68 likes

Science & Exploration

Gaia unravels the ancient threads of the Milky Way

21/03/2024 14105 views 53 likes

Gaia observes the Milky Way

Science & Exploration

Gaia’s decade of discoveries: unravelling the intricacies o…

19/12/2023 7512 views 97 likes

Science & Exploration

New Gaia release reveals rare lenses, cluster cores and unf…

10/10/2023 23340 views 94 likes

Science & Exploration

Wobbling star found in Gaia-Hipparcos data confirmed to hos…

13/04/2023 9456 views 139 likes

Science & Exploration

Gaia discovers a new family of black holes

30/03/2023 36866 views 167 likes

Gaia mapping the stars of the Milky Way

Enabling & Support

Amateur astronomers needed: help classify stars with Gaia's…

21/03/2023 15202 views 239 likes

Setup for occultation observation

Enabling & Support

Shadow hunters capture Didymos asteroid eclipsing stars

20/10/2022 4415 views 80 likes

The Sun's future

Science & Exploration

Gaia reveals the past and future of the Sun

11/08/2022 34981 views 192 likes

Science & Exploration

Gaia sees strange stars in most detailed Milky Way survey t…

13/06/2022 79268 views 175 likes

Gaia observes the Milky Way

Science & Exploration

Watch live: first impressions of Gaia data release 3

10/06/2022 7218 views 104 likes

New evidence of watery plumes on Jupiter’s moon Europa

Science & Exploration

Jupiter’s moon Europa to obscure distant star

07/06/2022 6948 views 120 likes

Science & Exploration

Media invitation: new details about our Milky Way in the th…

31/05/2022 2905 views 61 likes

The colour of the sky from Gaia’s Early Data Release 3

Science & Exploration

Gaia finds parts of the Milky Way much older than expected

23/03/2022 21466 views 133 likes

Gaia snaps photo of Webb

Science & Exploration

Gaia snaps photo of Webb at L2

16/03/2022 30015 views 137 likes

Science & Exploration

Gaia reveals that most Milky Way companion galaxies are new…

24/11/2021 12963 views 165 likes

Science & Exploration

Is the nearest star cluster to the Sun being destroyed?

24/03/2021 18030 views 123 likes

Gaia’s stellar motion for the next 400 thousand years

Science & Exploration

Gaia’s new data takes us to the Milky Way’s anticentre and …

03/12/2020 121663 views 399 likes

Science & Exploration

Five fascinating Gaia revelations about the Milky Way

21/09/2020 12817 views 118 likes

Gaia mapping the stars of the Milky Way

Gaia revolutionises asteroid tracking

01/07/2020 6477 views 88 likes

Science & Exploration

Galactic crash may have triggered Solar System formation

25/05/2020 25961 views 142 likes

The warped disc of our galaxy, the Milky Way.

Science & Exploration

Milky Way’s warp caused by galactic collision, Gaia suggests

02/03/2020 18224 views 114 likes

Stellar pair discovered in Gaia16aye microlensing event

Science & Exploration

Global Gaia campaign reveals secrets of stellar pair

21/01/2020 5371 views 36 likes

Science & Exploration

Gaia untangles the starry strings of the Milky Way

28/08/2019 10662 views 127 likes

Jupiter's largest moons

Science & Exploration

Astronomers spy Europa blocking distant star – thanks to Ga…

25/07/2019 10410 views 125 likes

Science & Exploration

Gaia starts mapping our galaxy’s bar

16/07/2019 8947 views 100 likes

Gaia mapping the stars of the Milky Way

Enabling & Support

Gaia’s biggest operation since launch

15/07/2019 10084 views 144 likes

Pinpointing Gaia from Earth

Science & Exploration

Observing Gaia from Earth to improve its star maps

02/05/2019 6583 views 87 likes

Future motions of the Milky Way, Andromeda and Triangulum galaxies

Science & Exploration

Gaia clocks new speeds for Milky Way-Andromeda collision

07/02/2019 26631 views 175 likes

Artist’s impression of crystallisation in white dwarf

Science & Exploration

Gaia reveals how Sun-like stars turn solid after their demi…

09/01/2019 13398 views 161 likes

A major event in the formation of the Milky Way

Science & Exploration

Galactic ghosts: Gaia uncovers major event in the formation…

31/10/2018 26205 views 189 likes

Sprinting stars in the Milky Way

Science & Exploration

Gaia spots stars flying between galaxies

02/10/2018 20631 views 185 likes

Artist impression of ‘Oumuamua

Science & Exploration

Gaia finds candidates for interstellar ‘Oumuamua’s home

25/09/2018 10179 views 113 likes

Perturbations in the Milky Way

Science & Exploration

Gaia hints at our Galaxy’s turbulent life

19/09/2018 24487 views 198 likes

Beta Pictoris system

Science & Exploration

Infant exoplanet weighed by Hipparcos and Gaia

20/08/2018 8460 views 132 likes

Gaia’s sky in colour

Science & Exploration

Gaia creates richest star map of our Galaxy – and beyond

25/04/2018 466608 views 540 likes

How many stars will there be in the second Gaia data release?

Science & Exploration

Call for media: Second data release from ESA's Gaia mission

19/04/2018 4903 views 28 likes

Science & Exploration

Close encounters of the stellar kind

31/08/2017 16301 views 112 likes

Stars speeding through the Galaxy

Science & Exploration

Artificial brain helps Gaia catch speeding stars

26/06/2017 8769 views 83 likes

Science & Exploration

The future of the Orion constellation

09/06/2017 35619 views 179 likes

Gaia’s first sky map

Science & Exploration

Gaia’s billion-star map hints at treasures to come

14/09/2016 162095 views 399 likes

Gaia mapping the stars of the Milky Way

Science & Exploration

Call for media: First data release from ESA's Gaia mission

01/09/2016 3404 views 35 likes

Rosetta comet seen by Gaia

Science & Exploration

Celebrity comet spotted among Gaia’s stars

03/11/2015 5434 views 70 likes

Stellar density map

Science & Exploration

Gaia's first year of scientific observations

25/08/2015 18412 views 156 likes

Stellar density map

Science & Exploration

Counting stars with Gaia

03/07/2015 17893 views 118 likes

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