juliensimon/gaia-dr3-cepheids

---
license: cc-by-4.0
pretty_name: "Gaia DR3 Cepheid Variables"
language:
- en
description: "Gaia DR3 catalog of 15,021 Cepheid variable stars with pulsation periods, multi-band photometry, parallaxes, and classifications. Essential standard candles for the cosmic distance ladder."
task_categories:
- tabular-classification
- tabular-regression
tags:
- space
- stars
- cepheids
- variable-stars
- distance-ladder
- gaia
- esa
- astronomy
- open-data
- tabular-data
- parquet
size_categories:
- 10K<n<100K
configs:
- config_name: default
data_files:
- split: train
path: data/gaia_cepheids.parquet
default: true
---

# Gaia DR3 Cepheid Variables

*Part of the [Astronomy Datasets](https://huggingface.co/collections/juliensimon/astronomy-datasets-69c24caf2f17e36128946743) collection on Hugging Face.*

The Gaia Data Release 3 catalog of **15,021** Cepheid variable stars of all types --
classical (fundamental mode), Type II, and anomalous Cepheids. Cepheids are among the most
important standard candles for calibrating the cosmic distance ladder, with their well-known
period-luminosity relation enabling precise distance measurements across the Local Group and
beyond.

## Dataset description

This dataset contains ~15,006 Cepheids identified and characterized by the Gaia DR3
variability processing pipeline. Each object includes pulsation periods, multi-band
photometric parameters (G, BP, RP), light curve amplitudes, classifications, parallaxes,
and photometric distances. The catalog spans all Cepheid subtypes: classical Cepheids (DCEP),
anomalous Cepheids (ACEP), Type II Cepheids (T2CEP, including BL Her, W Vir, and RV Tau),
and multi-mode pulsators.

Cepheids follow a tight period-luminosity (Leavitt) relation that makes them indispensable
for measuring distances -- from the Milky Way disk to galaxies tens of megaparsecs away. The
Gaia parallaxes provide a geometric anchor for calibrating this relation with unprecedented
precision.

## Quick stats

- **15,021** Cepheid variables
- **13,077** classical Cepheids (DCEP types)
- Period range: **0.2003** to **215.48** days (median 2.7167)
- **785** with radial velocity measurements
- **5,265** with metallicity estimates

### Type breakdown
| Type | Count |
|------|-------|
| `DCEP` | 13,077 |
| `T2CEP` | 1,551 |
| `ACEP` | 393 |

## Usage

```python
from datasets import load_dataset

ds = load_dataset("juliensimon/gaia-dr3-cepheids", split="train")
df = ds.to_pandas()

# Period-luminosity (Leavitt) relation
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
valid = df.dropna(subset=["period_best_days", "gaia_g_mag"])
plt.scatter(valid["period_best_days"], valid["gaia_g_mag"], s=0.5, alpha=0.3)
plt.xscale("log")
plt.gca().invert_yaxis()
plt.xlabel("Period (days)")
plt.ylabel("G magnitude")
plt.title("Gaia DR3 Cepheid Period-Luminosity Relation")
plt.show()

# Classical vs Type II Cepheids
if "is_classical" in df.columns:
classical = df[df["is_classical"] == True]
other = df[df["is_classical"] == False]
print(f"{len(classical):,} classical, {len(other):,} other types")

# Sky distribution
plt.scatter(df["ra_deg"], df["dec_deg"], s=0.1, alpha=0.2)
plt.xlabel("RA (deg)")
plt.ylabel("Dec (deg)")
plt.title("Gaia DR3 Cepheids Sky Distribution")
plt.show()
```

## Data source

Ripepi, V. et al. (2023), *Gaia Data Release 3. Specific processing of all-sky RR Lyrae
and Cepheid stars.* Astronomy & Astrophysics, 674, A17.
Via [VizieR](https://vizier.cds.unistra.fr/) CDS Strasbourg (I/358/vcep).

## Related datasets

- [gaia-dr3-rr-lyrae](https://huggingface.co/datasets/juliensimon/gaia-dr3-rrlyrae) -- Gaia DR3 RR Lyrae Variables
- [gcvs-variable-stars](https://huggingface.co/datasets/juliensimon/gcvs-variable-stars) -- General Catalogue of Variable Stars
- [gaia-dr3-eclipsing-binaries](https://huggingface.co/datasets/juliensimon/gaia-dr3-eclipsing-binaries) -- Gaia DR3 Eclipsing Binaries

## Pipeline

Source code: [juliensimon/space-datasets](https://github.com/juliensimon/space-datasets)

## Support

If you find this dataset useful, please give it a heart on the [dataset page](https://huggingface.co/datasets/juliensimon/gaia-dr3-cepheids) and share feedback in the Community tab! Also consider giving a star to the [space-datasets](https://github.com/juliensimon/space-datasets) repo.

## Citation

```bibtex
@dataset{gaia_dr3_cepheids,
author = {Simon, Julien},
title = {Gaia DR3 Cepheid Variables},
year = {2026},
publisher = {Hugging Face},
url = {https://huggingface.co/datasets/juliensimon/gaia-dr3-cepheids},
note = {Based on Ripepi et al. (2023), Gaia DR3, via VizieR CDS Strasbourg}
}
```

## License

[CC-BY-4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)