Embed Notice

ESA's Gaia space observatory made its last observation earlier today and ended the sky-scanning phase of its mission.

Launched in 2013, Gaia is running out of fuel needed for spinning and attitude control.

After a few weeks of technology tests, Gaia will be moved from the Lagrange L2 orbit to a heliocentric one. The spacecraft will be passivated on 27 March 2025.

Over 10 years, Gaia made 3 trillion observations of about 2 billion stars and other objects.

https://www.esa.int/Science_Exploration/Space_Science/Gaia/Last_starlight_for_ground-breaking_Gaia
1/n