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Tag: gaia

  • The most accurate 3D map of stellar nurseries in the Milky Way

    The most accurate 3D map of stellar nurseries in the Milky Way

    Scientists created the most accurate three-dimensional map of star-formation regions in our Milky Way galaxy, based on data from the European Space Agency’s Gaia space telescope. This map will teach us more about these obscure cloudy areas, and the hot young stars that shape them.

    It is notoriously difficult to map and study regions in space where stars form because they are usually hidden from view by thick clouds of gas and dust, whose distances cannot be directly measured.

    Gaia can’t see these clouds directly, but it can measure stellar positions and the so-called ‘extinction’ of stars. This means it can see how much light from stars is blocked by dust. From this, scientists can create 3D maps showing where the dust is, and use those maps to figure out how much ionised hydrogen gas is present – a telltale sign of star formation.

    The new 3D map of star-forming regions in the Milky Way is based on Gaia observations of 44 million ‘ordinary’ stars and 87 O-type stars. The map extends to a distance of 4000 light-years from us, with the Sun at the centre.

    Read more: https://www.esa.int/Science_Exploration/Space_Science/Gaia/Fly_through_Gaia_s_3D_map_of_stellar_nurseries

    Credit: European Space Agency (ESA)
    Animation: ESA/Gaia/DPAC, S. Payne-Wardenaar, L. McCallum et al (2025), CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO
    Music:
    My Story – Echoes Of The Heart

    Access the video on the ESA video library: https://www.esa.int/ESA_Multimedia/Videos/2025/09/The_most_accurate_3D_map_of_stellar_nurseries_in_the_Milky_Way

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  • Gaia: Rewriting the story of the Milky Way

    Gaia: Rewriting the story of the Milky Way

    For over a decade, ESA’s Gaia mission has mapped our galaxy with stunning precision—rewriting the story of the Milky Way. As its mission enters a new phase, we look back at its most groundbreaking discoveries.

    Credit: ESA – European Space Agency

    Chapters:
    00:23 – Mapping the Milky Way and beyond
    00:58 – Structure of the Milky Way
    01:40 – Galactic family tree
    02:27 – Mapping star-forming regions
    03:00 – Ancient star streams
    03:19 – Cosmic encounters
    04:07 – Black holes and hidden giants

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  • Gaia leaves for retirement orbit

    Gaia leaves for retirement orbit

    From 25 July 2014 to 15 January 2025, the Gaia space observatory performed high-precision measurements of nearly two billion stars from its Lissajous orbit around the L2 Lagrange point, 1.5 million km from Earth.

    After 10.5 years of groundbreaking observations, Gaia’s cold gas supply for attitude control has been depleted. On 27 March 2025, Gaia will leave its Lissajous orbit and transition into a stable heliocentric orbit. Soon after, the spacecraft will be passivated, with its instruments and transmitters switched off.

    While Gaia will no longer collect new data, its scientific mission is far from over! The team continues working on Gaia Data Release 4 (expected 2026) and the final legacy catalogue (to be published not before the end of 2030), ensuring that Gaia’s discoveries will shape astronomy for decades to come.

    This video visualises how Gaia leaves its Lissajous orbit and enters its final heliocentric orbit.

    This video was made with Gaia Sky (https://gaiasky.space) by Tiago Nogueira, Toni Sagristà, and Stefan Jordan.

    Text: Stefan Jordan, Tiago Nogueira, Tineke Roegiers

    The creators would like to thank Alessandro Masat and Ander Martinez from ESA for providing Gaia’s orbit and attitude data.

    Credit: ESA/Gaia/DPAC, CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO

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  • Gaia just made an unexpected discovery 🪐

    Gaia just made an unexpected discovery 🪐

    Using data from the European Space Agency’s Gaia mission, scientists have found a huge exoplanet and a brown dwarf. This is the first time a planet has been uniquely discovered by Gaia’s ability to sense the gravitational tug or ‘wobble’ the planet induces on a star. Both the planet and brown dwarf are orbiting low-mass stars, a scenario thought to be extremely rare.

    📹 ESA – European Space Agency
    📸 ESA/Gaia/DPAC/M. Marcussen

    #ESA #Gaia #SpaceDiscovery

  • Gaia turns 10! 🚀 🎂

    Gaia turns 10! 🚀 🎂

    Ten years ago, on 19 December 2013, our billion star-mapping satellite Gaia launched.

    Since then, Gaia has been scanning the sky and gathering an enormous amount of data on the positions and motions of 1.8 billion stars, enabling discoveries about the history of our galaxy.

    Gaia is creating an extraordinarily precise three-dimensional map of more than a billion stars throughout our Milky Way galaxy and beyond, mapping their motions, luminosity, temperature and composition.

