Gaia Bulletin Archive - Gaia

Gaia Bulletin Archive

Gaia Bulletin #06

Gaia data user notifications covering November - December 2025

News on the Gaia Archive and Data

The Gaia Archive was upgraded at the start of December. Unfortunately, several performance issues surfaced following the upgrade, for which temporary workaround solutions are provided while we work to resolve the issues.
The Gaia Data Release 4 contents summary page was updated. The page now lists all planned products and tables in the Gaia DR4 archive, except the ones associated with Performance Verification Papers.
The Gaia Data Release 4 overview page is the main entry point to all information around Gaia Data Release 4. Gaia Data Release 4 is expected in December 2026 and will be based on 66 months of data.
A new Gaia DR3 known issue was published in relation to the external catalogue CatWISE2020.
The Gaia DR4 preview stories discuss the ongoing processing and validation of Gaia Data Release 4, and highlight the planned data products. Keep an eye out for new previews over the course of 2026.

Gaia meetings and workshops

The European Astronomical Society annual meeting of 2026 will take place in Lausanne (Switzerland) from 29 June to 3 July 2026, and a dedicated Gaia symposium can be expected.
A calendar of conferences and workshops related to Gaia data is available from the Gaia cosmos page.

Gaia stories published across ESA websites

Interactive image release: Gaia finds hints of planets in baby star systems
Cosmos story: Gaia DR4 data product introduction: the residual image, part of the series of Gaia Data Release 4 previews
Cosmos story: Farewell, Gaia! A short movie on the Gaia spacecraft passivation

Gaia PhD theses

A list of PhD theses related to Gaia can be found on this page. Please make us aware of Gaia-related theses using the process described here.

Miscellaneous

The page "Gaia in the media" was updated with links to publications related to the Gaia mission.
New update was made to the Gaia community tools page.
Did you know Gaia Data Release 4 will contain data on 2.8 billion sources?
Did you know you can find a compilation of educational resources linked to Gaia from this page?
Wondering which papers to cite when using Gaia data? Find a full overview here for each of the Gaia data releases.
Did you know the Gaia help pages contain an overview of Gaia Collaboration queries related to specific data releases?
Did you know that on this day, 12 years ago, Gaia was launched?

ESA Science Newsletter

An overview of ESA's Science Programme is given at https://www.science.esa.int. The Newsletter of ESA's Directorate of Science serves the scientific community with programmatic and technical news. Instructions for how to subscribe can be found at https://cosmos.esa.int/web/scinews.

Gaia Bulletin #05

Gaia data user notifications covering July - October 2025

Gaia mission updates

Gaia Data Release 4 is expected in December 2026 and will be based on 66 months of data, see the Gaia Data Release scenario page.
Two ESA internship opportunities with the Gaia mission were announced on Gaia Cosmos news.

News on the Gaia Archive and Data

The Gaia Data Release 4 overview page is the main entry point to all information around Gaia Data Release 4.
A new Frequently Asked Question was added "In the gaiadr3.gaia_universe_model table, what does the 'semimajor_axis' refer to?
A Frequently Asked Question was updated "I can not find data for a (well-known) bright star. Why is that?"
A link was added from the Gaia DR3 auxiliary data page to the overview of high-proper motion sources in Gaia DR3.
An extended downtime is expected of the Gaia archive from Friday 5 December 15:00 CET until Wednesday 10 December 10:00 CET to allow for maintenance. Gaia data is also served from our partner data centres.

Gaia meetings and workshops

In December, ESA is organising the "Exploring Tatooine and Beyond: Circumbinary Planets with ESA Missions" workshop at ESAC.
The European Astronomical Society annual meeting of 2026 will take place in Lausanne (Switzerland) from 29 June to 3 July 2026.
A calendar of conferences and workshops related to Gaia data is available from the Gaia cosmos page.

Gaia stories published across ESA websites

Release of an overview story: Gaia proves our skies are filled with chains of starry gatherings
Infographic update: Anatomy of the Milky Way following the publication of the updated Milky Way visuals: Gaia Milky Way map
News release: Fly through Gaia’s 3D map of stellar nurseries
News release: Gaia discovers our galaxy's great wave
Cosmos story: Gaia dances the night away: Farewell to a fading Gaia!
Cosmos story: Gaia's uncalibrated BP/RP spectra, part of the series of Gaia Data Release 4 previews.

