Rachel Feltman: For Scientific American’s Science Quickly, I’m Rachel Feltman. You’ve probably heard of space telescopes like Hubble and the James Webb. They’re famous for giving us breathtaking ...

After 11 years in solar orbit, the European Space Agency’s Gaia spacecraft has completed its mapping of our Milky Way Galaxy to a precision never before achieved. Surviving solar radiation and even ...

Add Yahoo as a preferred source to see more of our stories on Google. When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. An illustration shows the ...

When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. Credit: ESA/Gaia/DPAC, S. Payne-Wardenaar, L. McCallum et al (2025) Astronomers have unveiled the ...

The Gaia mission of the European Space Agency (ESA) has officially ceased its scientific operations after 12 years of service. This spacecraft, dedicated to mapping the Milky Way, has exhausted its ...

Milky Way stars that are high and low in metallicity have been mapped by the ESA Gaia mission. Credit: ESA/Gaia/DPAC ...

The intrepid mapping mission has collected more than three trillion observations that'll change the way we see our neck of the cosmic woods. Reading time 3 minutes The European Space Agency’s Gaia ...

On this artist impression of the Milky Way, based on data from the European Space Agency’s Gaia telescope, the location of the new star-formation map is shown. The star-formation region that is mapped ...

At least that's what the most current map shows. Astronomers have mapped the most extensive atlas of our Milky Way galaxy yet, including the positions of each and every one of those stars. The ...