The European Space Agency's Gaia space mission, launched in 2013, is
designed to measure the brightnesses, colors, positions, distances, and
motions (in three dimensions) of almost two billion of the Milky Way's
hundred billion stars. These measurements are yielding new insights
about the internal structure and formation history of the Milky Way,
thanks in part to a series of increasingly comprehensive data releases
that any member of the astronomical community can access. In this talk,
I will introduce the Gaia mission and summarize the latest data release,
Gaia DR3. This discussion will be complemented by highlights of the
science results from the Gaia data releases, showcasing among others the
impact of Gaia on solar system studies, the Milky Way's accretion and
recent dynamical histories, and understanding matter in extreme states.
