Gaia: census and three-dimensional map of the Milky Way
Gaia: censo y mapa tridimensional de la Vía Láctea
- Date
- 2013-2025 · confidence high
- Place
- European Space Astronomy Centre (ESAC), Villanueva de la Cañada, Madrid, Spain
- Credited to
- European Space Agency and the DPAC data consortium
- Field
- Cosmos & Earth
What was discovered
The satellite measured the position, motion and brightness of about 1.8 billion stars to microarcsecond precision. It has revealed the Galaxy's past mergers and unexpectedly large stellar black holes.
Data are processed at ESAC in Madrid. Launched in December 2013 from Kourou, it stopped observing in January 2025 and was deactivated in March 2025; the final catalogues are still being published.
What it led to
- discovery of the Gaia-Enceladus merger (2018)
- reference astrometric catalogues (DR1, DR2 and DR3)
- location of black holes such as Gaia BH1 and BH3
Built on
- ISEE-3: first halo orbit at a Lagrange point and first comet visited1978
- Hipparcos (astrometry satellite, 1989-1993)