Farewell to Gaia, the Milky Way’s Cartographer After more than a decade of mapping the stars, the European spacecraft was shut down on Thursday. But its legacy lives on.

Gaia discovers the Milky Way's last major act of galactic cannibalism was surprisingly recent, as the space telescope counts the "wrinkles" of our galaxy to retell its history.

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.

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 could have many more satellite galaxies than scientists have previously been able to predict or observe, ...

The Milky Way’s halo of stars as seen by Gaia (left), and how it would look if a merger happened in the ancient past. Image: Halo stars: ESA/Gaia/DPAC, T Donlon et al. 2024; Background Milky Way ...

Gaia, Europe’s Galactic Cartographer, Is Gone But Not Forgotten Gaia, Europe’s Milky Way–mapping spacecraft, shut down earlier this year. It was arguably the most important—and most ...

A newly discovered ice comet from deep space may be over 7 billion years old, making it the most ancient comet scientists ...

The Gaia data show the speed at which more than 30 million Milky Way objects (mostly stars) are moving toward or away from us – the so-called radial velocity.

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 ...

We look back on about 11 years of the Gaia spacecraft, now at the end of its mission to create the best map of the Milky Way.