Mapping the Milky Way
Gaia built the most detailed 3D map of our galaxy ever created. Operating from Sun–Earth L2 between 2014 and 2025, it measured precise positions, distances and motions of nearly 2 billion stars, observing each one on average around 70 times.
Beyond Stars
Gaia also discovered thousands of asteroids, hundreds of thousands of quasars, and tested Einstein's general relativity by measuring starlight bending near Jupiter. Its data releases remain fundamental references across astronomy, and further catalogues are still to be published from its archived observations.
End of Observations
Gaia exhausted its cold-gas propellant and ended science observations on 15 January 2025. On 27 March 2025, ESA fired its thrusters to push it away from L2 into a stable heliocentric "retirement" orbit and powered it down — concluding one of the most scientifically productive missions in ESA history.