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The Gaia mission: science, organization and present status

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 October 2007

L. Lindegren
Affiliation:
Lund Observatory, Lund University, Sweden, email: lennart@astro.lu.se
C. Babusiaux
Affiliation:
Observatoire de Paris, Meudon, France email: carine.babusiaux@obspm.fr, david.katz@obspm.fr
C. Bailer-Jones
Affiliation:
Max-Planck-Institut für Astronomie, Heidelberg, Germany, email: calj@mpia-hd.mpg.de
U. Bastian
Affiliation:
Astronomische Rechen-Institut, Heidelberg, Germany, email: bastian@ari.uni-heidelberg.de
A. G. A. Brown
Affiliation:
Leiden Observatory, Leiden University, The Netherlands, email: brown@strw.leidenuniv.nl
M. Cropper
Affiliation:
Mullard Space Science Laboratory, Dorking, United Kingdom, email: msc@mssl.ucl.ac.uk
E. Høg
Affiliation:
Niels Bohr Institute, Copenhagen, Denmark, email: erik@astro.ku.dk
C. Jordi
Affiliation:
University of Barcelona – IEEC, Barcelona, Spain, email: carme@am.ub.es, xluri@am.ub.es
D. Katz
Affiliation:
Observatoire de Paris, Meudon, France email: carine.babusiaux@obspm.fr, david.katz@obspm.fr
F. van Leeuwen
Affiliation:
Institute of Astronomy, Cambridge, United Kingdom, email: fvl@ast.cam.ac.uk
X. Luri
Affiliation:
University of Barcelona – IEEC, Barcelona, Spain, email: carme@am.ub.es, xluri@am.ub.es
F. Mignard
Affiliation:
Observatoire de la Côte d'Azur, Nice, France, email: francois.mignard@obs-nice.fr
J. H. J. de Bruijne
Affiliation:
ESA, ESTEC, Noordwijk, The Netherlands email: Jos.de.Bruijne@rssd.esa.int, Timo.Prusti@rssd.esa.int
T. Prusti
Affiliation:
ESA, ESTEC, Noordwijk, The Netherlands email: Jos.de.Bruijne@rssd.esa.int, Timo.Prusti@rssd.esa.int
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Abstract

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The ESA space astrometry mission Gaia will measure the positions, parallaxes and proper motions of the 1 billion brightest stars on the sky. Expected accuracies are in the 7–25 μas range down to 15 mag and sub-mas accuracies at the faint limit (20 mag). The astrometric data are complemented by low-resolution spectrophotometric data in the 330–1000 nm wavelength range and, for the brighter stars, radial velocity measurements. The scientific case covers an extremely wide range of topics in galactic and stellar astrophysics, solar system and exoplanet science, as well as the establishment of a very accurate, dense and faint optical reference frame. With a planned launch around 2012 and an (extended) operational lifetime of 6 years, final results are expected around 2021. We give a brief overview of the science goals of Gaia, the overall project organisation, expected performance, and some key technical features and challenges.

Type
Contributed Papers
Copyright
Copyright © International Astronomical Union 2008

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