ESA Gaia Science Community - Gaia

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Gaia news, stories & highlights

2025-03-27 Gaia passivation

26 March 2025

"The epitaph of Gaia: Stop, traveler, as you pass by. A science jewel was I. Many minds were set on me. Now, I drift as cold debris." Today the Gaia spacecraft was moved into its retirement orbit and passivated. An special day for the Gaia mission operations team and the many people working in the Gaia Collaboration for years on this... read more

2025-03-21 The disappearance of Gaia

21 March 2025

On 4 March, astronomer Zhuo-Xiao Wang captured this view of the sudden disappearance of ESA’s Gaia spacecraft. After more than 11 years in space mapping the motions and properties of billions of stars, the spacecraft’s operations are coming to an end. Gaia will be switched off on 27 March 2025. During a series of final test operations, flight... read more

2025-02-21 Opening for a Gaia-related postdoc position in Leiden

21 February 2025

Applications are invited for a postdoctoral position at Leiden Observatory to work on (spectro-)photometric data processing for the Gaia mission in preparation for Gaia DR5. The tasks foreseen include: quality assessment of the calibration of the BP/RP spectra and the integrated photometry obtained from these spectra; studying and developing... read more

2025-02-21 Gaia spacecraft passivation on 27 March

21 February 2025

On 27 March 2025, the Gaia spacecraft will be passivated. While the Gaia spacecraft will enjoy its well-deserved retirement, the Gaia mission is far from over. The Gaia Data Processing and Analysis Consortium and ESA's Gaia science operations team is hard at work preparing Gaia's Data Release 4 (expected ~2026) and Gaia Data Release 5... read more

2025-02-21 Another follow-up opportunity on 4 March to observe Gaia

21 February 2025

The schedule on the page with information on how to observe Gaia (https://www.cosmos.esa.int/web/gaia/observe-gaia) has been updated. There will be another opportunity to observe Gaia on 4 March when the spacecraft will be shortly visible at its peak brightness of approximately 15th magnitude. Find observations made across the... read more

Gaia Bulletin #02

11 February 2025

Gaia Bulletin #02 is out now!

2025-02-11 Follow-up campaign to observe the Gaia spacecraft

11 February 2025

Many citizen astronomers have observed the Gaia spacecraft while it is more easily visible in the night sky and shared their observations with us. A dedicated webpage to cover this follow-up campaign has just been published and can be found here: https://www.cosmos.esa.int/web/gaia/ground-based-observations-of-gaia-spacecraft-2025.

2025-02-06 Gaia symposium at European Astronomical Society annual meeting

6 February 2025

In June 2025, the European Astronomical Society will meet for its annual meeting. A symposium related to the Gaia mission is planned, Symposium S1 "The (TWO) Billion Star Galaxy Census: Anticipating the Leap in Understanding of Planets, Stars, the Milky Way with Gaia DR4"... read more

2025-02-05 Wobbling stars reveal hidden companions in Gaia data

5 February 2025

Today a story was published on esa.int/gaia on the discovery of an exoplanet Gaia-4b, which was hinted to exist purely from Gaia astrometric data. Find the full story here: Wobbling stars reveal hidden companions in Gaia data: https://www.esa.int/Science_Exploration/Space_Science/Gaia/Wobbling_stars_reveal_hidden_companions_in_Gaia_data

2025-01-23 Gaia's schedule for tests has changed

23 January 2025

The schedule of the Gaia tests has changed. Gaia is remaining at maximum brightness for longer than initially planned. The Gaia ephemeris service remains valid and should be used for planning ground-based observations.The schedule will be updated here as soon as possible.

2025-01-19 Follow-up opportunities for Gaia

19 January 2025

Though Gaia stopped taking science observations, it is hard at work to perform a set of technology tests. As part of these tests, Gaia's angle with respect to the Sun will change, and the Gaia spacecraft's brightness is gradually increasing at the moment. While Gaia was a faint object in the sky during its science observation phase, it could... read more

2025-01-15 So long and thanks for all the fish! Last stars observed by Gaia this morning

15 January 2025

Today marks the end of Gaia's science observation phase. A story was published: "Last starlight for ground-breaking Gaia" on ESA's website, along with brand new visuals of our Milky Way (face-on) as well as edge-on. All visuals can be found from The Milky Way page on Gaia Cosmos along with a new animation featuring the Milky Way. An... read more