The sculpture is based on a helium balloon made by Cameron Balloons, covered with 50 panels of 120dpi printed imagery of the Earth's surface from multiple satellite images stitched together, at a scale of about 1:1,800,000, or to . The sphere is lit internally when installed in a dark place, to create a glowing floating orb. When viewed from a distance of , Gaia is the same size as the Earth seen from the Moon.
