Since its launch in 2013, the Gaia mission has revolutionized the study of our Milky Way galaxy. When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Here’s how it ...

Gaia’s all-sky view of our Milky Way galaxy and neighboring galaxies, based on measurements of nearly 1.7 billion stars in the mission’s first two years of taking data.

Stars pepper Gaia’s all-sky view of our Milky Way Galaxy and neighboring galaxies in this image based on the measurement of nearly 1.7 billion stars.

Goodnight Gaia. The European Space Agency star-tracking satellite ceased operations on Wednesday, Jan. 15, 2025, after 12 years of mapping the Milky Way.

The European Space Agency's (ESA) Gaia spacecraft concluded its sky-scanning mission after mapping the Milky Way for more than 10 years. On January 15, Gaia completed its last observations ...

Astronomers bid an emotional farewell to Gaia, expressing their gratitude for its more than decade-long mission that gave us groundbreaking insights into our home galaxy, the Milky Way.

The Milky Way just got a little more crowded. The European Space Agency’s Gaia spacecraft has mapped more than a billion stars in the galaxy with unprecedented accuracy and detail — and it has ...

Related: 4 big Milky Way mysteries the next Gaia mission data dump may solve. The June 13 data release is set to supercharge this research as it contains new, previously unavailable information.

Ga­ia’s im­age of the Milky Way ESA/Gaia/DPAC, CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO. The European Space Agency (ESA) has released the most detailed catalog of our galaxy, using data from the Gaia mission launched ...

An artist's impression of ESA's Gaia satellite observing the Milky Way. The background image of the sky is compiled from data from more than 1.8 billion stars.

The European Space Agency’s Gaia space observatory, which launched in 2013, has long surpassed its goal of charting more than a billion stars in the Milky Way (SN: 10/15/16).

European Space Agency’s Gaia space observatory has revealed strange and unexpected tsunami-like starquakes – movements on stars’ crusts similar to earthquakes we experience on our planet.