Illustration par défaut

10th anniversary of Gaia satellite launch

19 décembre 2023

On December 19, 2013, the Gaia satellite lifted off from the Kourou space center in French Guiana.

<multi>[fr]Lancement du Satellite Gaia depuis une fusée Soyouz-STB/Fregat-MT depuis le Centre Spatial Guyanais à Kourou[en]Gaia satellite launched by a Soyuz-STB/Fregat-MT rocket froacm the Guiana Space Center in Kourou.</multi>
Lancement du satellite Gaia par une fusée Soyouz-STB/Fregat-MT depuis le Centre Spatial Guyanais à Kourou.
© ESA

Ten years on, more than 10,000 articles using Gaia data have been published (more than the Hubble Space Telescope !).

Teams from Observatoire de Paris - PSL have decided to celebrate this anniversary by looking back at a dozen outstanding scientific results obtained thanks to Gaia data.

Here they are, presented in 4 chapters :

  1. The eventful history of the Milky Way
  2. Astrometry, cartography and distance scales in the Universe
  3. Singular and multiple stars
  4. The Solar System
Who’s involved at Paris Observatory ?

Since 1998, Paris Observatory has been making an essential contribution to the Gaia mission, with a directly interested community of over 50 people, within four of its departments :

  • The Galaxies, Stars, Physics and Instrumentation Laboratory - GEPI,
  • Institut de mécanique céleste et de calculs des éphémérides - IMCCE
  • Time-Space Reference System Department - SYRTE
  • The Laboratory for Space Studies and Astrophysical Instrumentation - LESIA

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