The second data release of ESA’s Gaia satellite, based on the observation of nearly 1.7 billion stars, was published on 25 April 2018 during a media briefing at the ILA Berlin Air and Space Show in Germany. 
Anthony Brown of Leiden University, chair of the Gaia Data Processing and Analysis Consortium Executive, explains the content of this unprecedented dataset, including positions, distance indicators and motions of more than one billion stars, along with high-precision measurements of other celestial objects in the Solar System and beyond our Galaxy. Gaia’s extraordinary data will greatly advance our understanding of stars in the Milky Way, and how the Galaxy formed and evolves.