The Gaia mission

Abstract

Gaia is a cornerstone mission in the science programme of the European Space Agency (ESA). The spacecraft construction was approved in 2006, following a study in which the original interferometric concept was changed to a direct-imaging approach. Both the spacecraft and the payload were built by European industry. The involvement of the scientific community focusses on data processing for which the international Gaia Data Processing and Analysis Consortium (DPAC) was selected in 2007. Gaia was launched on 19 December 2013 and arrived at its operating point, the second Lagrange point of the Sun-Earth-Moon system, a few weeks later. The commissioning of the spacecraft and payload was completed on 19 July 2014. The nominal five-year mission started with four weeks of special, ecliptic-pole scanning and subsequently transferred into full-sky scanning mode. We recall the scientific goals of Gaia and give a description of the as-built spacecraft that is currently (mid-2016) being operated to achieve these goals. We pay special attention to the payload module, the performance of which is closely related to the scientific performance of the mission. We provide a summary of the commissioning activities and findings, followed by a description of the routine operational mode. We summarise scientific performance estimates on the basis of in-orbit operations. Several intermediate Gaia data releases are planned and the data can be retrieved from the Gaia Archive, which is available through the Gaia home page at http://www.cosmos.esa.int/gaia.

The Gaia Collaboration consists of 625 authors. Accepted by A&A in the Gaia Special Feature

References in corpus (16)

• Gaia Data Release 1. Summary of the astrometric, photometric, and survey properties
• Gaia Data Release 1: Astrometry - one billion positions, two million proper motions and parallaxes
• The Gaia FGK Benchmark Stars - High resolution spectral library
• Gaia Data Release 1, Pre-processing and source list creation
• Gaia Data Release 1 - The Cepheid & RR Lyrae star pipeline and its application to the south ecliptic pole region
• Diffuse interstellar bands in RAVE Survey spectra
• Gaia data release 1: Principles of the photometric calibration of the G band
• Detecting stars, galaxies, and asteroids with Gaia
• Radial velocities for the Hipparcos-Gaia Hundred-Thousand-Proper-Motion project
• Overview and stellar statistics of the expected Gaia Catalogue using the Gaia Object Generator
• A general relativistic model for the light propagation in the gravitational field of the Solar System: the dynamical case
• On-orbit performance of the Gaia CCDs at L2
• A multi-method approach to radial-velocity measurement for single-object spectra
• A fast 2D image reconstruction algorithm from 1D data for the Gaia mission
• Gaia on-board metrology: basic angle and best focus
• Enabling Gaia observations of naked-eye stars

Cited by in corpus (256)

• Gaia Data Release 1. Summary of the astrometric, photometric, and survey properties
• The mass distribution and gravitational potential of the Milky Way
• Gaia Data Release 1: Astrometry - one billion positions, two million proper motions and parallaxes
• Gaia Data Release 1: Catalogue validation
• Target Selection for the SDSS-IV APOGEE-2 Survey
• Proxima's orbit around Alpha Centauri
• Asteroseismology and Gaia: Testing Scaling Relations Using 2200 Kepler Stars with TGAS Parallaxes
• The Kepler Follow-Up Observation Program. I. A Catalog of Companions to Kepler Stars from High-Resolution Imaging
• The GALAH Survey: Observational Overview and Gaia DR1 companion
• The anatomy of the Orion B Giant Molecular Cloud: A local template for studies of nearby galaxies
• The age-metallicity structure of the Milky Way disk
• VIRAC: The VVV Infrared Astrometric Catalogue
• UCAC5: New Proper Motions using Gaia DR1
• Estimating distances from parallaxes. III. Distances of two million stars in the Gaia DR1 catalogue
• The TESS-HERMES survey Data Release 1: high-resolution spectroscopy of the TESS southern continuous viewing zone
• Hunting for open clusters in \textit{Gaia} DR2: the Galactic anticentre
• The VMC Survey. XXV. The 3D structure of the Small Magellanic Cloud from Classical Cepheids
• Fundamental parameters and infrared excesses of Tycho-Gaia stars
• The Galactic WN stars revisited. Impact of Gaia distances on fundamental stellar parameters
