The ICCUB members of the GAIA team, Mercè Romero, Lola Balaguer and Jordi Portell publish an article in Astronomía Magazine on the Gaia mission.

This article describes the work carried out by the ICCUB team treating the data from the satellite in the core processing, as well as highlighting some of the breakthroughs found thanks to the publication of the second Gaia Data Release, the DR2. With these data, the most precise seen so far, astronomers have discovered two star-forming episodes caused by the interaction of the Milky Way with other galaxies.

Moreover, as the Gaia data is open access, there are several tools and documentation to be used by citizen science at all levels, from schools to amateur astronomers. Two examples are explained: the Alerts system and the asteroids follow up. The vast amount of data that will be analyzed for the next publications DR3 and DR4 is also highlighted.

For more information, read the full article at Astronomía