Gaia Vari

In the recent Gaia focused data release, scientists unveiled a staggering 381 lensed quasar candidates—the largest set ever released at once! These quasars, located at significant distances and fueled by black holes, exhibit intense brightness.

Ever heard of the Local Bubble? 🫧 Shaped like a peanut 🥜and filled with dust and gas 💨, it's a celestial wonder surrounding the Sun, less dense than other stellar neighborhoods, orbiting the Milky Way center alongside the Sun.

Through the lens of ESA's Gaia mission, we gain a new perspective on our galaxy. In this most recent updated image 📸, Gaia's precise measurements enable scientists to model captivating top-down views of the Milky Way. In this image youc an see the grand spiral structure.💫

Gaia entangles starry strings of the Milky Way! A recent study using data from ESA's Gaia spacecraft reveals that stellar 'siblings' opt for enduring companionship, forming resilient, string-like groups.👫This unexpected behavior sheds light on the intricacies of star formation.

New data from Gaia suggest that a distinctive warp in our galaxy may be linked to an ongoing interaction with a smaller neighboring galaxy. The effect resembles ripples spreading through a pond after a stone is tossed. ✨

Today we are celebrating the 10th anniversary of Gaia Vari mission! 🥳 Since the launch on 19th of December 2013 the mission has revolutionized our comprehension of the Milky Way by uncovering its shape and structure.

Gaia's cosmic gaze extends beyond stars, unraveling the larger tapestry of our Milky Way. 💫 Yet, its capabilities don't stop there — Gaia offers a unique lens to study macromolecules in interstellar space. These macromolecule contribute significantly to cellular functions.

This image unveils the fascinating world of stellar 'families' residing within our Milky Way. Highlighted in vibrant orange are group of stars younger than 30 million years, on top of an all-sky view based on Gaia observations.

🌠Gaia unveils the secrets of white dwarfs! Before Gaia, our understanding was limited to around 30,000 known white dwarfs. With Gaia's precision, the cosmic census has expanded, revealing over 400,000 white dwarf candidates!🛰

The combination of Gaia’s astrometric, photometric and spectroscopic measurements provide new insights in the physics of planetary nebulae itself, investigating the formation history of shock region and the complex dynamics of its trailing outflow. How cool is that!

The blue star at the center of this planetary nebula is the binary system V664 Cassiopeiae. It consists of two different stars - a small, very hot dwarf star that irradiates part of a larger and cooler star. Gaia observes how the hot spot´s projected size and brightness varies.

Using Gaia observations alone, over 150,000 orbits of asteroids have been mapped. In the future, Gaia DR4 is expected to complete this set by including data on comets, planetary satellites, and doubling the number of asteroids observed, enhancing our knowledge of small bodies! 🤩

Gaia revealed that the birth of the Solar System may be the aftermath of a galaxy-scale cosmic collision 💥 between the Milky Way 💫, and a smaller cosmic companion known as Sagittarius - a dwarf galaxy, discovered in the 1990s.

Did you know that Gaia helps measure space weather! 🌪🌞🌦 The engineers gathered and scrutinized records of solar encounters from seven remarkable ESA spacecraft, and Gaia is among them. This pioneering study aims to deepen our comprehension of the radiation realm in space.

The Gaia mission has unveiled a discovery of over 500,000 previously unseen stars in the heart of Omega Centauri. These stars were unknown to the telescope until now, their study has become possible due to a unique observation mode.

Based on Gaia data scientists have established a precise mass-luminosity relation. This was made possible by studying binary stars, where pairs of stars orbit each other. Now, this relation can be applied to calculate the mass of isolated stars!

Recent data from Gaia has changed our understanding of our Milky Way again. It turns out we have less dark matter than we thought. The Milky Way is now considered four times lighter than believed before, and the balance between dark matter and visible matter has shifted. 🤗

✨ The Gaia consortium has just unveiled the Focused Product Release, including detailed investigation of long period variables. 🌟 Watch the video about showcase of LPVs - Mira variables observed by Gaia: youtu.be/kHrqNojDN6k

Gaia's data is monitored for unusual changes in star brightness. When they occur, alerts are posted on the Gaia Photometric Science Alerts website, enabling astronomers to explore a wide range of variable and transient phenomena. Over 23,000 alerts have been published to date!

There are about 50 dwarf galaxies around the Milky Way. Recent Gaia data reveal that most of these dwarf galaxies are currently passing the Milky Way for the first time. This prompts astronomers to reevaluate the history of our galaxy and the nature of the dwarf galaxies.