    This huge stellar census will provide the data needed to tackle an enormous range of important questions related to the origin, structure and evolutionary history of our galaxy.

    Gaia’s catalogue is ever-growing containing data on stars and other cosmic objects such as galaxies, exoplanets, and binary stars. Here’s to more discoveries!

    📹 ESA – European Space Agency

    #ESA #GaiaMission #SpaceExploration #Shorts

  • 500,000+ new stars and more! ✨ #shorts

    500,000+ new stars and more! ✨ #shorts

    Today, our Gaia mission releases a goldmine of knowledge about our galaxy and beyond. Among other findings, the star surveyor surpasses its planned potential to reveal half a million new and faint stars in a massive cluster, identify over 380 possible cosmic lenses, and pinpoint the positions of more than 150 000 asteroids within the Solar System.

    📹 @europeanspaceagency

    #ESA
    #GaiaMission
    #SpaceExploration

  • Webb and Gaia welcome Euclid to L2

    Webb and Gaia welcome Euclid to L2

    In the month after its launch on 1 July, Euclid has travelled 1.5 million kilometres from Earth towards the Sun-Earth Lagrange point L2, meaning it has ‘arrived’ at its destination orbit.

    This animation showcases the orbits of Euclid (green), the James Webb Space Telescope (blue), and the Gaia mission (yellow) around this unique position in space. The positions of the spacecraft in this animation don’t correspond to their current positions in space.

    Located about 1.5 million kilometres from Earth in the opposite direction from the Sun, L2 is about four times further away than our Moon. Several other space missions like Webb and Gaia also orbit L2 as it offers the perfect vantage point to study the Universe.

    At L2, the spacecraft can keep the Sun, Earth and Moon behind them at all times, so they don’t interfere with observations, while at the same time getting a clear view of deep space and pointing an antenna back to Earth to remain in close communication.

    Euclid and Webb’s halo orbit around L2 is big. In terms of distance, the ‘radius’ of Euclid’s orbit varies from about 400 000 kilometres at its closest to the centre, and up to 800 000 kilometres at its furthest. By the time Euclid has completed one full revolution around L2, the Moon will have circled the Earth six times. Gaia orbits L2 in a Lissajous orbit, with a maximum distance of around 350 000 km from its centre.

    The region around L2 is big and even though the orbits of these spacecraft seem to cross in the animation, in reality there is plenty of space and a collision can be easily avoided. For example, Webb and Gaia are between 400 000 and 1 100 000 km apart, depending on where they are in their respective orbits.

    Video credit: ESA/Gaia/DPAC; CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO

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  • Have we detected the first medium-sized #BlackHole? 🤔 #shorts

    Have we detected the first medium-sized #BlackHole? 🤔 #shorts

    Our #Gaia spacecraft has captured a huge dark blob, 800 times more massive than our Sun which seems to be squeezed into a surprisingly small volume of space suggesting it could be an intermediate-mass black hole.

    Read more 👉 https://www.esa.int/ESA_Multimedia/Videos/2023/05/Has_Gaia_found_missing_link_in_black_hole_evolution/

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    #ESA
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    #Blackhole

  • We discovered a unique #BlackHole 🕳️🕳️ #shorts

    We discovered a unique #BlackHole 🕳️🕳️ #shorts

    Using data from our Gaia mission, astronomers have discovered not only the closest but also the second closest black hole to Earth. The black holes, Gaia BH1 and Gaia BH2, are respectively located just 1560 light-years away from us in the direction of the constellation Ophiuchus and 3800 light-years away in the constellation Centaurus. In galactic terms, these black holes reside in our cosmic backyard.

    The two black holes were discovered by studying the movement of their companion stars. A strange ‘wobble’ in the movement of the stars on the sky indicated that they are orbiting a very massive object. In both cases, the objects are approximately ten times more massive than our Sun. Other explanations for these massive companions, like double-star systems, were ruled out since they do not seem to emit any light.

    📹 @EuropeanSpaceAgency
    📸 ESA/Gaia/DPAC; Creative commons CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO

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    We are Europe’s gateway to space. Our mission is to shape the development of Europe’s space capability and ensure that investment in space continues to deliver benefits to the citizens of Europe and the world. Check out https://www.esa.int/ to get up to speed on everything space related.

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    #ESA
    #GAIA
    #BlackHoles

  • Gaia discovers a unique black hole

    Gaia discovers a unique black hole

    ESA’s Gaia mission has helped discover a new kind of black hole. The new family already has two members, and both are closer to Earth than any other black hole that we know of.

    The two black holes were discovered by studying ultra-precise measurements of stellar positions and motions in Gaia’s third data release.

    A strange ‘wobble’ in the movement of two stars on the sky indicated that they are orbiting a very massive object. In both cases, the objects are approximately ten times more massive than our Sun. Other explanations for these massive companions, like double-star systems, were ruled out since they do not seem to emit any light.

