Third data release from Gaia spacecraft maps 1.8 billion stars in the Milky Way
Astronomers from the Gaia Data Processing and Analysis Consortium have made public the first part of the third major data release from the European Space Agency’s Gaia spacecraft. The findings, published or being reviewed in a series of papers in the journal
Astronomy & Astrophysics, accurately mapped the position of 1,811,709,771 stars in our Milky Way galaxy, including the distances from Earth and relative motions of 1,467,744,818 of those stars.
Artist’s conception of the Gaia spacecraft as it maps the Milky Way. Credit: ESA/ATG medialab; background: ESO/S. Brunier