Gaia's 10-Year Milky Way Mission

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Last starlight for Gaia as it completes sky-scanning mission phase

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Gaia has completed the sky-scanning phase of its mission, racking up more than 3 trillion observations of about 2 billion stars and other objects over the last decade to revolutionize the view of our home galaxy and cosmic neighborhood.

Technology tests are scheduled for the weeks ahead before Gaia is moved to its "retirement" orbit.

Two massive data releases are tabled for around 2026 and the end of this decade , respectively.

Gaia Data Release 4 is set to expand its binary star catalogue, the largest such catalogue to date.

It will cover the mission's first 5.5 years, corresponding to the length of the originally foreseen duration of the mission.

The spacecraft will be passivated on 27 March 2025 , to avoid any harm or interference with other spacecraft.

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