    Gaia’s second black hole, BH2, is located 3800 light-years away from Earth. It is a binary system consisting of a red giant star and likely a black hole.

    In this animation of Gaia BH2, created in Gaia Sky, the orbits are accurately sized, but the back hole diameter is not to scale.

    Credit: ESA/Gaia/DPAC

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    #ESA
    #Earth
    #EarthObservation

  • Did you know the Centaur population? 🪨 #shorts

    Did you know the Centaur population? 🪨 #shorts

    Chariklo is an icy, small body, but the largest of the known Centaur population, located more than 3.2 billion kilometres away beyond the orbit of Saturn. Chariklo is only 250 kilometers or ~51 times smaller than Earth in diameter, and its rings orbit at a distance of about 400 kilometers from the center of the body.

    On 18 October 2022, a team used the James Webb Space Telescipe to closely monitor the star Gaia DR3 6873519665992128512, and watch for the tell-tale dips in brightness indicating an occultation had taken place. The shadows produced by Chariklo’s rings were clearly detected, demonstrating a new way of using Webb to explore solar system objects. The star shadow due to Chariklo itself tracked just out of Webb’s view. This appulse (the technical name for a close pass with no occultation) was exactly as had been predicted after the last Webb course trajectory maneuver.

    Credit: @NASA, ESA, CSA, Leah Hustak (STScI), Pablo Santos-Sanz (IAA-CSIC), Nicolás Morales (IAA-CSIC), Bruno Morgado (UFRJ, ON/MCTI, LIneA)

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    #ESA
    #Webb
    #Space

  • An asteroid the size of the Colosseum! ☄️ #shorts

    An asteroid the size of the Colosseum! ☄️ #shorts

    The Webb observations which revealed this small asteroid were not originally designed to hunt for new asteroids — in fact, they were calibration images of the main-belt asteroid (10920) 1998 BC1, which astronomers discovered in 1998, but the calibration team considered them to have failed for technical reasons due to the brightness of the target and an offset telescope pointing. Despite this, the data on asteroid 10920 were used by the team to establish and test a new technique to constrain an object’s orbit and to estimate its size. The validity of the method was demonstrated for asteroid 10920 using Webb observations combined with data from ground-based telescopes and ESA’s Gaia mission.

    In the course of the analysis of Webb’s data, the team found the smaller and previously unknown interloper in the same field of view. The team’s results suggest the object measures 100–200 meters, occupies a very low-inclination orbit, and was located in the inner main-belt region at the time of the Webb observations.

    Learn more: https://www.esa.int/Science_Exploration/Space_Science/Webb/Webb_detects_extremely_small_main-belt_asteroid

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    #Webb
    #AsteroidBelt

  • Our 2022 highlights 🗓️ #shorts

    Our 2022 highlights 🗓️ #shorts

    2022 was a year of many ‘firsts’ for space in Europe, seeing the first European female International Space Station commander, the launch of the first Vega-C rocket, the launch of the first Artemis mission working to bring humans back to the Moon, and first images from the James Webb Space Telescope among many other success stories and lessons learned.

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    #ESA
    #YearInReview
    #2022Highlights

  • ESA Highlights 2022

    ESA Highlights 2022

    2022 was a year of many ‘firsts’ for space in Europe, seeing the first European female ISS commander, the launch of the first Vega-C rocket, Solar Orbiter’s first close encounter with our home star, the launch of the first Artemis mission working to bring humans back to the Moon, and first images from the James Webb Space Telescope.

    Let’s take a look at the highlights and accomplishments of the European Space Agency during 2022.

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    #ESA
    #Highlights
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  • Starquakes are a thing and our Gaia mission has seen them #shorts

    Starquakes are a thing and our Gaia mission has seen them #shorts

    One of the surprising discoveries coming out of Gaia data release 3, is that Gaia is able to detect starquakes – tiny motions on the surface of a star – that change the shapes of stars, something the observatory was not originally built for.

    Previously, Gaia already found radial oscillations that cause stars to swell and shrink periodically, while keeping their spherical shape. But Gaia has now also spotted other vibrations that are more like large-scale tsunamis. These nonradial oscillations change the global shape of a star and are therefore harder to detect.

    Nonradial oscillation modes cause a star’s surface to move while it rotates, as shown in the animation. Dark patches are slightly cooler than bright patches, giving rise to periodic changes in the brightness of the star. The frequency of the rotating and pulsating stars was increased 8.6 million times to shift them into the audible range of humans.

