10 Science topics to celebrate Gaia's 10 years in space

     

    EARTH: Stellar occultation

    Since Gaia, a steep increase is seen in the chance to see an asteroid move in front of a star. These observations made from Earth allow to extend our knowledge on asteroids.

    SOLAR SYSTEM: Asteroids and moons

    Gaia mapped over 157,000 asteroids with their positions, brightness and has provided reflectance spectra for more than 60,000 of them. This allows to study asteroid families in more detail.

    MILKY WAY: Stellar companions

    Many stars have companions, be that another star, an exoplanet or a black hole. Gaia published the largest catalogue of stellar companions ever.

    MILKY WAY and BEYOND: Special stars

    Gaia investigates the particular behaviour of stars. Which ones are brightening. Which ones are variable and why? Is that a starquake? Gaia provides a classification of many stars. Catalogues of special stars are cleaner leading to more robust science results.

    Milky Way: Spiral arms and structure

    Gaia has mapped the Milky Way with a detail never seen before. The structures seen, which stars form groups, imprints of former merger events... Many advances were made thanks to Gaia.

    Milky Way and BEYOND: 3D motion

    How stars moved through space was barely known before Gaia. With Gaia, kinematic studies of our Milky Way opened up, with its publication of over 1.4 billion motions across the sky, and its subset of almost 34 million stars with full 3D velocities. The biggest catalogue of stellar motion ever published.

    Beyond the Milky Way: Milky way satellites

    Gaia maps each star individually. When Gaia sees the Milky Way satellites, it is because it sees some of the stars within these satellites. With Gaia's data on these extragalactic stars, extensive studies of the interaction between the Milky Way and its satellites are finally possible.

    MILKY WAY and beyond: Stellar DNA

    Gaia published the first all-sky chemical map of the Milky Way. What are stars made of? With Gaia's astrophysical parameters, a boost was given to studies on stellar evolution in the Milky Way.

    Beyond the Milky Way: Gaia's galaxies

    Some of the objects seen by Gaia are other galaxies, out there beyond the Milky Way. Gaia's catalogue of galaxies provides an all-sky view of close-by galaxies.

    Beyond the Milky Way: Cosmology with Gaia

    Gaia's catalogue of quasars allows to further study the structures in the Universe. With Gaia's ability to distinguish gravitationally lensed quasars, it contributes to studies on dark matter and dark energy. Studies of gravitational lenses also help to improve our knowledge of the Universe itself and its highly debated expansion rate.

    Gaia DPAC

    Thanks to the ~450 people in the Gaia Data Processing and Analysis Consortium, Gaia's data are processed and prepared for publication to the astronomical community.

    Gaia fairing logo

    The Gaia space telescope was launched on 19 December 2013 and today marks its 10th launch anniversary. Gaia has been a true revolution and has impacted almost every field in astronomy in some way.