ESA’s Gaia mission has enabled an incredible number of discoveries of all kinds. The most notable, the last, dates from April 16, 2024: the detection of BH3, a stellar black hole whose record mass thwarts all theoretical predictions. The satellite lives up to its nickname of “surveyor of the sky”: thanks to its tireless research work for more than 10 years to map our galaxy, it has been able to collect a large number of astrometric and spectroscopic data.
And it is here, at CNES, that this data is processed. A colossal job! The team, located at the Toulouse Space Center, ensures the design, development and validation of the algorithms which allow the processing of the data produced.
Still 10 years of data to process
The Gaia team therefore has 10 years of data left to process: the end of a satellite’s life does not mean the end of the mission, far from it! All the teams in the DPAC consortium (read box) will continue to work on it. The 4th catalog is planned for the end of 2026 and the final publication not before 2030. The satellite will be definitively turned off around March 27, but the coming years still promise, thanks to Gaia, many discoveries about our galaxy!
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