    Learn more: https://bit.ly/GaiaDR3

    Credit: ESA/Gaia/DPAC, CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO.
    Acknowledgement: Animation and sonification were created by: Dr. Joey Mombarg, KU Leuven, Belgium. Based on information from Gaia Data Release 3: Pulsations in main-sequence OBAF stars as observed by Gaia by the Gaia Collaboration, De Ridder et al., 2022, submitted to A&A. Van Reeth et al. 2015, ApJS 218, id.2, 32 pp. Mombarg et al. 2021, A&A 650, id.A58, 23 pp.

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    #ESA
    #GaiaDR3
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  • Gaia data release 3: exploring our multi-dimensional Milky Way

    Gaia data release 3: exploring our multi-dimensional Milky Way

    Since its launch in 2013 ESA’s Gaia observatory has been mapping our galaxy from Lagrange point 2, creating the most accurate and complete multi-dimensional map of the Milky Way. By now two full sets of data have been released, the first set in 2016 and a second one in 2018. These data releases contained stellar positions, distances, motions across the sky, and colour information, among others. Now on 13 June 2022 a third and new full data set will be released. This data release will contain even more and improved information about almost 2 billion stars, Solar System objects and extragalactic sources. It also includes radial velocities for 33 million stars, a five-time increase compared to data release 2. Another novelty in this data set is the largest catalogue yet of binary stars in the Milky Way, which is crucial to understand stellar evolution.

    Learn more: https://bit.ly/GaiaDR3

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    #ESA
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  • ESA preview 2022

    ESA preview 2022

    As always, a new year brings new and exciting missions and launches for ESA. In science the world looks forward to the first image releases of the recently launched James Webb Space Telescope and the third data release for Gaia, both teaching us more about our galaxy and Universe. ESA’s new Mars rover will be launched with the ExoMars mission, and we will also see the maiden flights of Vega-C, Ariane 6 and the Artemis I flight. Astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti will return to the ISS for her second mission and a new class of astronauts will be presented to the world. After the groundwork has been laid in 2021 a new Ministerial Council Meeting will gather to look at the future of ESA, and the need for ESA and Europe to accelerate space and integrated space technology into the fabric of our lives.

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    We are Europe’s gateway to space. Our mission is to shape the development of Europe’s space capability and ensure that investment in space continues to deliver benefits to the citizens of Europe and the world. Check out https://www.esa.int/ to get up to speed on everything space related.

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  • ESA highlights 2020

    ESA highlights 2020

    2020 has been another year of progress for ESA. The launch and commissioning of Solar Orbiter heralded a new era of space science, whilst Eutelsat Konnect revolutionised telecommunications. The new Vega SSMS began a cost-effective new launch system for small satellites, deploying exciting new technologies such as PhiSat and ESAIL. ESA’s Earth Observation activities were also showcased, with the launch of Sentinel-6 and an international effort to monitor the environmental and economic impact of COVID-19. Gaia and Cheops yielded new findings about our universe; ESA astronaut Luca Parmitano returned successfully from orbit. With a lunar programme agreement signed and new steps being taken to control debris, ESA is set to begin 2021 at the forefront of space exploration.

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    We are Europe’s gateway to space. Our mission is to shape the development of Europe’s space capability and ensure that investment in space continues to deliver benefits to the citizens of Europe and the world. Check out https://www.esa.int/ to get up to speed on everything space related.

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  • ESA highlights 2019

    ESA highlights 2019

    As the year comes to a close, it is once again time to look back and reflect on some of the achievements and highlights of European spaceflight. The new Gaia star catalogue and the launch of Cheops are keeping ESA at the forefront of space science, as will Solar Orbiter, being prepared for launch next year. The Copernicus programme continues to be the largest Earth observation programme in the world, with ESA preparing even more missions. On the Space Station, Luca Parmitano became the third European to command an ISS expedition. During his second mission, he made some of the space programme’s most complex and demanding spacewalks. At the end of 2019, the ESA Space19+ ministerial conference agreed to give ESA its largest budget ever and expressed continued support for Europe’s independent access to space with Ariane 6 and Vega-C.

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    We are Europe’s gateway to space. Our mission is to shape the development of Europe’s space capability and ensure that investment in space continues to deliver benefits to the citizens of Europe and the world. Check out http://www.esa.int/ESA to get up to speed on everything space related.

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  • Gaia astronomical revolution

    Gaia astronomical revolution

    Launched in December 2013, the Gaia mission is revolutionising our understanding of the Milky Way. The space telescope is mapping our galaxy in unprecedented detail – measuring the position, movement and distance of stars.

    At a meeting in Groningen in the Netherlands, scientists have been discussing the challenge of processing and visualising Gaia data.

    Learn more about the Gaia mission: https://www.esa.int/Science_Exploration/Space_Science/Gaia

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    We are Europe’s gateway to space. Our mission is to shape the development of Europe’s space capability and ensure that investment in space continues to deliver benefits to the citizens of Europe and the world. Check out http://www.esa.int/ESA to get up to speed on everything space related.

