This video shows how stellar distances are measured with the Gaia satellite using the parallax method. The first Gaia catalogue (see Gaia Data Release 1), which was published on 14 September 2016, contains parallaxes and proper motions of about 2 million stars in addition the 1 billion stellar positions.
The video was created by Stefan Jordan, Astronomisches Rechen-Institut (ARI) at the Centre for Astronomy of Heidelberg University.
Page last updated: 11 September 2017