Photograph of the Milky Way from the Gaia ship

The European Space Agency's Gaia spacecraft has sent back to Earth rare images of the Milky Way.

Gaia is recording data to create a 3D map of the Milky Way in the future.

A map of locations, shapes and stars, constellations exist in the Milky Way galaxy set up by Gaia scientists.

This is the orbital model of the Gaia spacecraft when it makes its journey to discover the Milky Way, which comes from Earth.

Close-up image of young star cluster NGC1818 in the Magellanic cloud adjacent to the Milky Way.

This is one of the rare photos of the Gaia spacecraft three years ago, after the device was being tested in a closed, clean room.