Context. We present the second Gaia data release, Gaia DR2, consisting of astrometry, photometry, radial velocities, and information on astrophysical parameters and variability, for sources brighter than magnitude 21. In addition epoch astrometry and photometry are provided for a modest sample of minor planets in the solar system. Aims. A summary of the contents of Gaia DR2 is presented, accompanied by a discussion on the differences with respect to Gaia DR1 and an overview of the main limitations which are still present in the survey. Recommendations are made on the responsible use of Gaia DR2 results. Methods. The raw data collected with the Gaia instruments during the first 22 months of the mission have been processed by the Gaia Data Processing and Analysis Consortium (DPAC) and turned into this second data release, which represents a major advance with respect to Gaia DR1 in terms of completeness, performance, and richness of the data products. Results. Gaia DR2 contains celestial positions and the apparent brightness in G for approximately 1.7 billion sources. For 1.3 billion of those sources, parallaxes and proper motions are in addition available. The sample of sources for which variability information is provided is expanded to 0.5 million stars. This data release contains four new elements: broad-band colour information in the form of the apparent brightness in the GBP (330–680 nm) and GRP (630–1050 nm) bands is available for 1.4 billion sources; median radial velocities for some 7 million sources are presented; for between 77 and 161 million sources estimates are provided of the stellar effective temperature, extinction, reddening, and radius and luminosity; and for a pre-selected list of 14 000 minor planets in the solar system epoch astrometry and photometry are presented. Finally, Gaia DR2 also represents a new materialisation of the celestial reference frame in the optical, the Gaia-CRF2, which is the first optical reference frame based solely on extragalactic sources. There are notable changes in the photometric system and the catalogue source list with respect to Gaia DR1, and we stress the need to consider the two data releases as independent. Conclusions. Gaia DR2 represents a major achievement for the Gaia mission, delivering on the long standing promise to provide parallaxes and proper motions for over 1 billion stars, and representing a first step in the availability of complementary radial velocity and source astrophysical information for a sample of stars in the Gaia survey which covers a very substantial fraction of the volume of our galaxy.

Context. Gaia Data Release 2 (Gaia DR2) contains results for 1693 million sources in the magnitude range 3 to 21 based on observations collected by the European Space Agency Gaia satellite during the first 22 months of its operational phase. Aims. We describe the input data, models, and processing used for the astrometric content of Gaia DR2, and the validation of these results performed within the astrometry task. Methods. Some 320 billion centroid positions from the pre-processed astrometric CCD observations were used to estimate the five astrometric parameters (positions, parallaxes, and proper motions) for 1332 million sources, and approximate positions at the reference epoch J2015.5 for an additional 361 million mostly faint sources. These data were calculated in two steps. First, the satellite attitude and the astrometric calibration parameters of the CCDs were obtained in an astrometric global iterative solution for 16 million selected sources, using about 1% of the input data. This primary solution was tied to the extragalactic International Celestial Reference System (ICRS) by means of quasars. The resulting attitude and calibration were then used to calculate the astrometric parameters of all the sources. Special validation solutions were used to characterise the random and systematic errors in parallax and proper motion. Results. For the sources with five-parameter astrometric solutions, the median uncertainty in parallax and position at the reference epoch J2015.5 is about 0.04 mas for bright (G < 14 mag) sources, 0.1 mas at G = 17 mag, and 0.7 mas at G = 20 mag. In the proper motion components the corresponding uncertainties are 0.05, 0.2, and 1.2 mas yr −1 , respectively. The optical reference frame defined by Gaia DR2 is aligned with ICRS and is non-rotating with respect to the quasars to within 0.15 mas yr −1 . From the quasars and validation solutions we estimate that systematics in the parallaxes depending on position, magnitude, and colour are generally below 0.1 mas, but the parallaxes are on the whole too small by about 0.03 mas. Significant spatial correlations of up to 0.04 mas in parallax and 0.07 mas yr −1 in proper motion are seen on small (< 1 deg) and intermediate (20 deg) angular scales. Important statistics and information for the users of the Gaia DR2 astrometry are given in the appendices.

