How’s the Gaia satellite doing?

Ronald Drimmel, member of the pan-European team of experts responsible of the processing of Gaia’s data, known as DPAC (Data Processing and Analysis Consortium), and Gaia Payload Expert, has recently published an article on the current status of the Gaia satellite after its first year of observations.

The author highlights the unexpected surprises (good and bad) encountered since launch and the impressive performance of several of Gaia’s systems, and how these are impacting its performance as a science instrument. Among the science relevant news is that Gaia is producing more data than originally foreseen and, if the evolution of the instrument continues as seen so far, could possibly function beyond it’s currently planned 5 year mission duration.

Read the full article here!