• Halo Substructure in the SDSS-Gaia Catalogue : Streams and Clumps
• The AMBRE Project: chemical evolution models for the Milky Way thick and thin discs
• Gaia Data Release 1, Pre-processing and source list creation
• Mg line formation in late-type stellar atmospheres: I. The model atom
• Barium & related stars and their white-dwarf companions I. Giant stars
• PLATO as it is: a legacy mission for Galactic archaeology
• Likely Transiting Exocomets Detected by Kepler
• A survey of C2H, HCN, and C18O in protoplanetary disks
• Reconciling solar and stellar magnetic cycles with nonlinear dynamo simulations
• The AMBRE project: The thick thin disk and thin thick disk of the Milky Way
• Hot Stuff for One Year (HSOY) - A 583 million star proper motion catalogue derived from Gaia DR1 and PPMXL
• The CARMENES search for exoplanets around M dwarfs -- Photospheric parameters of target stars from high-resolution spectroscopy. II. Simultaneous multiwavelength range modeling of activity insensitive lines
• Exoplanet atmospheres with GIANO II. Detection of molecular absorption in the dayside spectrum of HD 102195b
• Revealing black holes with Gaia
• Gaia Data Release 1: The reference frame and the optical properties of ICRF sources
• The core-cusp problem: a matter of perspective
• Identification of Young Stellar Object candidates in the $Gaia$ DR2 x AllWISE catalogue with machine learning methods
• Discovery of a Third Transiting Planet in the Kepler-47 Circumbinary System
• A Survey for New Members of Taurus from Stellar to Planetary Masses
• A New Generation of Cool White Dwarf Atmosphere Models. IV. Revisiting the Spectral Evolution of Cool White Dwarfs
• Fourteen candidate RR Lyrae star streams in the inner Galaxy
• Gaia Data Release 1 - The Cepheid & RR Lyrae star pipeline and its application to the south ecliptic pole region
• Dust-trapping vortices and a potentially planet-triggered spiral wake in the pre-transitional disk of V1247 Orionis
• The first all-sky view of the Milky Way stellar halo with Gaia+2MASS RR Lyrae
• The VMC survey - XXVI. Structure of the Small Magellanic Cloud from RR Lyrae stars
• High gas/dust size ratio indicating efficient radial drift in the mm-faint CX Tau disk
• The lowest detected stellar Fe abundance: The halo star SMSS J160540.18-144323.1
• Synthetic Stellar Photometry - II. Testing the bolometric flux scale, and tables of bolometric corrections for the Hipparcos/Tycho, Pan-STARRS1, SkyMapper and JWST systems
• BANYAN. IX. The Initial Mass Function and Planetary-Mass Object Space Density of the TW Hya Association
• The radii and limb darkenings of Alpha Centauri A and B - Interferometric measurements with VLTI/PIONIER
• High-precision abundances of elements in Kepler LEGACY stars. Verification of trends with stellar age
• An extensive VLT/X-Shooter library of photospheric templates of pre-main sequence stars
• Hunting Black Holes with Gaia
• Standard Galactic Field RR Lyrae. I. Optical to Mid-infrared Phased Photometry
• Exploring the age dependent properties of M and L dwarfs using Gaia and SDSS
• No Evidence for Lunar Transit in New Analysis of Hubble Space Telescope Observations of the Kepler-1625 System
• Period spacings of $\gamma$ Doradus pulsators in the \textit{Kepler} field: Rossby and gravity modes in 82 stars
• Scientific Synergy Between LSST and Euclid
• Not all stars form in clusters - measuring the kinematics of OB associations with $Gaia$
• In-depth study of moderately young but extremely red, very dusty substellar companion HD206893B
• Gaia data release 1: Principles of the photometric calibration of the G band
• The extended halo of NGC 2682 (M 67) from Gaia DR2
• The Geometry of Sagittarius Stream from Pan-STARRS1 3$\pi$ RR Lyrae
• 3D motions in the Sculptor dwarf galaxy as a glimpse of a new era
• The Gaia-ESO Survey: calibration strategy
• MOBSTER - II. Identification of rotationally variable A stars observed with \emph{TESS} in Sectors 1 to 4
• CO emission tracing a warp or radial flow within $\lesssim$ 100 au in the HD 100546 protoplanetary disk
• Kinematics of OB-associations in Gaia epoch
• The Solar Neighborhood. XXXIX. Parallax Results from the CTIOPI and NOFS Programs: 50 New Members of the 25 Parsec White Dwarf Sample
• Probing the existence of very massive first stars
• Gaia data release 1, the photometric data
• Size and shape of Chariklo from multi-epoch stellar occultations
• A census of massive stars in NGC 346. Stellar parameters and rotational velocities
