Communicate your Gaia science results

 

We are interested in hearing about your Gaia science results, but also about any image, visualisation or illustration you have made on the Gaia mission or using Gaia data. If you are willing to share your work with the Gaia mission and get more attention for your research by publishing a story on your work, you can find some guidelines on this page.

Please contact us as early as possible to allow for some time on our side to deal with your request, preferably more than 4 weeks ahead of the paper publication date. We can be contacted as soon as a draft version of your research is ready, even if not yet submitted to a journal. However, be aware that the prepared press releases will only be finalised once the paper is accepted to a refereed journal.

 

Press and News Releases

ESA makes different kinds of press and news releases related to its science missions. If the news item is accepted for an ESA release, the story may be tuned for the general public and/or scientific audience. The preparation will be done jointly with you. Collaborating with press officers from your institute or the journal can be done under embargo.

To start the process towards a news release, open a Helpdesk ticket or send an email to the Gaia Helpdesk with the subject "Communicating Gaia science result" and add your inputs as described below:

Please answer the questions below in a few (3-5) sentences each:

  • What is especially new or newsworthy about this result? What is the main "take home" message? Imagine explaining this to a friend or a family member, not to a fellow scientist.
  • Why would this be interesting for the general public and/or the larger scientific community?
  • How did ESA's missions uniquely enable this result? Does it highlight the capabilities of the ESA observatory, spacecraft, instruments, and/or people? 
  • [optional] Do you think this result could imply a cardinal change in our understanding of something in the Universe, or is it a scientific first? If yes, please explain.
  • [optional] Does this result highlight the work of an early career researcher ?
  • [optional] Do you have images, videos, graphs, animations etc. to accompany this story or any ideas for such? If so, please attach them or describe your idea.

In addition, you may include:

  • A draft of the paper, or some other paper or proceeding reference. Please do not wait until your paper is accepted, but send us the draft/submitted manuscript. This helps to get the story prepared and ready by the time your paper is accepted.
  • Information on where you are in the publication process (drafted, submitted, under review, accepted, published). If any date is known, please indicate this as well.
  • Information on any other communications efforts ongoing. Is your local institute preparing a press release? Let us know and give us the contact details of the press officers (if known). Then we can collaborate with them and align the stories to come out at the same time.

A well-described suggestion will help us put together a strong proposal for a "Communication Request" within ESA. This is a competitive process. All submitted proposals and materials, including embargoed ones, are treated confidentially.

These are recent examples of ESA news releases:

Example of a science news story targeting a broad audience: Artificial brain helps Gaia catching speeding stars

Example of a science news story targeting an audience with scientific interests: Stellar motions in nearby galaxy hint at underlying dark matter

Example of a feature story targeting an audience with scientific interests: Gaia's surprising discoveries – Part 1: Scrutinising the Milky Way

Example of an image release: Gaia's view of our galactic neighbours

Example of a video release: Two million stars on the move

Example of an ESA Space Science Image of the Week: Gaia sky mapper image near the Galactic centre

 

Stories for the Gaia Scientific user community

Some stories are too detailed or specific to be useful as a broad audience press release. These stories could, however, be very interesting to our Gaia scientific community. Don't hesitate to contact us to publish a detailed story on Gaia. These stories can be published on the Gaia Scientific Community website.

Example of a story targeting the Gaia Scientific Community: Triton observation campaign

More stories on Gaia results targeting the Gaia scientific community: Stories published in 2022

 

Visualisations

Do you want to have your dataset visualised with Gaia Sky in 3D and in the time domain? If yes, you can ask Stefan Jordan for support and send him your dataset (VO table, csv file, etc.). These visualisations can be used to support a story you suggest for the Gaia Scientific User community or to support a press release.