ESA title

The mission

From 27 July 2014 to 15 January 2025, Gaia has made more than three trillion observations of two billion stars and other objects throughout our Milky Way galaxy and beyond, mapping their motions, luminosity, temperature and composition. Gaia's extraordinarily precise three-dimensional map 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
  • End of science observations: 15 January 2025
  • Upcoming data releases:
    Data Release 4 (based on 66 months of data): not before mid 2026
    Data Release 5 (based on all mission data) not before the end of 2030
  • 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
Gaia

Latest

Gaia spots odd star family
Science & Exploration

Gaia spots odd family of stars desperate to leave home

29/04/2025 2618 views 55 likes
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Science & Exploration

Hubble investigates a magnetar’s birthplace

15/04/2025 1272 views 14 likes
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Gaia observes the Milky Way
Enabling & Support

Farewell, Gaia! Spacecraft operations come to an end

27/03/2025 37633 views 134 likes
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Artist impression of brown dwarf Gaia-5b
Science & Exploration

Wobbling stars reveal hidden companions in Gaia data

04/02/2025 9007 views 58 likes
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The best Milky Way map, by Gaia (artist impression)
Science & Exploration

Last starlight for ground-breaking Gaia

15/01/2025 22513 views 75 likes
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Science & Exploration

The best Milky Way map, by Gaia 

15/01/2025 24250 views 223 likes
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The best Milky Way map, by Gaia (artist impression)

About Gaia