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  • Science at ESA

    Science at ESA

    Science is the underpinning theme of ESA, driving the spiral of inspiration, innovation, infor­mation exchange and interaction with our stakeholders. In this video, Günther Hasinger, ESA Director of Science, reflects on the growth of ESA’s space science programme over the past decades, as well as on its current and future challenges. He also highlights the importance of long-term strategic planning and international cooperation in these endeavours, and finally looks back at some recent successes of ESA’s space science missions.

    Learn more about ESA’s space science missions: http://www.esa.int/science

    Science is everywhere at ESA. As well as exploring the Universe and answering the big questions about our place in space we develop the satellites, rockets and technologies to get there. Science also helps us to care for our home planet. All this week we’re highlighting different aspects of science at ESA. Join the conversation with #ScienceAtESA.

    Credits: ESA/NASA/JPL/University of Arizona (Huygens landing); ESA/Rosetta/Philae/ROLIS/DLR, Stefano Mottola (Philae landing); ESA/Planck Collaboration (cosmic microwave background); ESA/Gaia/DPAC (Milky Way); MPG/ESO (Eagle Nebula, visible); ESA/Herschel/PACS/SPIRE/Hill, Motte, HOBYS Key Programme Consortium (Eagle Nebula, far-infrared); ESA/XMM-Newton/EPIC/XMM-Newton-SOC/Boulanger (Eagle Nebula, X-rays); NASA, ESA/Hubble and the Hubble Heritage Team (Pillars of Creation); ESO (Pillars of Creation, ground-based view); Koppelman, Villalobos & Helmi, Kapteyn Astronomical Institute, University of Groningen (Milky Way simulation); ESA/XMM-Newton/F. Nicastro et al./R. Cen (warm-hot intergalactic medium); ESA/DLR/FU Berlin, CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO (Mars surface); ESA/NASA/JPL/ASI/Univ. Rome (Mars, liquid water under south pole); NASA/JPL-Caltech (Mars view); ESO, M. Kornmesser, L. Calcada (`Oumuamua animation)

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    ESA is Europe’s gateway to space. Our mission is to shape the development of Europe’s space capability and ensure that investment in space continues to deliver benefits to the citizens of Europe and the world. Check out http://www.esa.int/ESA to get up to speed on everything space related.

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  • The Universe of Gaia

    The Universe of Gaia

    Launched in December 2013, ESA’s Gaia satellite has been scanning the sky to perform the most precise stellar census of our Milky Way galaxy, observing more than one billion stars and measuring their positions, distances and motions to unprecedented accuracy.

    The second Gaia data release, published in April, has provided scientists with extraordinary data to investigate the formation and evolution of stars in the Galaxy and beyond, giving rise to hundreds of scientific studies that are revolutionising our view of the cosmos.

    More info: http://bit.ly/GaiaScience

    Credits: ESA / CNES / Arianespace; ESA / Gaia / DPAC; Gaia Sky / S. Jordan / T. Sagristà; Koppelman, Villalobos and Helmi;
    Marchetti et al. 2018; NASA / ESA / Hubble; ESO, M. Kornmesser, L. Calçada

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    ESA is Europe’s gateway to space. Our mission is to shape the development of Europe’s space capability and ensure that investment in space continues to deliver benefits to the citizens of Europe and the world. Check out http://www.esa.int/ESA to get up to speed on everything space related.

    Copyright information about our videos is available here: http://www.esa.int/spaceinvideos/Terms_and_Conditions

  • ESA Euronews: Gaia’s revolution in astronomy

    ESA Euronews: Gaia’s revolution in astronomy

    Astronomy is undergoing a revolution with the release of precision data on 1.7 billion stars in our galaxy from the Gaia space telescope. We head to the historic Observatory of Paris and ESA’s ESTEC base in the Netherlands to find out more.

    It’s fair to say that science has been waiting for centuries, or even millennia for such a detailed survey of the Milky Way, and right now star-gazers are swamped with fresh, high-quality data that they can use to answer every question about the galaxy they ever wanted to ask.

    This video is also available in the following languages:
    German: https://youtu.be/I7EHdEnXGi4
    French: https://youtu.be/dJRPGaS3VB4
    Italian: https://youtu.be/hyOdUHRCDYA
    Spanish: https://youtu.be/BCP4xg6sGeY
    Portuguese: https://youtu.be/OeBMRQmojXc
    Greek: https://youtu.be/Ra0BOhFJ4NU
    Hungarian: https://youtu.be/-PYmrCk1iwM

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    Learn more: http://bit.ly/GaiaRickestStarMap

  • ESA Euronews: Revolução de Gaia na astronomia

    ESA Euronews: Revolução de Gaia na astronomia

    Nesta edição de “Space”, a partir do Observatório de Paris, vamos encontrar-nos com astrónomos que trabalham numa missão especial do telescópio Gaia, que tem vigiado mais de mil milhões de estrelas da nossa galáxia, tentando dar resposta a alguns dos mistérios da Via Láctea.

