Gaia

Map of Observations

Wavelength Coverage

From 27 July 2014 to 15 January 2025 the Gaia all-sky survey measured the positions, distances, space motions and many physical characteristics of more than a billion stars in our Galaxy and beyond. Gaia provides the detailed 3D distributions and space motions of all these stars, down to 20th magnitude. The measurement precision, reaching a few millionths of a second of arc, is unprecedented. This allows our Galaxy to be mapped, for the first time, in three dimensions. Some 10 million stars were measured with a distance accuracy of better than 1 percent; some 100 million to better than 10 percent. This established a rigorous distance scale framework throughout the Galaxy and beyond, and classified star formation and kinematical and dynamical behaviour within the Local Group of galaxies. Solar System studies received a massive impetus through the observation of hundreds of thousands of minor planets; near-Earth objects, inner Trojans and even new trans-Neptunian objects, including Plutinos, were discovered. Gaia followed the bending of star light by the Sun and major planets over the entire celestial sphere, and therefore directly observed the structure of space-time – the accuracy of its measurement of General Relativistic light bending may reveal the long-sought scalar correction to its tensor form. All this, and more, through the accurate measurement of star positions.

Active From

Launch: December 19, 2013

Observation: 2014-2024

Capabilities

• Astrometry
  • High precision positions, proper motions and parallaxes
• Photometry
  • broad-band white-light G-band fluxes obtained in the astrometric instrument.
  • low-resolution spectrophotometry obtained in the Blue and Red Photometers (BP and RP).
• Radial velocities