Gaia PhD theses

A list of PhD theses related to Gaia can be found on this page. Please make us aware of Gaia-related theses using the process described here.

Miscellaneous

New technical Gaia documents were made available from the Gaia Public DPAC documents page.
New updates were made to the Gaia community tools page.
Meet Gaia in the Paris subway...
New release of Gaia Sky is out now.
Several Zenodo libraries were added to the presentations page, among which a Zenodo community for the Gaia mission and the Gaia Collaboration.
A new website for the science programme was launched: https://www.science.esa.int/. Also Gaia can be found, with a page featuring a summary and key milestones of the Gaia mission.

ESA Science Newsletter

Gaia Bulletin #04

Gaia data user notifications covering May 2025 – July 2025

Gaia mission updates

Gaia Data Release 4 is expected in December 2026 and will be based on 66 months of data, see the Gaia Data Release scenario page.
While the Gaia spacecraft was passivated after collecting 126 months of science data, the Gaia Data Processing and Analysis Consortium is working to prepare the next data releases. Gaia Data Release 3 is based on 34 months of data, which means that most of Gaia's data is yet to be released.

News on the Gaia Archive and Data

The Gaia Data Release 4 overview page is the main entry point to all information around Gaia Data Release 4.
A new Frequently Asked Question was added "Why does the rendering of NULL (empty) values in the Gaia tables depend on the software used to inspect the table?"
Version 3.8 of the Gaia ESA Archive was published on 4 June 2025 (release notes) but was rolled back to version 3.7 due to some issues and will remain as such for a few months.
Tutorials and information on accessing Gaia data are available from our dedicated help pages.
Find the Gaia DOI overview page here.

Gaia meetings and workshops

The 16th Gaia Science Alerts and ACME Time-Domain workshop will take place at the end of September.
In December, ESA is organising the "Exploring Tatooine and Beyond: Circumbinary Planets with ESA Missions" workshop at ESAC.
A calendar of conferences and workshops related to Gaia data is available from the Gaia cosmos page.
The Symposium S1 "The (TWO) Billion Star Galaxy Census: Anticipating the Leap in Understanding of Planets, Stars, the Milky Way with Gaia DR4" was well attended at the EAS annual meeting in Cork, Ireland. The slides of the presentations are shared from the GREATwiki page.

Gaia stories published across ESA websites

News release: Hubble and Gaia revisit the fate of our galaxy
Cosmos story: New transient event class found with Gaia: Extreme Nuclear Transients
Image release: You can’t judge a star by its protoplanetary disc

Gaia PhD theses

A list of PhD theses related to Gaia can be found on this page. Please make us aware of Gaia-related theses using the process described here.

Miscellaneous

Extra material was added to the page on educational material.
A new presentation on the "Status of the ESA Gaia Mission" as given in June 2025 was added to the Gaia presentations page.
New technical Gaia documents were made available from the Gaia Public DPAC documents page.
An overview of Gaia community resources can be found from this page.
New updates were made to the Gaia community tools page.

ESA Science Newsletter

The Newsletter of ESA's Directorate of Science serves the scientific community with programmatic and technical news. Instructions for how to subscribe can be found at https://cosmos.esa.int/web/scinews.

Gaia Bulletin #03

Gaia data user notifications covering February 2025 – May 2025

Gaia mission updates

After the end of science observations on 15 January and until March 2025, a series of technology tests were performed.
The Gaia spacecraft appeared brighter than usual and the follow-up campaign by (citizen) astronomers brought many amazing images of Gaia in the night sky.
On 27 March 2025, the Gaia spacecraft was sent into its retirement orbit and passivated.
The list of Gaia publications in peer-reviewed journals has been updated.