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    Saber mais: http://www.esa.int/por/ESA_in_your_country/Portugal/Gaia_cria_o_mapa_estelar_mais_completo_da_nossa_Galaxia_-_e_mais_alem

  • ESA Euronews: Die Revolution von Gaia

    ESA Euronews: Die Revolution von Gaia

    Astronomen haben mit Daten vom Weltraumteleskop Gaia eine Himmelskarte mit mehr als einer Milliarde Sternen erstellt – mehr als genug Material für Jahrzehnte der Forschung.

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    Mehr erfahren: http://www.esa.int/ger/ESA_in_your_country/Germany/Gaia-Daten_liefern_genaueste_Karte_unserer_Galaxie_und_der_unmittelbaren_Nachbarschaft

  • Gaia second data release

    Gaia second data release

    The second data release of ESA’s Gaia mission has produced an extraordinary catalogue of over one and a half billion stars in our galaxy. Based on observations between July 2014 to May 2016, it includes the most accurate information yet on the positions, brightness, distance, motion, colour and temperature of stars in the Milky Way as well as information on asteroids and quasars.

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  • Gaia’s first asteroid survey

    Gaia’s first asteroid survey

    Animated view of 14 099 asteroids in our Solar System, as viewed by ESA’s Gaia satellite using information from the mission’s second data release. The orbits of the 200 brightest asteroids are also shown, as determined using Gaia data.

    In future data releases, Gaia will also provide asteroid spectra and enable a complete characterisation of the asteroid belt. The combination of dynamical and physical information that is being collected by Gaia provides an unprecedented opportunity to improve our understanding of the origin and the evolution of the Solar System.

    Credit: ESA/Gaia/DPAC, CC BY SA 3.0 IGO

    Acknowledgement: Gaia Data Processing and Analysis Consortium (DPAC); Orbits: Gaia Coordinating Unit 4; P. Tanga, Observatoire de la Côte d’Azur, France; F. Spoto, IMCCE, Observatoire de Paris, France; Animation: Gaia Sky; S. Jordan / T. Sagristà, Astronomisches Rechen-Institut, Zentrum für Astronomie der Universität Heidelberg, Germany

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  • 360º Parallax and proper motion on the sky

    360º Parallax and proper motion on the sky

    A 360° animated view of the entire sky on 25 April 2018.

    After a few seconds, the stars start moving in the sky according to parallax, an apparent shift caused by Earth’s yearly motion around the Sun. Then, constellation outlines appear as visual aids. Finally, stars start moving according to their true motion through space, which is visible on the sky as proper motion. Parallaxes have been exaggerated by 100 000 and proper motions have been speeded up by one trillion (10^12) to make them visible in this animation. This animation is based on data from the second data release of ESA’s Gaia satellite, which has measured the positions, parallaxes and motions of more than one billion stars across the sky to unprecedented accuracy.

    ESA/Gaia/DPAC, CC BY SA 3.0 IGO

    Acknowledgement: Gaia Data Processing and Analysis Consortium (DPAC); Gaia Sky; S. Jordan / T. Sagristà, Astronomisches Rechen-Institut, Zentrum für Astronomie der Universität Heidelberg, Germany

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  • Waiting for Gaia

    Waiting for Gaia

    On 25 April 2018, ESA’s Gaia mission will publish its much awaited second data release, including high-precision measurements of nearly 1.7 billion stars in our Galaxy.

    Scientists who have been working on creating and validating the data contained in the catalogue tell us why they are waiting for this extraordinary release.

    Featured in the video: Antonella Vallenari (INAF, Astronomical Observatory of Padua), Anthony Brown (Leiden University), Timo Prusti (European Space Agency), Annie Robin (Institut UTINAM, OSU THETA Franche-Comté-Bourgogne), Laurent Eyer (University of Geneva) and Federica Spoto (IMCCE, Observatory of Paris).

    A media briefing on the second Gaia data release will be held at the ILA Berlin Air and Space Show in Germany on 25 April 11:00-12:15 CEST. Watch the webstream at www.esa.int/live

    Learn more about Gaia: bit.ly/ESAsGaia

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  • Stella’s experience as an ESA Young Graduate Trainee

    Stella’s experience as an ESA Young Graduate Trainee

    Stella, an astrophysicist from Estonia, shares her experience as a YGT at ESA working with data provided by the Gaia mission’s team to model the movements of stars.

