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
Edge-on view of our galaxy's great wave
Science & Exploration

Gaia discovers our galaxy’s great wave

30/09/2025 17284 views 146 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 28496 views 88 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 8187 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 5843 views 61 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 7244 views 78 likes
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Science & Exploration

Hubble investigates a magnetar’s birthplace

15/04/2025 2154 views 17 likes
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Gaia observes the Milky Way
Enabling & Support

Farewell, Gaia! Spacecraft operations come to an end

27/03/2025 44980 views 141 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 10626 views 59 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 25635 views 76 likes
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Science & Exploration

Gaia spots possible moons around hundreds of asteroids

08/08/2024 8675 views 64 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 24680 views 182 likes
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Science & Exploration

Scientists spot hidden companions of bright stars

20/06/2024 3679 views 16 likes
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Science & Exploration

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

06/06/2024 9789 views 48 likes
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Science & Exploration

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

22/04/2024 3435 views 18 likes
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Science & Exploration

Sleeping giant surprises Gaia scientists

16/04/2024 34866 views 69 likes
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Science & Exploration

Gaia unravels the ancient threads of the Milky Way

21/03/2024 16001 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 17258 views 131 likes
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Science & Exploration

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

10/10/2023 25758 views 96 likes
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Science & Exploration

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

13/04/2023 10171 views 139 likes
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Science & Exploration

Gaia discovers a new family of black holes

30/03/2023 41776 views 172 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 16275 views 242 likes
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Setup for occultation observation
Enabling & Support

Shadow hunters capture Didymos asteroid eclipsing stars

20/10/2022 4764 views 80 likes
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The Sun's future
Science & Exploration

Gaia reveals the past and future of the Sun

11/08/2022 36753 views 193 likes
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Science & Exploration

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

13/06/2022 82462 views 177 likes
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Gaia observes the Milky Way
Science & Exploration

Watch live: first impressions of Gaia data release 3

10/06/2022 7563 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 7399 views 121 likes
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Science & Exploration

Gaia data release 3 media kit

31/05/2022 17655 views 59 likes
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Science & Exploration

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

31/05/2022 3154 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 24163 views 136 likes
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Gaia snaps photo of Webb
Science & Exploration

Gaia snaps photo of Webb at L2

16/03/2022 32352 views 140 likes
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Science & Exploration

Gaia reveals that most Milky Way companion galaxies are new…

24/11/2021 14096 views 169 likes
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Science & Exploration

Is the nearest star cluster to the Sun being destroyed?

24/03/2021 18701 views 123 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 122925 views 400 likes
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Science & Exploration

Five fascinating Gaia revelations about the Milky Way

21/09/2020 15656 views 128 likes
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Gaia mapping the stars of the Milky Way
Space Safety

Gaia revolutionises asteroid tracking

01/07/2020 7083 views 88 likes
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Science & Exploration

Galactic crash may have triggered Solar System formation

25/05/2020 29337 views 151 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 22017 views 121 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 5617 views 36 likes
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Science & Exploration

Gaia untangles the starry strings of the Milky Way

28/08/2019 11178 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 10732 views 125 likes
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Science & Exploration

Gaia starts mapping our galaxy’s bar

16/07/2019 9304 views 101 likes
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Gaia mapping the stars of the Milky Way
Enabling & Support

Gaia’s biggest operation since launch

15/07/2019 10604 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 7180 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 28200 views 176 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 14171 views 161 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 27942 views 191 likes
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Sprinting stars in the Milky Way
Science & Exploration

Gaia spots stars flying between galaxies

02/10/2018 21158 views 187 likes
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Artist impression of ‘Oumuamua
Science & Exploration

Gaia finds candidates for interstellar ‘Oumuamua’s home

25/09/2018 10556 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 25613 views 200 likes
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Beta Pictoris system
Science & Exploration

Infant exoplanet weighed by Hipparcos and Gaia

20/08/2018 8731 views 132 likes
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