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 observes the Milky Way
Enabling & Support

Farewell, Gaia! Spacecraft operations come to an end

27/03/2025 36261 views 129 likes
Read
Artist impression of brown dwarf Gaia-5b
Science & Exploration

Wobbling stars reveal hidden companions in Gaia data

04/02/2025 8804 views 57 likes
Read
The best Milky Way map, by Gaia (artist impression)
Science & Exploration

Last starlight for ground-breaking Gaia

15/01/2025 22085 views 74 likes
Read
Science & Exploration

Gaia spots possible moons around hundreds of asteroids

08/08/2024 7837 views 63 likes
Read
Gaia mapping the stars of the Milky Way
Enabling & Support

Double trouble: Gaia hit by micrometeoroid and solar storm

17/07/2024 23818 views 181 likes
Read

More items

Science & Exploration

The best Milky Way map, by Gaia 

15/01/2025 22577 views 212 likes
Open item
The best Milky Way map, by Gaia (artist impression)

About Gaia