Gaia (spacecraft)
European optical space observatory for astrometry
Summary
Gaia is a retired space observatory of the European Space Agency (ESA) that was launched in 2013 and operated until March 2025. The spacecraft was designed for astrometry: measuring the positions, distances and motions of stars with unprecedented precision, and the positions of exoplanets by measuring attributes about the stars they orbit such as their apparent magnitude and colour. As of 2026, the mission data processing continues, aiming to construct the largest and most precise 3D space catalogue ever made, totalling approximately 1 billion astronomical objects, mainly stars, but also planets, comets, asteroids and quasars, among others.
Originally created by Curps
7/9/2004, 8:39:07 PM
Modified
5/3/2026, 9:06:46 PM
Recent revisions
/* Stray light problem */ Try to improve language to make sentence clearer to layman
sp
Moving [[:Category:Artificial satellites at Earth-Sun Lagrange points]] to [[:Category:Artificial satellites at Earth–Sun Lagrange points]] per [[Wikipedia:Categories for discussion/Speedy]]
Undid revision [[Special:Diff/1349197450|1349197450]] by [[Special:Contributions/~2026-23366-46|~2026-23366-46]] ([[User talk:~2026-23366-46|talk]]) already mentioned, this is not the place to throw in luminosity
Added about luminosity
Restored 2010s insignia in {{Infobox spaceflight}}, as the mission launched and spent the majority of its operation with the 2010s patch; added editor's note.
Noted the science programme in the succession row of {{Infobox spaceflight}}
Replaced raster image for insignia in {{Infobox spaceflight}} with vector.
Continue to fix tense + minor improvements
/* Scientific instruments */ fix wikilink
Continue to fix tense + minor improvements
Try to fix tense to better reflect current hybrid status (telescope: inactive, mission: active)
added a missing word ('to), brevity edits
/* Gallery */ italics, added name not specified by simply 'galaxy'
/* GaiaNIR */ italics
/* Significant results */ italics, uppercase per direct links and w. style (Solar System, Galactic Center), direct link
Fix wording to reflect current status and add hard dates for context
/* Mission progress */ more spelling fixes to British English
/* Mission progress */ reworded to change tenses
updated to use British English per [[MOS:TIES]]