    Apply now for new Young Graduate Trainee opportunities:
    http://www.esa.int/About_Us/Careers_at_ESA/Apply_now_for_new_Young_Graduate_Trainee_opportunities

  • Catching speeding stars

    Catching speeding stars

    This video reveals the evolution of stars in our Galaxy over the past million of years.

    It starts from the positions of stars in the sky 1 035 000 years ago, which were calculated using data from the Tycho-Gaia Astrometric Solution, or TGAS, one of the products of the first Gaia data release. The video follows the evolution of stellar positions until the present day, ending with a view of the sky as measured by Gaia between 2014 and 2015.

    Highlighted in yellow are the trajectories of six special stars: these are hypervelocity stars, moving through the Galaxy at several hundred of km/s. While it might not be apparent from the video, which shows the motions of stars as projected on the sky, they are moving through space much faster than the galactic average.

    Scientists spotted these speeding stars from the TGAS data set of two million stars with the help of an artificial neural network – software that mimics a human brain – and they are looking forward to finding many more in future Gaia data releases.

    These stars owe their high speeds to past interactions with the supermassive black hole that sits at the centre of the Milky Way and, with a mass of four million Suns, governs the orbits of stars in its vicinity. Having travelled great distances through the Galaxy, they provide crucial information about the gravitational field of the Milky Way from the centre to its outskirts.

    One of the six stars (labelled 1 at the end of the video) seems to be speeding so fast, at over 500 km/s, that it is no longer bound by the gravity of the Galaxy and will eventually leave. The other five stars are somewhat slower (over 400 km/s for the stars labelled 2, 3, 4 and 6, and 360 km/s for the star labelled 5) and are still bound to the Galaxy.

    These slightly slower stars are perhaps even more fascinating, as scientists are eager to learn what slowed them down – the invisible dark matter that is thought to pervade the Milky Way might also have played a role.

    The stars are plotted in Galactic coordinates and using a rectangular projection: in this, the plane of the Milky Way stands out as the horizontal band with greater density of stars. The stripes visible in the final frames reflect the way Gaia scans the sky and the preliminary nature of the first data release; these artefacts are gradually washed out in the video as stars move across the sky.

    Read more on our website:
    Artificial brain helps Gaia catch speeding stars –
    http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Space_Science/Gaia/Artificial_brain_helps_Gaia_catch_speeding_stars

    More about Gaia:
    http://sci.esa.int/gaia/

    Credit: ESA/Gaia/DPAC CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/igo/

  • The future of the Orion constellation

    The future of the Orion constellation

    This video reveals how our view of the Orion constellation will evolve over the next 450 000 years.

    Amid a myriad of drifting stars, the shape of Orion as defined by its brightest stars is slowly rearranged into a new pattern as time goes by.

    The portion of the sky depicted in the video measures 40 x 20º – as a comparison, the diameter of the full Moon in the sky is about half a degree.

    The video is based on data from ESA’s Gaia and Hipparcos satellites, as well as additional information from ground-based observations.

    A speeded-up version of the video is available here: http://sci.esa.int/gaia/59209

    Full story: The future of the Orion constellation http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Space_Science/Gaia/The_future_of_the_Orion_constellation

    The evolution of two million stellar positions on the entire sky is shown here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=87lgSRVUSxM

    Copyright: ESA/Gaia/DPAC CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/igo/

  • The motion of two million stars

    The motion of two million stars

    This video reveals the changing face of our Galaxy, tracing the motion of two million stars five million years into the future using data from the Tycho-Gaia Astrometric Solution, one of the products of the first Gaia data release. This provides a preview of the stellar motions that will be revealed in Gaia’s future data releases, which will enable scientists to investigate the formation history of our Galaxy.

    The stars are plotted in Galactic coordinates and using a rectangular projection: in this, the plane of the Milky Way stands out as the horizontal band with greater density of stars.

    The video starts from the positions of stars as measured by Gaia between 2014 and 2015, and shows how these positions are expected to evolve. The frames in the video are separated by 750 years, and the overall sequence covers five million years. The stripes visible in the early frames reflect the way Gaia scans the sky and the preliminary nature of the first data release; these artefacts are gradually washed out in the video as stars move across the sky.

    The shape of the Orion constellation can be spotted towards the right edge of the frame, just below the Galactic Plane, at the beginning of the video. As the sequence proceeds, the familiar shape of this constellation (and others) evolves into a new pattern. Two stellar clusters – groups of stars that were born together and consequently move together – can be seen towards the left edge of the frame: these are the alpha Persei (Per OB3) and Pleiades open clusters.

    More about this video:
    http://sci.esa.int/gaia/59004-two-million-stars-on-the-move/

    Credit: ESA/Gaia/DPAC CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/igo/

  • Gaia: The Visualisation of Gaia Data

    Gaia: The Visualisation of Gaia Data

    André Moitinho – Lisbon University

    Presentation recorded during the first Gaia data workshop at ESA’s European Space Astronomy Centre (ESAC) 2-4 November 2016.

