juliensimon/gaia-dr3-eclipsing-binaries

---
license: cc-by-4.0
pretty_name: "Gaia DR3 Eclipsing Binaries"
language:
- en
description: "Gaia DR3 eclipsing binary candidates — 2,184,477 variable stars with orbital periods, light-curve model parameters, and photometry from ESA Gaia mission."
task_categories:
- tabular-classification
- tabular-regression
tags:
- space
- gaia
- eclipsing-binaries
- stars
- esa
- astronomy
- open-data
- tabular-data
size_categories:
- 1M<n<10M
configs:
- config_name: default
data_files:
- split: train
path: data/gaia_dr3_eclipsing_binaries.parquet
default: true
---

# Gaia DR3 Eclipsing Binaries

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

The Gaia DR3 eclipsing binary catalog, containing **2,184,477** eclipsing binary candidates
identified by the ESA Gaia mission's variability processing pipeline. Each source includes
orbital frequency, light-curve model parameters, global ranking score, and multi-band
photometry (G, BP, RP).

## Dataset description

Eclipsing binaries are pairs of stars whose orbital plane is aligned with our line of sight,
causing periodic brightness dips as one star passes in front of the other. Gaia's all-sky
photometric survey identified these candidates through automated variability classification
and Fourier-based light-curve modeling. The `global_ranking` score (0-1) indicates the
confidence that a source is a genuine eclipsing binary.

## Key columns

| Column | Type | Description |
|--------|------|-------------|
| `source_id` | string | Gaia DR3 unique source identifier |
| `ra_deg` | float64 | Right ascension ICRS (degrees) |
| `dec_deg` | float64 | Declination ICRS (degrees) |
| `frequency` | float64 | Orbital frequency (cycles/day) |
| `period_days` | float64 | Orbital period (days), derived as 1/frequency |
| `epoch` | float64 | Reference epoch (BJD - 2455197.5 days) |
| `global_ranking` | float64 | Classification confidence score (0-1) |
| `g_mag` | float64 | Mean G-band magnitude |
| `bp_mag` | float64 | Mean BP-band magnitude |
| `rp_mag` | float64 | Mean RP-band magnitude |
| `bp_rp` | float64 | BP-RP color index (derived) |
| `model_type` | string | Light-curve model type |
| `num_parameters` | Int32 | Number of model parameters |
| `reduced_chi2` | float64 | Reduced chi-squared of model fit |
| `g_mag_fund` | float64 | G-band fundamental amplitude |
| `num_harmonics_fund` | Int32 | Number of Fourier harmonics (fundamental) |

Full schema includes 40 columns with amplitudes, uncertainties, and geometric magnitudes.

## Quick stats

- **2,184,477** eclipsing binary candidates
- Median G magnitude: nan
- Median orbital period: 0.4929 days
- Median global ranking: 0.525

## Usage

```python
from datasets import load_dataset

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

# High-confidence eclipsing binaries
high_conf = df[df["global_ranking"] > 0.5]
print(f"High-confidence EBs: {len(high_conf):,}")

# Period distribution
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
df["period_days"].clip(upper=10).hist(bins=200, log=True)
plt.xlabel("Period (days)")
plt.ylabel("Count")
plt.title("Gaia DR3 Eclipsing Binary Period Distribution")
plt.show()

# HR diagram (color-magnitude)
plt.hexbin(df["bp_rp"], df["g_mag"], gridsize=200, mincnt=1, cmap="hot")
plt.colorbar(label="Count")
plt.xlabel("BP - RP (mag)")
plt.ylabel("G (mag)")
plt.gca().invert_yaxis()
plt.title("Gaia EB Color-Magnitude Diagram")
plt.show()
```

## Data source

Gaia Collaboration (2023), *Gaia Data Release 3: variability processing and analysis results.*
European Space Agency. Via VizieR CDS (I/355/gaiadr3).

## Related datasets

- [Gaia DR3 Variable Star Summary](https://huggingface.co/datasets/juliensimon/gaia-dr3-variable-summary) — all Gaia variable star classifications

## Pipeline

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

## Citation

```bibtex
@dataset{gaia_dr3_eclipsing_binaries,
author = {Simon, Julien},
title = {Gaia DR3 Eclipsing Binaries},
year = {2026},
publisher = {Hugging Face},
url = {https://huggingface.co/datasets/juliensimon/gaia-dr3-eclipsing-binaries},
note = {Based on Gaia DR3 (ESA) via VizieR CDS}
}
```

## License

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