News on the Gaia Archive and Data

The Gaia Data Release 4 overview page is now available. It is the main entry point to all information around this data release.
A summary is provided of the expected contents of Gaia Data Release 4 (Gaia DR4).
The page linking to all papers related to Gaia DR4's processing and quality is available now.
Previews on Gaia Data Release 4 will be published while the catalogue is being produced. You can find these previews here.
Our self-registration to register for a user account with the Gaia archive is working again.
A new Frequently Asked Question was added "Why do I get an "HTTP Status 401 – Unauthorized" error when logging in programmatically to the Gaia Archive TAP server via curl, even though my username and password are correct?"
Tutorials and information on accessing Gaia data are available from our dedicated help pages.

Gaia meetings and workshops

The Symposium S1 "The (TWO) Billion Star Galaxy Census: Anticipating the Leap in Understanding of Planets, Stars, the Milky Way with Gaia DR4" will take place as part of the EAS annual meeting in Cork, Ireland, at the end of June 2025.
At the end of September 2025, the 16th Gaia Science Alerts and ACME Time-Domain workshop will be held. Gaia raised 27,076 photometric science alerts until January 2025. The Gaia spacecraft passivation also meant the retirement of the Gaia photometric alerts.

Gaia stories published across ESA websites

News release: Gaia spots odd family of stars desperate to leave home
News release: Hubble investigates a magnetar's birthplace, with help from Gaia
Video release: Rewriting the story of the Milky Way
Video release: ESA's Gaia spacecraft leaves for retirement orbit
News release: Farewell, Gaia! Spacecraft operations come to an end.
Video release: The disappearance of ESA's Gaia spacecraft!
Image release: Sky-scanning complete for Gaia
Cosmos story: A milestone for the Gaia mission: retirement orbit and passivation
Cosmos story: Gaia DR3 sources with high proper motions

Gaia PhD theses

A list of PhD theses related to Gaia can be found on this page. Please make us aware of Gaia-related theses using the process described here.

Miscellaneous

A new overview with presentations of the Gaia mission is available here.

ESA Science Newsletter

Gaia Bulletin #02

Gaia data user notifications covering December 2024 – February 2025

Gaia mission updates

On 15 January 2025, Gaia stopped taking new science observations.
Gaia is currently performing technology tests.
Because of these technology tests, Gaia's apparent brightness has increased, and it is therefore more easily observable from the ground. A follow-up campaign is ongoing. Citizen astronomers are invited to observe Gaia and send their observations to the Gaia team.
Images of Gaia resulting from those observations are being collected on a dedicated page.
The mission status page is now static and has been extended with some additional statistics.
The newest Gaia Milky Way maps are downloadable in high resolution by clicking the different images on this page.
Find the latest Gaia peer-reviewed publication counts here.

Gaia stories published across ESA websites

Wobbling stars reveal hidden companions in Gaia data
Video release: ESA’s Gaia finds a mysterious planet and brown dwarf
Last starlight for ground-breaking Gaia
Image release: The best Milky Way map, by Gaia (edge-on)
Image release: The best Milky Way map, by Gaia (face-on)
Video release: The best Milky Way animation, by Gaia

News on the Gaia Archive and Data

Did you know Gaia Data Release 4 will be based on 66 months of Gaia data and is expected not before mid-2026? An update on the planned contents of Gaia Data Release 4 will be provided soon.
A new Frequently Asked Question was added “Why is the “source_id” field spelled as “SOURCE_ID” when retrieving data via Astroquery?”.
Our self-registration to register for a user account with the Gaia archive is temporarily offline. Please contact the Gaia helpdesk at gaia-helpdesk@esa.int when an account is needed.
The Gaia Data Release 3 papers page was updated with information regarding the publication of a paper.
A new document was made publicly available called “GBOT activities during the Gaia End-of-Observations testing”.

Gaia PhD theses

A list of PhD theses related to Gaia can be found on this page. Please make us aware of Gaia-related theses using the process described here.

Gaia meetings and workshops

In June 2025, a Symposium S1 "The (TWO) Billion Star Galaxy Census: Anticipating the Leap in Understanding of Planets, Stars, the Milky Way with Gaia DR4" is planned at the EAS annual meeting. The symposium now welcomes abstract submissions here. Abstract submission closes on 3 March 2025.

Miscellaneous

Additional instructions published for building a Gaia spacecraft from bricks.
Did you know Gaia performed on average over 9000 CCD observations per second over the course of its science observation phase?
Did you know you can cite the different chapters of the Gaia data release documentation?.

