Milky Way Galaxy data-based projection of five million years of star movement Looping video, 3:55, 17 x 7 ft.

Courtesy of European Space Agency

Gaia (Global Astrometric Interferometer for Astrophysics) is a space observatory launched in 2013 to catalog stars, planets, comets, and asteroids in the Milky Way Galaxy; record their positions and motions; and calculate their trajectories over time. The video shows the motion of paths of stars over five million years. Gaia is measuring and mapping the size of a sky from our feet on Earth to 30,000 light years away.