ESA - Space Science - Gaia overview

Space Science

About Space Science ESA's 'Cosmic Vision'Science & Technology in-depth

Multimedia

Science images Science videos Animations Downloads Sounds from space

Media centre

Press Releases Press kits ESA Television

Resources

Reference section Glossary FAQs

Science missions

Services

Help Legal disclaimer Comments Subscribe

RSS feeds

ESA Sci on Twitter

Mission Images

Gaia overview

Back to mission

Download:

HI-RES JPG (Size: 554 kb)

Back to mission

Download:

HI-RES JPG (Size: 312 kb)

HI-RES TIFF (Size: 8804 kb)

Credits: ESA, image by C.Carreau

Back to mission

Download:

HI-RES JPG (Size: 328 kb)

HI-RES TIFF (Size: 8804 kb)

Gaia, next ESA's astrometry mission, is equipped with a latest-generation scientific payload. It will also be equipped with two key spacecraft components. The first one is a deployable sun-shield, covering an area of one hundred square metres, to minimise the temperature fluctuations on the highly sensitive optics. The second is a new micro-propulsion system, to be used to smoothly control the spacecraft in order not to disturb the optics during the sky scanning.

Credits: ESA, image by C.Carreau

Back to mission

Download:

HI-RES JPG (Size: 340 kb)

HI-RES TIFF (Size: 8804 kb)

Credits: ESA, image by C.Carreau

Back to mission

Download:

HI-RES JPEG (Size: 352 kb)

HI-RES TIFF (Size: 8804 kb)

Gaia will be the most accurate optical astronomy satellite ever built so far. Due for launch in 2011, it will continuously scan the sky for at least five years from a point in space known as the second Lagrangian point (or L2), located at about 1.6 million kilometres away from the Earth, in the direction opposite to the Sun.

Gaia’s goal is to perform the largest census of our Galaxy and build a highly accurate 3D map. The satellite will determine the position, colour and true motion of one thousand million stars. Gaia will also identify as many as 10 000 planets around other stars, and discover several tens of thousands of new bodies - comets and asteroids - in our own Solar System.

Credits: ESA - C. Carreau

Back to mission

Download:

HI-RES JPG (Size: 58 kb)

Artist's impression of the Gaia spacecraft. Several components are made transparent to reveal other sections. The payload module with the ~3m diameter hexagonal optical bench is depicted in blue. It rests on the electrical service module, which is the 12-sided yellow structure in the lower half of the image. The electrical service module houses the two star trackers (bright yellow at lower right), the communication subsystem, central computer and data handling subsystem, and the power subsystem (all in purple). In the centre of the electrical service module are the bipropellant tanks, micropropulsion tanks and pressurant tank (all in orange). Resting on top of the electrical service module and covering the payload module is the thermal tent, depicted here transparent in light brown. On the flat top of the thermal tent is the low gain antenna (purple). The unfolded sunshield is the transparent grey platform in the lower part of the image. Attached to the outside of the flat and uniform deployable sunshield are 6 solar panels, which can also be seen in this view.

Credits: ESA/AOES Medialab

Mission

Back to mission

Download:

HI-RES JPEG (Size: 668 kb)

HI-RES TIFF (Size: 668 kb)

Credits: Medialab

Last update: 24 October 2011

More about...

Gaia factsheet

Why are things in space the shape that they are?How many stars are there in the Universe?Keeping ESA’s ‘lady of space’ cool The billion-pixel camera Mapping the Galaxy, and watching our backyard