The European Space Agency
Sign in
European Space Agency
2024-06-10 Gaia: Milky Way’s last major collision was surprisingly recent - Gaia
Science with 1 billion objects in three dimensionsWelcome to ESA's website for the Gaia Scientific Community |
|
- Removed a total of (1) style text-align:center;
- Removed a total of (1) style float:right;
- Removed a total of (1) align=center.
- Removed a total of (1) border attribute.
- Removed a total of (1) cellpadding attribute.
- Removed a total of (1) cellspacing attribute.
2024-06-10 Gaia: Milky Way’s last major collision was surprisingly recent
Our galaxy has collided with many others in its lifetime. ESA’s Gaia space telescope now reveals that the most recent of these crashes took place billions of years later than we thought. A story on this finding was published on esa.int/gaia: https://www.esa.int/Science_Exploration/Space_Science/Gaia/Gaia_Milky_Way_s_last_major_collision_was_surprisingly_recent.
Credits: Halo stars: ESA/Gaia/DPAC, T Donlon et al. 2024; Background Milky Way and Magellanic Clouds: Stefan Payne-Wardenaar
- Removed a total of (2) style text-align:center;
Gaia mission status
| Technology testing concluded and spacecraft passivated |
| 3827 days of science operations concluded |
| 141,038 GB of science data gathered |
|
267,336,261,480 transits observed Several data sets were released |
Upcoming Events
2-6 March 2026
Astro Big Data School
Ghent, Belgium
---
1 - 5 June 2026
Galactic bars, bulges and disks
Lipari Island, Italy
---