Context. We present the early installment of the third Gaia data release, Gaia EDR3, consisting of astrometry and photometry for 1.8 billion sources brighter than magnitude 21, complemented with the list of radial velocities from Gaia DR2. Aims. A summary of the contents of Gaia EDR3 is presented, accompanied by a discussion on the differences with respect to Gaia DR2 and an overview of the main limitations which are present in the survey. Recommendations are made on the responsible use of Gaia EDR3 results. Methods. The raw data collected with the Gaia instruments during the first 34 months of the mission have been processed by the Gaia Data Processing and Analysis Consortium and turned into this early third data release, which represents a major advance with respect to Gaia DR2 in terms of astrometric and photometric precision, accuracy, and homogeneity. Results. Gaia EDR3 contains celestial positions and the apparent brightness in G for approximately 1.8 billion sources. For 1.5 billion of those sources, parallaxes, proper motions, and the (GBP − GRP) colour are also available. The passbands for G, GBP, and GRP are provided as part of the release. For ease of use, the 7 million radial velocities from Gaia DR2 are included in this release, after the removal of a small number of spurious values. New radial velocities will appear as part of Gaia DR3. Finally, Gaia EDR3 represents an updated materialisation of the celestial reference frame (CRF) in the optical, the Gaia-CRF3, which is based solely on extragalactic sources. The creation of the source list for Gaia EDR3 includes enhancements that make it more robust with respect to high proper motion stars, and the disturbing effects of spurious and partially resolved sources. The source list is largely the same as that for Gaia DR2, but it does feature new sources and there are some notable changes. The source list will not change for Gaia DR3. Conclusions. Gaia EDR3 represents a significant advance over Gaia DR2, with parallax precisions increased by 30 per cent, proper motion precisions increased by a factor of 2, and the systematic errors in the astrometry suppressed by 30–40% for the parallaxes and by a factor ~2.5 for the proper motions. The photometry also features increased precision, but above all much better homogeneity across colour, magnitude, and celestial position. A single passband for G, GBP, and GRP is valid over the entire magnitude and colour range, with no systematics above the 1% level

Context. Gaia Early Data Release 3 (Gaia EDR3) contains results for 1.812 billion sources in the magnitude range G = 3–21 based on observations collected by the European Space Agency Gaia satellite during the first 34 months of its operational phase. Aims. We describe the input data, the models, and the processing used for the astrometric content of Gaia EDR3, as well as the validation of these results performed within the astrometry task. Methods. The processing broadly followed the same procedures as for Gaia DR2, but with significant improvements to the modelling of observations. For the first time in the Gaia data processing, colour-dependent calibrations of the line- and point-spread functions have been used for sources with well-determined colours from DR2. In the astrometric processing these sources obtained five-parameter solutions, whereas other sources were processed using a special calibration that allowed a pseudocolour to be estimated as the sixth astrometric parameter. Compared with DR2, the astrometric calibration models have been extended, and the spin-related distortion model includes a self-consistent determination of basic-angle variations, improving the global parallax zero point. Results. Gaia EDR3 gives full astrometric data (positions at epoch J2016.0, parallaxes, and proper motions) for 1.468 billion sources (585 millionwith five-parameter solutions, 882 million with six parameters), and mean positions at J2016.0 for an additional 344 million.Solutions with five parameters are generally more accurate than six-parameter solutions, and are available for 93% of the sources brighter than the 17th magnitude. The median uncertainty in parallax and annual proper motion is 0.02–0.03 mas at magnitude G = 9–14, and around 0.5 mas at G = 20. Extensive characterisation of the statistical properties of the solutions is provided, including the estimated angular power spectrum of parallax bias from the quasars.

Aims. We report on the production of a large area, shallow, sky survey, from XMM-Newton slews. The great collecting area of the mirrors coupled with the high quantum efficiency of the EPIC detectors have made XMM-Newton the most sensitive X-ray observatory flown to date. We use data taken with the EPIC-pn camera during slewing manoeuvres to perform an X-ray survey of the sky. Methods. Data from 218 slews have been subdivided into small images and source searched. This has been done in three distinct energy bands; a soft (0.2-2 keV) band, a hard (2-12 keV) band and a total XMM-Newton band (0.2-12 keV). Detected sources, have been quality controlled to remove artifacts and a catalogue has been drawn from the remaining sources. Results. A "full" catalogue, containing 4710 detections and a "clean" catalogue containing 2692 sources have been produced, from 14% of the sky. In the hard X-ray band (2-12 keV) 257 sources are detected in the clean catalogue to a flux limit of 4 × 10 −12 ergs s −1 cm −2 . The flux limit for the soft (0.2-2 keV) band is 6 × 10 −13 ergs s −1 cm −2 and for the total (0.2-12 keV) band is 1.2 × 10 −12 ergs s −1 cm −2 . The source positions are shown to have an uncertainty of 8 (1σ confidence).