Gaia — spacecraft, shown live in Cosmoscope, a real-time 3D map of the universe.
ESA’s star surveyor measured the precise positions of nearly two billion stars to build the richest 3D map of the Milky Way ever made, before retiring to a graveyard orbit.
Cosmoscope draws Gaia on its real trajectory, from mission ephemeris rather than an artist's impression. Open the live 3D view to see where Gaia is right now, how far it has travelled from the Sun, and how long its radio signal takes to reach Earth. Scrub the timeline to replay the route that took it there.