For its next trick, Gaia could help detect background gravitational waves in the universe

Ripples in a pond can be captivating on a nice sunny day as can ripples in the very fabric of space, although the latter are a little harder to observe. Using the highly tuned Gaia probe, a team of astronomers proposes in a paper posted to arXiv preprint server that it might just be possible to detect gravitational waves through the disturbance they impart on the movement of asteroids in our solar system.