Undergraduate students are invited to participate in the 2026 Gaia Hackathon! Prizes will be awarded!

What’s Gaia? Gaia is a space telescope that measures the position and velocities of stars in the Milky Way.
What’s a Hackathon? A space where people of different backgrounds get to code something up, for fun.

The Gaia data is the largest stellar catalog to date, with the velocities and positions of 1.5 billion stars in the Milky Way! People of different levels will be accessing this data in the same room, and collaborating on new and exciting projects. If you have ideas on what to use the new data release for, great! Come in for the snacks and the company. If not, we have some fun projects for you, and a day full of tutorials! So join in! Lunch and snacks will be provided. Location to be announced.

Learn more and register at https://gaiadr3hack.mit.edu/. Registration deadline is January 15.