Gaia Bulletin #01

Gaia data user notifications covering April - December 2024

Introducing the Gaia Bulletin

The communication format known as the "Gaia newsletter" has been discontinued. Its successor is the current "Gaia Bulletin". Previous subscribers of the Gaia newsletter have been automatically subscribed to the Gaia Bulletin. New subscribers to the Gaia Bulletin can register at esacontact.esa.int/gaia-bulletin-subscribe/. To unsubscribe from the Gaia bulletin, please follow the instructions given on this page.

ESA Science Newsletter

Interested in various ESA science missions and the future of its science programme? ESA has launched the science newsletter, serving the scientific community with programmatic and technical news. Past science newsletters and instructions for how to subscribe can be found here: https://cosmos.esa.int/web/scinews.

Gaia mission updates

Gaia's end of observations coming up: Access the pages on the Gaia end of observations here.
The Gaia Science Team webpage was updated to reflect the change of the ESA Project Scientist.
The Gaia publication count process was updated on this webpage.

Gaia stories published across ESA websites

If you are planning to publish exciting, peer-reviewed results based on Gaia data, we may be able to enhance the visibility of your research with an ESA news release. Please see https://www.cosmos.esa.int/web/gaia/communicating-your-results for instructions on how to proceed.

These are the stories published in the last months:

News on the Gaia archive and data

New release of the Gaia ESA Archive on 10 December with some breaking changes for accessing DataLink products.
The second campaign of the Gaia's citizen science project "Gaia Vari" is ongoing. The recording of the Gaia Vari seminar is available on YouTube.
Pre-release of Gaia DR4 astrometric parameters for a star to be occulted by Uranus.
Updates to the Gaia help pages: updated tutorials and the addition of a historical help area.
Updates to the Gaia Focused Product Release papers page: links to all fully published papers are now available.
Updates to the Gaia Data Release 3 papers page regarding a few of the Gaia Data Release 3 papers.
On 25 June 2024, a new release of the Gaia Focused Product Release Documentation was published, accessible via https://www.cosmos.esa.int/web/gaia-users/archive.
Gaia data known issues:
Frequently Asked Questions:
- New: How can I stop (kill) a job that is being executed?
- New: How can I transform the Gaia fluxes into mean energy units?

Gaia PhD theses

A list of PhD theses related to Gaia can be found on this page. 10 new theses were added to the list. Please make us aware of Gaia-related theses using the process described here.

Gaia meetings and workshops (past and future)

30 September - 2 October 2024: 15th Gaia Science Alerts and ORP Time-Domain workshop. Find the recorded sessions from the workshop page.
1 - 5 July 2024: Gaia symposium at EAS "The (TWO) Billion Star Galaxy Census: from the Solar System to our Milky Way and beyond". Find the presentations from the GREAT wiki page.
9 - 11 September 2024: Third GaiaUnlimited community workshop. More details with some summaries available here.

Miscellaneous

New tools available on the Gaia community tools website. If you have a useful tool, feel free to contact us at the Gaia Helpdesk.
Small tribute to Gaia in the LEGO Milky Way set.
Interested in a 15-piece Gaia lego model? A set of instructions is available from the Gaia educational resources.
Gaia interview of DPAC member Berry Holl by Fraser Cain on the Universe Today podcast.
New release of Gaia Sky on the University of Heidelberg website.
Updated webpage and library of Gaia publications in peer-reviewed journals.

Gaia Bulletin archive

December 2025 - Gaia Bulletin #06
October 2025 - Gaia Bulletin #05
July 2025 - Gaia Bulletin #04
May 2025 - Gaia Bulletin #03
February 2025 - Gaia Bulletin #02
December 2024 - Gaia Bulletin #01

How to subscribe / unsubscribe?

Find more info on the Gaia Bulletin here.

Gaia newsletters (Discontinued)

Gaia newsletters were sent from 2018-2024. Old Gaia newsletters can be found here.

DPAC newsletters (discontinued)

DPAC newsletters were sent from 2008-2014. Old DPAC newsletters can be found here.