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
Gaia mapping the stars of the Milky Way
Enabling & Support

Double trouble: Gaia hit by micrometeoroid and solar storm

17/07/2024 25032 views 183 likes
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Science & Exploration

Scientists spot hidden companions of bright stars

20/06/2024 3838 views 16 likes
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Science & Exploration

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

06/06/2024 10499 views 51 likes
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Science & Exploration

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

22/04/2024 3709 views 19 likes
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Science & Exploration

Sleeping giant surprises Gaia scientists

16/04/2024 35831 views 70 likes
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Science & Exploration

Gaia unravels the ancient threads of the Milky Way

21/03/2024 16525 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 17953 views 131 likes
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Science & Exploration

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

10/10/2023 26127 views 96 likes
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Science & Exploration

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

13/04/2023 10322 views 139 likes
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Science & Exploration

Gaia discovers a new family of black holes

30/03/2023 42971 views 174 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 16540 views 242 likes
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Setup for occultation observation
Enabling & Support

Shadow hunters capture Didymos asteroid eclipsing stars

20/10/2022 4850 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 37695 views 195 likes
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Science & Exploration

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

13/06/2022 82935 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 7638 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 7623 views 121 likes
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Science & Exploration

Gaia data release 3 media kit

31/05/2022 18399 views 61 likes
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Science & Exploration

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

31/05/2022 3209 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 25118 views 136 likes
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Gaia snaps photo of Webb
Science & Exploration

Gaia snaps photo of Webb at L2

16/03/2022 32904 views 141 likes
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Science & Exploration

Gaia reveals that most Milky Way companion galaxies are new…

24/11/2021 14988 views 169 likes
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Science & Exploration

Is the nearest star cluster to the Sun being destroyed?

24/03/2021 18847 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 123270 views 400 likes
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Science & Exploration

Five fascinating Gaia revelations about the Milky Way

21/09/2020 16333 views 130 likes
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Gaia mapping the stars of the Milky Way
Space Safety

Gaia revolutionises asteroid tracking

01/07/2020 7427 views 88 likes
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Science & Exploration

Galactic crash may have triggered Solar System formation

25/05/2020 30014 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 22613 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 5676 views 36 likes
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Science & Exploration

Gaia untangles the starry strings of the Milky Way

28/08/2019 11552 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 10824 views 125 likes
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Science & Exploration

Gaia starts mapping our galaxy’s bar

16/07/2019 9396 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 10796 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 7272 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 28528 views 177 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 14575 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 28365 views 191 likes
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Sprinting stars in the Milky Way
Science & Exploration

Gaia spots stars flying between galaxies

02/10/2018 21330 views 187 likes
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Artist impression of ‘Oumuamua
Science & Exploration

Gaia finds candidates for interstellar ‘Oumuamua’s home

25/09/2018 10658 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 25809 views 200 likes
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Beta Pictoris system
Science & Exploration

Infant exoplanet weighed by Hipparcos and Gaia

20/08/2018 8804 views 132 likes
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Gaia’s sky in colour
Science & Exploration

Gaia creates richest star map of our Galaxy – and beyond

25/04/2018 479923 views 542 likes
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How many stars will there be in the second Gaia data release?
Science & Exploration

Call for media: Second data release from ESA's Gaia mission

19/04/2018 5187 views 28 likes
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Science & Exploration

Close encounters of the stellar kind

31/08/2017 17412 views 113 likes
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Stars speeding through the Galaxy
Science & Exploration

Artificial brain helps Gaia catch speeding stars

26/06/2017 9262 views 83 likes
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Science & Exploration

The future of the Orion constellation

09/06/2017 38327 views 181 likes
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Gaia’s first sky map
Science & Exploration

Gaia’s billion-star map hints at treasures to come

14/09/2016 163766 views 399 likes
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Science & Exploration

Watch Gaia first data release media briefing

12/09/2016 22957 views 147 likes
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Gaia mapping the stars of the Milky Way
Science & Exploration

Call for media: First data release from ESA's Gaia mission

01/09/2016 3543 views 35 likes
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Rosetta comet seen by Gaia
Science & Exploration

Celebrity comet spotted among Gaia’s stars

03/11/2015 5867 views 70 likes
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Stellar density map
Science & Exploration

Gaia's first year of scientific observations

25/08/2015 18732 views 156 likes
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