The Gaia-ESO Survey

The Gaia-ESO Survey (GES) is a public spectroscopic survey with the main aim of understanding the formation and evolution of the Milky Way and its components (bulge, thick and thin discs, halo, and open clusters of all ages). Targeting over a hundred thousand stars throughout the Galaxy and its halo, the spectroscopic data from the FLAMES instrument on the VLT alone will revolutionise knowledge of Galactic and stellar evolution by providing the first homogeneous overview of the distribution of the kinematics and elemental abundances. When this data is combined with astrometry data from the Gaia mission, the survey will quantify the formation history of Galactic populations of all ages. The legacy dataset produced from GES will add enormous value to the Gaia mission and ongoing ESO imaging surveys.

1 / 3

The Very Large Telescope (VLT) in Chile.
Image Credit: ESO/H.H.Heyer

2 / 3

Artist's impression of the Gaia spacecraft, with the Milky Way in the background.
Copyright: ESA/ATG medialab; background image: ESO/S. Brunier

3 / 3

Conference Photo from the Vilnius GES conference. Image Credit: D. Montes