Image: Gaia Mission (Some rights reserved)
Launched in 2013 and retired in 2025 to chart the sky to unprecedented accuracy, the Gaia spacecraft obtained more than three trillion individual observations. Observing each star repeatedly, Gaia measured its parallax – the apparent motion on the sky which is really caused by Earth (or in this case the satellite) orbiting the Sun every year.
Key Links
sci.esa.int/gaia
cosmos.esa.int
observe-gaia
Headlines
European Gaia satellite is retired but proves tough to kill – The Register
ESA – Gaia’s new data takes us to the Milky Way’s anticentre and beyond
Gaia’s 2nd data release: 1.7 billion stars! – EarthSky
Elsewhere
gaia.ac.uk
Videos
youtube.com/ESA
Planeta.com