Got it! Gaia Observatory Snaps Photo of James Webb Space Telescope at L2
On February 18, 2022, the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope was photographed by ESA’s Gaia observatory. Both spacecraft are located in orbits around the Lagrange…
ESA Gaia Spacecraft News
Our Milky Way Galaxy’s Most Recent Major Collision
The Milky Way’s growth is largely influenced by merging with nearby galaxies, such as the ongoing absorption of the Sagittarius dwarf galaxy and the eventual…
Gaia Space Mission Discovers Mysterious Fossil Spiral Arms in Milky Way
Using Gaia data, astronomers mapped the Milky Way’s outer disc, finding numerous unexplained filamentary structures. These may represent remnants of interactions with satellite galaxies, highlighting…
Astronomers Discover a “Break” in One of the Milky Way’s Spiral Arms
The newly discovered feature offers insight into the large-scale structure of our galaxy, which is difficult to study from Earth’s position inside it. Scientists have…
“Death Star” Dueling Quasars Looming in the Sky: Hubble Spots Double Quasars in Merging Galaxies
Seeing Dual Quasars Is Like Finding a Needle in a Haystack Inhabitants of our Milky Way galaxy living several billion years from now will have…
Tantalizing Evidence: Is the Nearest Star Cluster to the Sun Being Destroyed?
Data from ESA’s Gaia star mapping satellite have revealed tantalizing evidence that the nearest star cluster to the Sun is being disrupted by the gravitational…
Unexpected Discovery: Hubble Space Telescope Uncovers Concentration of Small Black Holes
Scientists were expecting to find an intermediate-mass black hole at the heart of the globular cluster NGC 6397, but instead they found evidence of a…
Chinese Astronomers Discover 591 High Velocity Stars – 43 of Them Can Even Escape From the Galaxy
A research team, led by astronomers from National Astronomical Observatories of Chinese Academy of Sciences (NAOC), has discovered 591 high velocity stars from the Large…
Acceleration of the Solar System Measured by the Gaia Space Telescope
The Gaia space telescope has measured the acceleration of the Solar System when it orbits the center of our Milky Way galaxy. The Solar System…
See the Motion of 40,000 Stars in the Sky Over the Next 1.6 Million Years
The stars are constantly moving across the sky. Known as proper motion, this motion is imperceptible to the unaided eye but is being measured with…
To the Milky Way’s Anticenter and Beyond: Gaia’s New Detailed Data From More Than 1.8 Billion Stars
The motion of stars in the outskirts of our galaxy hints at significant changes in the history of the Milky Way. This and other equally…
Finding Lost Star Siblings: Star Clusters Are Only the Tip of the Iceberg
“Clusters form big families of stars that can stay together for large parts of their lifetime. Today, we know of roughly a few thousand star…
Gaia Space Observatory Revolutionizes Asteroid Tracking
ESA’s Gaia space observatory is an ambitious mission to construct a three-dimensional map of our galaxy by making high-precision measurements of over one billion stars….
Unlocking Clues to the Origins of the Stars and Planets With Artificial Intelligence
An artificial intelligence (AI) system analyzing data from the Gaia space telescope has identified more than 2,000 large protostars, young stars that are still forming…
Gaia Satellite Scans the Sky to Measure Positions and Motions of 1.7 Billion Stars [Video]
Launched in 2013, the Gaia satellite has been scanning the sky to measure the positions, distances and motions of more than one billion stars in…
The Milky Way Captured Several Tiny Galaxies From Its Neighbor
University of California Riverside-led research shows our galaxy is undergoing a massive merger with its largest satellite galaxy, the Large Magellanic Cloud. Galaxies orbit one…
Gaia Makes First Direct Measurement of the Galactic Bar in the Milky Way
The first direct measurement of the bar-shaped collection of stars at the center of our Milky Way galaxy has been made by combining data from…
Hubble & Gaia Reveal Weight of the Milky Way: 1.5 Trillion Solar Masses
In a striking example of multi-mission astronomy, measurements from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope and the ESA Gaia mission have been combined to improve the…