• The Mass of Stirring Bodies in the AU Mic Debris Disk Inferred from Resolved Vertical Structure
• The Young L Dwarf 2MASS J11193254-1137466 is a Planetary-Mass Binary
• Toward a Complete Understanding of the Magellanic Stream Formation
• ACRONYM III: Radial Velocities for 336 Candidate Young Low-Mass Stars in the Solar Neighborhood, Including 78 Newly Confirmed Young Moving Group Members
• Testing asteroseismology with Gaia DR2: Hierarchical models of the Red Clump
• An initial overview of the extent and structure of recent star formation within the Serpens Molecular Cloud using Gaia Data Release 2
• The Gaia-ESO Survey and CSI 2264: Substructures, disks, and sequential star formation in the young open cluster NGC 2264
• On the mass accretion rate and infrared excess in Herbig Ae/Be Stars
• When the tale comes true: multiple populations and wide binaries in the Orion Nebula Cluster
• Accurate effective temperatures of the metal-poor benchmark stars HD 140283, HD 122563 and HD 103095 from CHARA interferometry
• A test of Gaia Data Release 1 parallaxes: implications for the local distance scale
• Oort spike comets with large perihelion distances
• A Survey For Planetary-mass Brown Dwarfs in the Taurus and Perseus Star-forming Regions
• Gaia Data Release 1. Cross-match with external catalogues - Algorithm and results
• The bimodal [Mg/Fe] versus [Fe/H] bulge sequence as revealed by APOGEE DR14
• Stellar rotation and the extended main sequence turnoff in the open cluster NGC 5822
• Empirical Bolometric Fluxes and Angular Diameters of 1.6 Million Tycho-2 Stars and Radii of 350,000 Stars with \emph{Gaia} DR1 Parallaxes
• Staying away from the bar: the local dynamical signature of slow and fast bars in the Milky Way
• Globular clusters with Gaia
• Solar System Science with ESA Euclid
• Rotating Stars from Kepler Observed with Gaia DR1
• Extended main-sequence turnoffs in the double cluster $h$ and $\chi$ Persei: The complex role of stellar rotation
• Extreme Scattering Events Towards Two Young Pulsars
• Analysis of the physical nature of 22 New VVV Survey Globular Cluster candidates in the Milky Way Bulge
• The period-luminosity relation of red supergiants with Gaia DR2
• Precise surface gravities of $\delta$ Scuti stars from asteroseismology
• Extreme Debris Disk Variability -- Exploring the Diverse Outcomes of Large Asteroid Impacts During the Era of Terrestrial Planet Formation
• A 80 au cavity in the disk around HD 34282
• The period-luminosity and period-radius relations of Type II and anomalous Cepheids
• Triage of Astrometric Binaries - how to find triple systems and dormant black-hole secondaries in the Gaia orbits
• The fall of the Northern Unicorn: Tangential motions in the Galactic Anti-centre with SDSS and Gaia
• High-resolution spectroscopy of extremely metal-poor stars from SDSS/SEGUE. III. Unevolved Stars with $[Fe/H]\lesssim -3.5$
• The completeness-corrected rate of stellar encounters with the Sun from the first Gaia data release
• ALMA 1.3 Millimeter Map of the HD 95086 System
• Detection of Planetary and Stellar Companions to Neighboring Stars via a Combination of Radial Velocity and Direct Imaging Techniques
• Large Interstellar Polarisation Survey. LIPS I: FORS2 spectropolarimetry in the Southern Hemisphere
• Metallicity determination of M dwarfs - Expanded parameter range in metallicity and effective temperature
• A method to estimate stellar ages from kinematical data
• LAMOST Views $\delta$ Scuti Pulsating Stars
• Wide Binaries in Tycho-Gaia II: Metallicities, Abundances, and Prospects for Chemical Tagging
• A SITELLE view of M31's central region - I: Calibrations and radial velocity catalogue of nearly 800 emission-line point-like sources
• Spontaneous generation of bending waves in isolated Milky Way-like discs
• The VMC survey - XXIII. Model fitting of light and radial velocity curves of Small Magellanic Cloud classical Cepheids
• The Discovery of a Five-Image Lensed Quasar at z = 3.34 using PanSTARRS1 and Gaia
• The Hercules stream as seen by APOGEE-2 South
• Milky Way Tomography with K and M Dwarf Stars: the Vertical Structure of the Galactic Disk
• Centroid vetting of transiting planet candidates from the Next Generation Transit Survey
• CCD Parallaxes for 309 Late-type Dwarfs and Subdwarfs
• More Rapidly Rotating PMS M Dwarfs with Light Curves Suggestive of Orbiting Clouds of Material
