GAIA: Composition, formation and evolution of the Galaxy

doi:10.1051/0004-6361:20010085

Open AccessJournal Article10.1051/0004-6361:20010085

GAIA: Composition, formation and evolution of the Galaxy

Michael Perryman, +9 more

- 01 Apr 2001

- Astronomy and Astrophysics

- Vol. 369, Iss: 1, pp 339-363

1.3K

TL;DR: The GAIA astrometric mission has recently been approved as one of the next two ''cornerstones'' of ESA's science programme, with a launch datetarget of not later than mid-2012 as discussed by the authors.

Abstract: The GAIA astrometric mission has recently been approved as one of thenext two ``cornerstones'' of ESA's science programme, with a launch datetarget of not later than mid-2012. GAIA will provide positional andradial velocity measurements with the accuracies needed to produce astereoscopic and kinematic census of about one billion stars throughoutour Galaxy (and into the Local Group), amounting to about 1 percent ofthe Galactic stellar population. GAIA's main scientific goal is toclarify the origin and history of our Galaxy, from a quantitative censusof the stellar populations. It will advance questions such as when thestars in our Galaxy formed, when and how it was assembled, and itsdistribution of dark matter. The survey aims for completeness to V=20mag, with accuracies of about 10 mu as at 15 mag. Combined withastrophysical information for each star, provided by on-boardmulti-colour photometry and (limited) spectroscopy, these data will havethe precision necessary to quantify the early formation, and subsequentdynamical, chemical and star formation evolution of our Galaxy.Additional products include detection and orbital classification of tensof thousands of extra-Solar planetary systems, and a comprehensivesurvey of some 105-106 minor bodies in our SolarSystem, through galaxies in the nearby Universe, to some 500 000 distantquasars. It will provide a number of stringent new tests of generalrelativity and cosmology. The complete satellite system was evaluated aspart of a detailed technology study, including a detailed payloaddesign, corresponding accuracy assesments, and results from a prototypedata reduction development. (Less)

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Figures

Table 4. Perihelion precession due to general relativity and the Solar quadrupole moment for a few representative objects. a = semi-major axis; e = eccentricity; GR = perihelion precession in mas/yr due to general relativity; J2 = perihelion precession in mas/yr due to the Solar quadrupole moment (assuming J2 = 10 −6).

Table 2. Local Group galaxies potentially accessible to GAIA. E(B-V) indicates the foreground reddening, and (mM)0 is the true distance modulus. Vlim is the brightest star in the galaxy. µvt−vr is the estimated proper motion, assuming the transverse velocity equals the observed radial velocity. * denotes observed values.

Table 5. Summary of the scanning law and pointing requirements. 0.05 Hz is the maximum frequency that can be identified after measurement post-processing.

Table 6. Average stellar flow in the various fields of the astrometric and spectrometric instruments, and the resulting average telemetry rates. A limiting of G = 20 mag is assumed for the astrometric instrument (AF and BBP) and for the medium-band photometer (MBP), and G = 17 mag for the radial-velocity spectrometer (RVS). It is assumed that each sample represents 16 bits of raw data. The resulting raw data rates are before compression and do not include overhead.

Table 3. Light deflection by masses in the Solar System. The monopole effect dominates, and is summarized in the left columns for grazing incidence and for typical values of the angular separation. Columns χmin and χmax give results for the minimum and maximum angles accessible to GAIA. J2 is the quadrupole moment. The magnitude of the quadrupole effect is given for grazing incidence, and for an angle of 1◦. For GAIA this applies only to Jupiter and Saturn, as it will be located at L2, with minimum Sun/Earth avoidance angle of 35◦.

Fig. 8. Model of CCD data interrelations for an astronomical object. In principle, the data analysis aims to provide the ‘best’ representation of the observed data in terms of the object model, satellite attitude and instrument calibration. Certain data and models can, from the viewpoint of the data analysis, be regarded as ‘given’; in the figure these are represented by the satellite orbit (in the barycentric reference system) and the relativistic model used to compute celestial directions. Other model data are adjusted to fit the observations (dashed lines).

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The recent star formation history of the Hipparcos solar neighbourhood

Xavier Hernandez, +2 more

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TL;DR: In this paper, the Hipparcos catalogue is used to construct colour-magnitude diagrams for the solar neighbourhood, which are then treated using advanced Bayesian analysis techniques to derive the star formation rate history, SFR(t), of this region over the last 3.5 years.

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The recent star formation history of the Hipparcos solar neighbourhood

Xavier Hernandez, +2 more

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TL;DR: In this paper, the Hipparcos catalogue is used to construct colour-magnitude diagrams for the solar neighbourhood, which are then treated using advanced Bayesian analysis techniques to derive the star formation rate history, SFR(t), of this region over the last 3 Gyr.

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Stellar Structure and Evolution: Deductions from Hipparcos

Yveline Lebreton

- 01 Sep 2000

- Annual Review of Astronomy and Astrophys...

TL;DR: The understanding of fine features of the structure and evolution of stars has become possible as a result of enormous progress made in the acquisition of high-quality high-qu....

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Space-borne global astrometric surveys: the hunt for extra-solar planets

Massimiliano Lattanzi, +3 more

- 01 May 2000

- arXiv: Astrophysics

TL;DR: The proposed Global Astrometry International Astronomical Association (GAIA) mission appears capable of surveying the solar neighborhood within 200 pc for the astrometric signatures of planets around stars down to the magnitude limit of $V$=17 mag, including late M dwarfs at 100 pc as mentioned in this paper.

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