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 astrometry and photometry results for about 1.8 billion sources based on observations collected by the European Space Agency Gaia satellite during the first 34 months of its operational phase. Aims. In this paper, we focus on the photometric content, describing the input data, the algorithms, the processing, and the validation of the results. Particular attention is given to the quality of the data and to a number of features that users may need to take into account to make the best use of the Gaia EDR3 catalogue. Methods. The processing broadly followed the same procedure as for Gaia DR2, but with significant improvements in several aspects of the blue and red photometer (BP and RP) preprocessing and in the photometric calibration process. In particular, the treatment of the BP and RP background has been updated to include a better estimation of the local background, and the detection of crowding effects has been used to exclude affected data from the calibrations. The photometric calibration models have also been updated to account for flux loss over the whole magnitude range. Significant improvements in the modelling and calibration of the Gaia point and line spread functions have also helped to reduce a number of instrumental effects that were still present in DR2. Results. Gaia EDR3 contains 1.806 billion sources with G-band photometry and 1.540 billion sources with GBP and GRP photometry. The median uncertainty in the G-band photometry, as measured from the standard deviation of the internally calibrated mean photometry for a given source, is 0.2 mmag at magnitude G = 10–14, 0.8 mmag at G ≈ 17, and 2.6 mmag at G ≈ 19. The significant magnitude term found in the Gaia DR2 photometry is no longer visible, and overall there are no trends larger than 1 mmag mag−1. Using one passband over the whole colour and magnitude range leaves no systematics above the 1% level in magnitude in any of the bands, and a larger systematic is present for a very small sample of bright and blue sources. A detailed description of the residual systematic effects is provided. Overall the quality of the calibrated mean photometry in Gaia EDR3 is superior with respect to DR2 for all bands.

The Initial Star formation and Lifetimes of Andromeda Satellites (ISLAndS) project employs Hubble Space Telescope imaging to study a representative sample of six Andromeda dSph satellite companion galaxies. Our main goal is to determine whether the star formation histories (SFHs) of the Andromeda dSph satellites demonstrate significant statistical differences from those of the Milky Way (MW). Our deep observations yield a time resolution at the oldest ages of ∼1 Gyr, allowing meaningful comparisons to the MW satellites. The six dSphs present a variety of SFHs (e.g., a significant range in quenching times, t q , from 9 to 6 Gyr ago) that are not strictly correlated with luminosity or present distance from M31. In agreement with observations of MW companions of similar mass, there is no evidence of complete quenching of star formation by the cosmic UV background responsible for reionization, but the possibility of a degree of quenching at reionization cannot be ruled out. We do not find significant differences between the SFHs of the members and non-members of the vast, thin plane of satellites. The SFHs of the ISLAndS M31 dSphs appear to be more uniform than those of the MW dSphs. Specifically, the primary difference between the SFHs of the ISLAndS dSphs and MW dSph companions of similar luminosities and host distances is the absence of late-quenching (  t 5 Gyr q ) dSphs in the ISLAndS sample. Thus, models that can produce satellite populations with and without late-quenching satellites are of extreme interest.

Context. This work is part of the Gaia Data Processing and Analysis Consortium papers published with the Gaia Early Data Release 3 (EDR3). It is one of the demonstration papers aiming to highlight the improvements and quality of the newly published data by applying them to a scientific case. Aims. We use the Gaia EDR3 data to study the structure and kinematics of the Magellanic Clouds. The large distance to the Clouds is a challenge for the Gaia astrometry. The Clouds lie at the very limits of the usability of the Gaia data, which makes the Clouds an excellent case study for evaluating the quality and properties of the Gaia data. Methods. The basis of our work are two samples selected to provide a representation as clean as possible of the stars of the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) and the Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC). The selection used criteria based on position, parallax, and proper motions to remove foreground contamination from the Milky Way, and allowed the separation of the stars of both Clouds. From these two samples we defined a series of subsamples based on cuts in the colour-magnitude diagram; these subsamples were used to select stars in a common evolutionary phase and can also be used as approximate proxies of a selection by age. Results. We compared the Gaia Data Release 2 and Gaia EDR3 performances in the study of the Magellanic Clouds and show the clear improvements in precision and accuracy in the new release. We also show that the systematics still present in the data make the determination of the 3D geometry of the LMC a difficult endeavour; this is at the very limit of the usefulness of the Gaia EDR3 astrometry, but it may become feasible with the use of additional external data. We derive radial and tangential velocity maps and global profiles for the LMC for the several subsamples we defined. To our knowledge, this is the first time that the two planar components of the ordered and random motions are derived for multiple stellar evolutionary phases in a galactic disc outside the Milky Way, showing the differences between younger and older phases. We also analyse the spatial structure and motions in the central region, the bar, and the disc, providing new insightsinto features and kinematics. Finally, we show that the Gaia EDR3 data allows clearly resolving the Magellanic Bridge, and we trace the density and velocity flow of the stars from the SMC towards the LMC not only globally, but also separately for young and evolved populations. This allows us to confirm an evolved population in the Bridge that is slightly shift from the younger population. Additionally, we were able to study the outskirts of both Magellanic Clouds, in which we detected some well-known features and indications of new ones.