Pinpointing Gaia to enable the most accurate map ever of more than a billion stars

Gaia, operated by the European Space Agency (ESA, surveys the sky from orbit to create the largest, most precise, three-dimensional map of our Galaxy. One year ago, the Gaia mission produced its much-awaited second data release, which included high-precision measurements--positions, distance and proper motions--of more than one billion stars in our Milky Way galaxy. This catalogue has enabled transformational studies in many fields of astronomy, addressing the structure, origin and evolution the...