ESA Gaia Science Community - Gaia

Science with 1 billion objects in three dimensions

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Gaia news, stories & highlights

2026-10-14 New release of the Gaia ESA Archive with breaking changes

14 October 2026

A new release of the Gaia ESA Archive was deployed. It features two breaking changes:

(1)The DataLink data structures formerly known as RAW and INDIVIDUAL have been renamed to DATAMODEL_GAIA and DATA_MODEL_STANDARD, respectively.

(2)To support a fair and equitable distribution of resources, users cannot have more than 5 jobs... read more

2026-10-08 Advance warning: Gaia ESA Archive downtime

8 October 2026

In preparation of Gaia DR4, the Gaia ESA Archive will be down as of Wednesday 25 November 2026 12:00 CET. The archive will re-open on Wednesday 2 December 2026 at 12:00 CET, featuring the new Gaia DR4 release. Information on the forthcoming data release can already be found from the Gaia Data Release 4 overview... read more

2026-09-25 An art competition for schools – celebrating a spectacular new map of our Galaxy

25 September 2026

Something special is happening this winter. On 2 December 2026, the most detailed map of our home Galaxy, the Milky Way, ever made will be unveiled. The map is the work of Gaia, pinpointing more than two billion stars and other objects: where each one is, how far away it is, what colour it is, and how it is moving. Astronomers all over the... read more

Gaia Bulletin #09

17 September 2026

Gaia Bulletin #09 is out now! Thear are the Gaia data user notifications covering July 2026 - September 2026.

2026-09-14 Kavli prize for Vasily Belokurov, Amina Helmi, and Rodrigo Ibata

14 September 2026

The 2026 Kavli Prize in Astrophysics has been awarded to Vasily Belokurov, Amina Helmi, and Rodrigo Ibata for "uncovering the fossil evidence of past mergers proving that the Milky Way galaxy was built through hierarchical accretion. Gaia's data lies at the basis for this research. Congratulations to the scientists for their... read more

2026-08-31 ESA Expedition of Sound featuring Gaia

31 August 2026

Wobbling stars and distant worlds – in this ESA Expedition of Sound, our home galaxy is explored. More specifically, this episode focuses on stars and exoplanets. Listen to the sound of the starquakes observed by Gaia and the heartbeat of stars, and learn how astronomers uncover clues about their age, structure and life.

Full details... read more

2026-08-24 Applications open for the ESA Archival Research Visitor Programme

24 August 2026

ESA welcomes applications from scientists interested in pursuing research projects based on data publicly available in the ESA Space Science Archives. The ESA Archival Research Visitor Programme is open to scientists who are affiliated with institutes in ESA Member States and Cooperating States. All visits must comply with the ESA security... read more

2026-08-24 ESA Research Fellowship in Space Science

24 August 2026

The 2026 Call for Applications for the European Space Agency's Research Fellowships in Space Science has just opened. About ~9-10 postdoctoral fellows will be hired, with a start in fall 2027. The deadline for applications is 21 September 2026.

ESA's postdoctoral Research Fellowship programme offers early-career researchers the... read more

2026-08-17 Hubble and Gaia solve our Galaxy's merger mystery

17 August 2026

New story published on esa.int/gaia: Hubble and Gaia solve our Galaxy's merger mystery: www.esa.int/Science_Exploration/Space_Science/Hubble_Gaia_solve_our_galaxy_s_merger_mystery

2026-07-20 Vacancy for a Data Validation Scientist (Fixed Term)

20 July 2026

We are looking for a data scientist to work on data validation at the Institute of Astronomy (IoA), University of Cambridge, as part of the Gaia team within the data project group at the IoA (CamCEAD).

This is a two year fixed term position. For more details and to apply, see here:... read more