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
Science & Exploration

Hubble & Gaia solve our galaxy's merger mystery

17/08/2026 2773 views 32 likes
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Edge-on view of our galaxy's great wave
Science & Exploration

Gaia discovers our galaxy’s great wave

30/09/2025 23420 views 172 likes
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Gaia sees stellar nurseries (animation still)
Science & Exploration

Fly through Gaia’s 3D map of stellar nurseries

16/09/2025 46440 views 109 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 10679 views 53 likes
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Milky Way and Andromeda encounters
Science & Exploration

Hubble and Gaia revisit fate of our galaxy

02/06/2025 9982 views 65 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 9499 views 81 likes
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Science & Exploration

Hubble investigates a magnetar’s birthplace

15/04/2025 2946 views 19 likes
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Gaia observes the Milky Way
Enabling & Support

Farewell, Gaia! Spacecraft operations come to an end

27/03/2025 47673 views 144 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 12257 views 60 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 28956 views 78 likes
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Science & Exploration

Gaia spots possible moons around hundreds of asteroids

08/08/2024 9649 views 66 likes
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Gaia mapping the stars of the Milky Way
Enabling & Support

Double trouble: Gaia hit by micrometeoroid and solar storm

17/07/2024 25938 views 185 likes
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Science & Exploration

Scientists spot hidden companions of bright stars

20/06/2024 4326 views 17 likes
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Science & Exploration

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

06/06/2024 11534 views 54 likes
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Science & Exploration

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

22/04/2024 4495 views 19 likes
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Science & Exploration

Sleeping giant surprises Gaia scientists

16/04/2024 37491 views 70 likes
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Science & Exploration

Gaia unravels the ancient threads of the Milky Way

21/03/2024 17550 views 60 likes
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Gaia observes the Milky Way
Science & Exploration

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

19/12/2023 19913 views 135 likes
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Science & Exploration

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

10/10/2023 26869 views 96 likes
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Science & Exploration

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

13/04/2023 10647 views 140 likes
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Science & Exploration

Gaia discovers a new family of black holes

30/03/2023 46354 views 175 likes
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Gaia mapping the stars of the Milky Way
Enabling & Support

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

21/03/2023 17030 views 246 likes
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Setup for occultation observation
Enabling & Support

Shadow hunters capture Didymos asteroid eclipsing stars

20/10/2022 5156 views 82 likes
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The Sun's future
Science & Exploration

Gaia reveals the past and future of the Sun

11/08/2022 39520 views 196 likes
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Science & Exploration

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

13/06/2022 84356 views 178 likes
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Gaia observes the Milky Way
Science & Exploration

Watch live: first impressions of Gaia data release 3

10/06/2022 7784 views 104 likes
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New evidence of watery plumes on Jupiter’s moon Europa
Science & Exploration

Jupiter’s moon Europa to obscure distant star

07/06/2022 8013 views 121 likes
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Science & Exploration

Gaia data release 3 media kit

31/05/2022 18975 views 64 likes
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Science & Exploration

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

31/05/2022 3421 views 61 likes
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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 26889 views 138 likes
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Gaia snaps photo of Webb
Science & Exploration

Gaia snaps photo of Webb at L2

16/03/2022 33850 views 141 likes
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Science & Exploration

Gaia reveals that most Milky Way companion galaxies are new…

24/11/2021 16111 views 171 likes
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Science & Exploration

Is the nearest star cluster to the Sun being destroyed?

24/03/2021 19307 views 124 likes
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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 124002 views 401 likes
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Science & Exploration

Five fascinating Gaia revelations about the Milky Way

21/09/2020 18079 views 132 likes
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Gaia mapping the stars of the Milky Way
Space Safety

Gaia revolutionises asteroid tracking

01/07/2020 8031 views 89 likes
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Science & Exploration

Galactic crash may have triggered Solar System formation

25/05/2020 31679 views 156 likes
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The warped disc of our galaxy, the Milky Way.
Science & Exploration

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

02/03/2020 23915 views 122 likes
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Stellar pair discovered in Gaia16aye microlensing event
Science & Exploration

Global Gaia campaign reveals secrets of stellar pair

21/01/2020 5978 views 36 likes
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Science & Exploration

Gaia untangles the starry strings of the Milky Way

28/08/2019 12353 views 128 likes
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Jupiter's largest moons
Science & Exploration

Astronomers spy Europa blocking distant star – thanks to Ga…

25/07/2019 11207 views 125 likes
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Science & Exploration

Gaia starts mapping our galaxy’s bar

16/07/2019 9759 views 102 likes
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Gaia mapping the stars of the Milky Way
Enabling & Support

Gaia’s biggest operation since launch

15/07/2019 11181 views 145 likes
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Pinpointing Gaia from Earth
Science & Exploration

Observing Gaia from Earth to improve its star maps

02/05/2019 7606 views 88 likes
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Future motions of the Milky Way, Andromeda and Triangulum galaxies
Science & Exploration

Gaia clocks new speeds for Milky Way-Andromeda collision

07/02/2019 29433 views 179 likes
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Artist’s impression of crystallisation in white dwarf
Science & Exploration

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

09/01/2019 15398 views 162 likes
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A major event in the formation of the Milky Way
Science & Exploration

Galactic ghosts: Gaia uncovers major event in the formation…

31/10/2018 30521 views 191 likes
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Sprinting stars in the Milky Way
Science & Exploration

Gaia spots stars flying between galaxies

02/10/2018 21792 views 188 likes
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Artist impression of ‘Oumuamua
Science & Exploration

Gaia finds candidates for interstellar ‘Oumuamua’s home

25/09/2018 11087 views 113 likes
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Perturbations in the Milky Way
Science & Exploration

Gaia hints at our Galaxy’s turbulent life

19/09/2018 26351 views 200 likes
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