• TOI-216b and TOI-216c: Two warm, large exoplanets in or slightly wide of the 2:1 orbital resonance
• The Effect of Binarity on Circumstellar Disk Evolution
• Asteroseismic versus Gaia distances: a first comparison
• Precise masses for the transiting planetary system HD 106315 with HARPS
• Prospects for Backtracing 1I/`Oumuamua and Future Interstellar Objects
• Verifying reddening and extinction for Gaia DR1 TGAS main sequence stars
• Asteroseismic masses of retired planet-hosting A-stars using SONG
• Orbits for eighteen visual binaries and two double-line spectroscopic binaries observed with HRCAM on the CTIO SOAR 4m telescope, using a new Bayesian orbit code based on Markov Chain Monte Carlo
• The Mass-Activity relationships in M and K dwarfs. I. Stellar parameters of our sample of M and K dwarfs
• Through thick or thin: Multiple components of the magneto-ionic medium towards the nearby $\mathrm{H}\mathrm{II}$ region Sharpless 2-27 revealed by Faraday tomography
• A catalog of known Galactic K-M stars of class I, candidate RSGs, in Gaia DR2
• Distribution functions for resonantly trapped orbits in the Galactic disc
• The 2014-2017 outburst of the young star ASASSN-13db: A time-resolved picture of a very low-mass star between EXors and FUors
• The Swift/UVOT Stars Survey. III. Photometry and Color-Magnitude Diagrams of 103 Galactic Open Clusters
• The First Scattered Light Image of the Debris Disk around the Sco-Cen target HD 129590
• Indications of non-conservative mass-transfer in AMXPs
• An artificial neural network to discover Hypervelocity stars: Candidates in Gaia DR1/TGAS
• Multi-band photometry and spectroscopy of an all-sky sample of bright white dwarfs
• The ESA Gaia Archive: Data Release 1
• A survey for planetary-mass brown dwarfs in the Chamaeleon I star-forming region
• The structural evolution of galaxies with both thin and thick discs
• On-orbit performance of the Gaia CCDs at L2
• NOEMA maps the CO $J=2-1$ environment of the red supergiant $\mu$ Cep
• Mapping young stellar populations towards Orion with Gaia DR1
• Ultra Short Period Planets in K2 with companions: a double transiting system for EPIC 220674823
• Migration and kinematics in growing disc galaxies with thin and thick discs
• Cooling in the shade of warped transition disks
• Individual, Model-Independent Masses of the Closest Known Brown Dwarf Binary to the Sun
• Structured star formation in the Magellanic inter-Cloud region
• Transit least-squares survey -- II. Discovery and validation of 17 new sub- to super-Earth-sized planets in multi-planet systems from K2
• At a Crossroads: Stellar Streams in the South Galactic Cap
• The Rotation-Metallicity Relation for the Galactic Disk as Measured in the Gaia DR1 TGAS and APOGEE Data
• Modelling interstellar structures around Vela X-1
• In-flight photometry extraction of PLATO targets: Optimal apertures for detecting extrasolar planets
• Quasar Lenses and Galactic Streams: Outlier Selection and GAIA Multiplet Detection
• Identification of RR Lyrae stars in multiband, sparsely-sampled data from the Dark Energy Survey using template fitting and Random Forest classification
• Gaia Data Release 1: Validation of the photometry
• Using Multiwavelength Variability to Explore the Connection between X-ray Emission, the Far-Ultraviolet H2 Bump, and Accretion in T Tauri Stars
• The fast transient sky with Gaia
• Candidates for RR~Lyrae in binary systems from the OGLE Galactic bulge survey
• Very Low-Mass Stars and Brown Dwarfs in Upper Scorpius using Gaia DR1: Mass Function, Disks and Kinematics
• High-resolution spectroscopic analysis of a large sample of Li-rich giants found by LAMOST
• Evidence for spatially-correlated $Gaia$ parallax errors in the $Kepler$ field
• Chemical abundances in the metal-intermediate GC NGC 6723
• Absolute Magnitude Calibration for W UMa-Type Systems Based on Gaia Data
• New type II Cepheids from VVV data towards the Galactic center
• Precise CCD positions of Triton in 2014-2016 using the newest Gaia DR1 star catalogue
• What is the Milky Way outer halo made of? High resolution spectroscopy of distant red giants
• Fundamental parameters and evolutionary status of the magnetic chemically peculiar stars HD 188041 (V1291 Aquilae), HD 111133 (EP Virginis), and HD 204411. Spectroscopy versus interferometry
• Multiple kinematical populations in Vela OB2 from Gaia DR1 data
• The local spiral arm in the LAMOST-Gaia common stars?
