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): expected December 2026
    Data Release 5 (based on all mission data): not before the end of 2030
  • Previous data releases:
    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 sees stellar nurseries (animation still)
Science & Exploration

Fly through Gaia’s 3D map of stellar nurseries

16/09/2025 17393 views 68 likes
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Stellar families in Gaia’s sky
Science & Exploration

Gaia proves our skies are filled with chains of starry gath…

26/08/2025 6748 views 51 likes
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Milky Way and Andromeda encounters
Science & Exploration

Hubble and Gaia revisit fate of our galaxy

02/06/2025 5032 views 59 likes
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Gaia spots odd star family
Science & Exploration

Gaia spots odd family of stars desperate to leave home

29/04/2025 5508 views 77 likes
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Science & Exploration

Hubble investigates a magnetar’s birthplace

15/04/2025 1931 views 17 likes
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More items

  • Science & Exploration

    Anatomy of the Milky Way

    09/09/2025 36979 views 185 likes
    Open item
    Anatomy of the Milky Way
  • Science & Exploration

    Interactive map of the sky from Gaia’s Early Data Release 3

    19/12/2023 21333 views 301 likes
    Open item
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About Gaia