    The slides to this presentation are available here: http://www.cosmos.esa.int/documents/915837/915858/Moitinho_visualisation_v2.pdf

  • Press Conference: First Data Release from ESA’s Gaia Mission

    Press Conference: First Data Release from ESA’s Gaia Mission

    Launched in December 2013, Gaia is destined to create the most accurate map yet of the Milky Way. By making accurate measurements of the positions and motions of stars in the Milky Way, it will answer questions about the origin and evolution of our home galaxy.

    The first intermediate data release, containing among other things three-dimensional positions and two-dimensional motions of a subset of two million stars, demonstrates that Gaia’s measurements are as precise as planned, paving the way to create the full map of one billion stars to be released towards the end of 2017.

  • First data from ESA’s Gaia mission

    First data from ESA’s Gaia mission

    Launched in December 2013, Gaia is destined to create the most accurate map yet of the Milky Way.

    By making accurate measurements of the positions and motions of roughly 1% of the total population of stars in the Milky Way, it will answer questions about the origin and evolution of our home galaxy.

    The first intermediate data release, containing, among other things, three-dimensional positions and two dimensional motions of a subset of two million stars, demonstrates that Gaia’s measurements are as precise as planned, paving the way to create the full map of one billion stars to be released towards the end of 2017.

    Find out more about Gaia:
    http://www.esa.int/gaia

  • From the Solar System to the Hyades cluster

    From the Solar System to the Hyades cluster

    A virtual journey, from our Solar System through the Milky Way, based on data from the first release of ESA’s Gaia satellite.

    The journey starts by looking back at the Sun, surrounded by its eight planets. We then move away from the Sun and travel towards and around the Hyades star cluster, the closest open cluster to the Solar System, some 150 light-years away.

    The 3D positions of the stars shown in the animation are drawn from the Tycho-Gaia Astrometric Solution (TGAS), which combines information from Gaia’s first year of observations with the earlier Hipparcos and Tycho-2 Catalogues, both based on data from ESA’s Hipparcos mission.

    This new dataset contains positions on the sky, distances and proper motions of over two million stars. It is twice as precise and contains almost 20 times as many stars as the previous reference for astrometry, the Hipparcos Catalogue.

    The journey continues showing the full extent size of the stars contained in the Tycho-Gaia Astrometric Solution, all relatively near to the Sun, in the overall context of our Milky Way galaxy.

    The final Gaia catalogue will contain the most detailed 3D map ever made of the Galaxy, charting a billion stars – about 1% of the Milky Way’s stellar content – to unprecedented accuracy.

    For more information about Gaia, visit: http://www.esa.int/gaia

    Credit: ESA/Gaia/DPAC; Acknowledgement: S. Jordan & T. Sagristà Sellés (Zentrum für Astronomie der Universität Heidelberg)

  • Space science: everything starts here

    Space science: everything starts here

    How did it all begin? What are the origins of our planet? To understand our place in the Universe we need to explore space. Find out how we’re doing this with ESA’s incredible fleet of space science missions to study our Sun and chart the stars around us, probe the dark matter and dark energy of the Universe, and tour various planets, moons and other small bodies in our Solar System.

  • Timelapse film Soyuz flight VS06, with Gaia

    Timelapse film Soyuz flight VS06, with Gaia

    Soyuz flight VS06, with the Gaia space observatory, lifted off from Europe’s Spaceport, French Guiana, on 19 December 2013. This timelapse movie shows Gaia sunshield deployment test, the transfer of the Soyuz from the assembly building to the launch pad and the lift off.

    ESA–S. Corvaja, M. Pedoussaut, 2013

  • Gaia launch replay highlights

    Gaia launch replay highlights

    ESA’s Gaia mission blasted off on 19 December 2013 on a Soyuz rocket from Europe’s Spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana, on its exciting mission to study a billion suns.

    Gaia is destined to create the most accurate map yet of the Milky Way. By making accurate measurements of the positions and motions of 1% of the total population of roughly 100 billion stars, it will answer questions about the origin and evolution of our home Galaxy.

    The Soyuz launcher, operated by Arianespace, lifted off at 09:12 GMT (10:12 CET). About ten minutes later, after separation of the first three stages, the Fregat upper stage ignited, delivering Gaia into a temporary parking orbit at an altitude of 175 km.

    Gaia is now en route towards an orbit around a gravitationally-stable virtual point in space called L2, some 1.5 million kilometres beyond Earth as seen from the Sun.

    This video includes highlights of the launch webcast including lift-off from Kourou, the Soyuz mission, separation of Gaia and the successful entry into orbit.

    Credit:ESA / CNEA / Arianespace