• The CARMENES search for exoplanets around M dwarfs Detection of a mini-Neptune around LSPM J2116+0234 and refinement of orbital parameters of a super-Earth around GJ 686 (BD+18 3421)
• Bok globule CB17: Polarization, extinction and distance
• Calibration of the photometric G passband for Gaia Data Release 1
• Supervised Learning Detection of Sixty Non-Transiting Hot Jupiter Candidates
• Ultracool dwarf benchmarks with \emph{Gaia} primaries
• Asteroid mass estimation using Markov-chain Monte Carlo
• Flying far and fast: the distribution of distant hypervelocity star candidates from Gaia DR2 data
• A high-mass Planetary Nebula in a Galactic Open Cluster
• Transient spiral arms from far out of equilibrium gravitational evolution
• Antisolar differential rotation with surface lithium enrichment on the single K-giant V1192 Orionis
• MUSE unravels the ionisation and origin of metal enriched absorbers in the gas halo of a z = 2.92 radio galaxy
• Star-planet tidal interaction and the limits of gyrochronology
• Directly testing gravity with Proxima Centauri
• Stars with fast Galactic rotation observed in Gaia TGAS: a signature driven by the Perseus arm?
• Angular Momentum Evolution of Young Stars in the Nearby Scorpius-Centaurus OB Association
• Volume uncertainty assessment method of asteroid models from disk-integrated visual photometry
• Detailed chemical abundance analysis of the thick disk star cluster Gaia 1
• On the Oosterhoff dichotomy in the Galactic bulge: II. kinematical distribution
• Magnetic activity of the young solar analogue V1358 Ori
• CO Outflow Candidates Toward the W3/4/5 Complex I: The Sample and its Spatial Distribution
• Nearby Young, Active, Late-type Dwarfs in Gaia's First Data Release
• Modeling the Protoplanetary Disks of Two Brown Dwarfs in the Taurus Molecular Cloud
• Puzzling Blue Dips in the Black Hole Candidate Swift J1357.2-0933, from ULTRACAM, SALT, ATCA, Swift and NuSTAR
• The vertical metallicity gradients of mono-age stellar populations in the Milky Way with the RAVE and Gaia data
• Atmospheres and UV Environments of Earth-like Planets Throughout Post-Main Sequence Evolution
• Evidence of a non-conservative mass transfer for XTE J0929-314
• Searching for Stars Closely Encountering with the Solar System Based on Data from the Gaia DR1 and RAVE5 Catalogues
• Galactic Sources Detected in the NuSTAR Serendipitous Survey
• The K2-ESPRINT Project VI: K2-105 b, a Hot-Neptune around a Metal-rich G-dwarf
• A modified CoRoT detrend algorithm and the discovery of a new planetary companion
• Coronal X-ray emission and planetary irradiation in HD 209458
• Confronting expansion distances of planetary nebulae with Gaia DR2 measurements
• Abundance analyses of the new R Coronae Borealis stars: ASAS-RCB-8 and ASAS-RCB-10
• GRAVITY spectro-interferometric study of the massive multiple stellar system HD 93 206 A
• A low-mass triple system with a wide L/T transition brown dwarf component: NLTT 51469AB/SDSS 2131-0119
• Spectroscopic confirmation of the low-latitude object FSR 1716 as an old globular cluster
• Gaia Data Release 1: The archive visualisation service
• Opacity distribution functions for stellar spectra synthesis
• Magnetic field geometry and chemical abundance distribution of the He-strong star CPD -57 3509
• The intricate Galaxy disk: velocity asymmetries in Gaia-TGAS
• The Measured Impact of Chromatic Atmospheric Effects on Barycentric Corrections: Results from the EXtreme PREcision Spectrograph
• A multi-wavelength study of the debris disc around 49 Cet
• New binaries in the epsilon Cha association
• ISPY -- NaCo Imaging Survey for Planets around Young stars. Discovery of an M dwarf in the gap between HD 193571 and its debris ring
