Bibcode
Gaia Collaboration; Prusti, T.; de Bruijne, J. H. J.; Brown, A. G. A.; Vallenari, A.; Babusiaux, C.; Bailer-Jones, C. A. L.; Bastian, U.; Biermann, M.; Evans, D. W.; Eyer, L.; Jansen, F.; Jordi, C.; Klioner, S. A.; Lammers, U.; Lindegren, L.; Luri, X.; Mignard, F.; Milligan, D. J.; Panem, C.; Poinsignon, V.; Pourbaix, D.; Randich, S.; Sarri, G.; Sartoretti, P.; Siddiqui, H. I.; Soubiran, C.; Valette, V.; van Leeuwen, F.; Walton, N. A.; Aerts, C.; Arenou, F.; Cropper, M.; Drimmel, R.; Høg, E.; Katz, D.; Lattanzi, M. G.; O'Mullane, W.; Grebel, E. K.; Holland, A. D.; Huc, C.; Passot, X.; Bramante, L.; Cacciari, C.; Castañeda, J.; Chaoul, L.; Cheek, N.; De Angeli, F.; Fabricius, C.; Guerra, R.; Hernández, J.; Jean-Antoine-Piccolo, A.; Masana, E.; Messineo, R.; Mowlavi, N.; Nienartowicz, K.; Ordóñez-Blanco, D.; Panuzzo, P.; Portell, J.; Richards, P. J.; Riello, M.; Seabroke, G. M.; Tanga, P.; Thévenin, F.; Torra, J.; Els, S. G.; Gracia-Abril, G.; Comoretto, G.; Garcia-Reinaldos, M.; Lock, T.; Mercier, E.; Altmann, M.; Andrae, R.; Astraatmadja, T. L.; Bellas-Velidis, I.; Benson, K.; Berthier, J.; Blomme, R.; Busso, G.; Carry, B.; Cellino, A.; Clementini, G.; Cowell, S.; Creevey, O.; Cuypers, J.; Davidson, M.; De Ridder, J.; de Torres, A.; Delchambre, L.; Dell'Oro, A.; Ducourant, C.; Frémat, Y.; García-Torres, M.; Gosset, E.; Halbwachs, J.-L.; Hambly, N. C.; Harrison, D. L.; Hauser, M.; Hestroffer, D.; Hodgkin, S. T. et al.
Bibliographical reference
Astronomy and Astrophysics, Volume 595, id.A1, 36 pp.
Advertised on:
11
2016
Journal
Citations
1000
Refereed citations
901
Description
Gaia is a cornerstone mission in the science programme of the
EuropeanSpace Agency (ESA). The spacecraft construction was approved in
2006, following a study in which the original interferometric concept
was changed to a direct-imaging approach. Both the spacecraft and the
payload were built by European industry. The involvement of the
scientific community focusses on data processing for which the
international Gaia Data Processing and Analysis Consortium (DPAC) was
selected in 2007. Gaia was launched on 19 December 2013 and arrived at
its operating point, the second Lagrange point of the Sun-Earth-Moon
system, a few weeks later. The commissioning of the spacecraft and
payload was completed on 19 July 2014. The nominal five-year mission
started with four weeks of special, ecliptic-pole scanning and
subsequently transferred into full-sky scanning mode. We recall the
scientific goals of Gaia and give a description of the as-built
spacecraft that is currently (mid-2016) being operated to achieve these
goals. We pay special attention to the payload module, the performance
of which is closely related to the scientific performance of the
mission. We provide a summary of the commissioning activities and
findings, followed by a description of the routine operational mode. We
summarise scientific performance estimates on the basis of in-orbit
operations. Several intermediate Gaia data releases are planned and the
data can be retrieved from the Gaia Archive, which is available through
the Gaia home page.
http://www.cosmos.esa.int/gaia