• Proper Motions and Shock Wave Dynamics in the HH 7-11 Stellar Jet
• Spot evolution in the eclipsing binary CoRoT 105895502
• The ssos Pipeline: Identification of Solar System Objects in Astronomical Images
• Collisions of Terrestrial Worlds: The Occurrence of Extreme Mid-Infrared Excesses around Low-Mass Field Stars
• A massive nebula around the Luminous Blue Variable star RMC143 revealed by ALMA
• Variable Stars in Young Open Cluster NGC 2244
• Determination of astrophysical parameters of quasars within the Gaia mission
• New powerful outburst of the unusual young star V1318 Cyg S (LkHα 225)
• A method to calculate the local density distribution of the Galaxy from the Tycho-Gaia Astrometric Solution data
• The GALAH survey: unresolved triple Sun-like stars discovered by the Gaia mission
• Testing the distance scale of the Gaia TGAS catalogue by kinematic method
• Astronomical distance scales in the Gaia era
• Understanding the evolution of Atira-class asteroid 2019 AQ3, a major step towards the future discovery of the Vatira population
• Helium-Star Models with Optically Thick Winds: Implications for the Internal Structures and Mass-Loss Rates of Wolf-Rayet Stars
• Application of Time Transfer Functions to Gaia's global astrometry - Validation on DPAC simulated Gaia-like observations
• An analysis of binary microlensing event OGLE-2015-BLG-0060
• The GAPS Programme with HARPS-N at TNG XV. A substellar companion around a K giant star identified with quasi-simultaneous HARPS-N and GIANO measurements
• Detecting unresolved binary stars in Euclid VIS images
• Comparison of Gaia and asteroseismic distances
• Pulsations and Period Variations of the $\delta$ Scuti Star AN Lyncis in a possible three-body system
• The Case for a Large-Scale Occultation Network
• The influence of dark matter halo on the stellar stream asymmetry via dynamical friction
• A new method of measuring center-of-mass velocities of radially pulsating stars from high-resolution spectroscopy
• Vertical Distribution and Kinematics of Protoplanetary Nebulae in the Galaxy
• Optimal extinction measurements - I. Single-object extinction inference
• Open star clusters in the Milky Way - Comparison of photometric and trigonometric distance scales based on Gaia TGAS data
• A revisit to the enigmatic variable star 21 Comae
• Calibrations of SITELLE's first data release
• Overall properties of the Gaia DR1 reference frame
• An astrometric and spectroscopic study of the $\delta$ Scuti variable HD21190 and its wide companion CPD -83${}^{\circ }$ 64B
• The impact of geometric distortions in multiconjugate adaptive optics astrometric observations with future extremely large telescopes
• Gaia and VLT astrometry of faint stars: Precision of Gaia DR1 positions and updated VLT parallaxes of ultracool dwarfs
• A test field for Gaia. Radial velocity catalogue of stars in the South Ecliptic Pole
• A deep staring campaign in the Sigma Orionis cluster. Variability in substellar members
• A first view with GAIA on KIC 8462852 - distance estimates and a comparison to other F stars
• Constraints on HD113337 fundamental parameters and planetary system. Combining long-base visible interferometry, disk imaging and high-contrast imaging
• An improved solution to geometric distortion using an orthogonal method
• Precision Time-series Photometry in the Thermal Infrared with a 'Wall-Eyed' Pointing Mode at the Large Binocular Telescope
• Sliced Inverse Regression for the inference of stellar fundamental parameters
• Search for Stellar Streams Based on Data from the RAVE5 and Gaia TGAS Catalogues