| 1. |
- Prusti, T., et al.
(författare)
-
The Gaia mission
- 2016
-
Ingår i: Astronomy and Astrophysics. - : EDP Sciences. - 0004-6361 .- 1432-0746. ; 595
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Gaia is a cornerstone mission in the science programme of the European Space 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.
|
|
| 2. |
- Brown, A. G. A., et al.
(författare)
-
Gaia Data Release 1 Summary of the astrometric, photometric, and survey properties
- 2016
-
Ingår i: Astronomy and Astrophysics. - : EDP Sciences. - 0004-6361 .- 1432-0746. ; 595
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Context. At about 1000 days after the launch of Gaia we present the first Gaia data release, Gaia DR1, consisting of astrometry and photometry for over 1 billion sources brighter than magnitude 20.7. Aims. A summary of Gaia DR1 is presented along with illustrations of the scientific quality of the data, followed by a discussion of the limitations due to the preliminary nature of this release. Methods. The raw data collected by Gaia during the first 14 months of the mission have been processed by the Gaia Data Processing and Analysis Consortium (DPAC) and turned into an astrometric and photometric catalogue. Results. Gaia DR1 consists of three components: a primary astrometric data set which contains the positions, parallaxes, and mean proper motions for about 2 million of the brightest stars in common with the HIPPARCOS and Tycho-2 catalogues - a realisation of the Tycho-Gaia Astrometric Solution (TGAS) - and a secondary astrometric data set containing the positions for an additional 1.1 billion sources. The second component is the photometric data set, consisting of mean G-band magnitudes for all sources. The G-band light curves and the characteristics of similar to 3000 Cepheid and RR Lyrae stars, observed at high cadence around the south ecliptic pole, form the third component. For the primary astrometric data set the typical uncertainty is about 0.3 mas for the positions and parallaxes, and about 1 mas yr(-1) for the proper motions. A systematic component of similar to 0.3 mas should be added to the parallax uncertainties. For the subset of similar to 94 000 HIPPARCOS stars in the primary data set, the proper motions are much more precise at about 0.06 mas yr(-1). For the secondary astrometric data set, the typical uncertainty of the positions is similar to 10 mas. The median uncertainties on the mean G-band magnitudes range from the mmag level to similar to 0.03 mag over the magnitude range 5 to 20.7. Conclusions. Gaia DR1 is an important milestone ahead of the next Gaia data release, which will feature five-parameter astrometry for all sources. Extensive validation shows that Gaia DR1 represents a major advance in the mapping of the heavens and the availability of basic stellar data that underpin observational astrophysics. Nevertheless, the very preliminary nature of this first Gaia data release does lead to a number of important limitations to the data quality which should be carefully considered before drawing conclusions from the data.
|
|
| 3. |
- van Leeuwen, F., et al.
(författare)
-
Gaia Data Release 1 : Open cluster astrometry: Performance, limitations, and future prospects
- 2017
-
Ingår i: Astronomy and Astrophysics. - : EDP Sciences. - 0004-6361 .- 1432-0746. ; 601
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Context. The first Gaia Data Release contains the Tycho-Gaia Astrometric Solution (TGAS). This is a subset of about 2 million stars for which, besides the position and photometry, the proper motion and parallax are calculated using Hipparcos and Tycho-2 positions in 1991.25 as prior information. Aims. We investigate the scientific potential and limitations of the TGAS component by means of the astrometric data for open clusters. Methods. Mean cluster parallax and proper motion values are derived taking into account the error correlations within the astrometric solutions for individual stars, an estimate of the internal velocity dispersion in the cluster, and, where relevant, the effects of the depth of the cluster along the line of sight. Internal consistency of the TGAS data is assessed. Results. Values given for standard uncertainties are still inaccurate and may lead to unrealistic unit-weight standard deviations of least squares solutions for cluster parameters. Reconstructed mean cluster parallax and proper motion values are generally in very good agreement with earlier Hipparcos-based determination, although the Gaia mean parallax for the Pleiades is a significant exception. We have no current explanation for that discrepancy. Most clusters are observed to extend to nearly 15 pc from the cluster centre, and it will be up to future Gaia releases to establish whether those potential cluster-member stars are still dynamically bound to the clusters. Conclusions. The Gaia DR1 provides the means to examine open clusters far beyond their more easily visible cores, and can provide membership assessments based on proper motions and parallaxes. A combined HR diagram shows the same features as observed before using the Hipparcos data, with clearly increased luminosities for older A and F dwarfs.
|
|
| 4. |
- Clementini, G., et al.
(författare)
-
Testing parallaxes with local Cepheids and RR Lyrae stars
- 2017
-
Ingår i: Astronomy and Astrophysics. - : EDP Sciences. - 0004-6361 .- 1432-0746. ; 605
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Context. Parallaxes for 331 classical Cepheids, 31 Type II Cepheids, and 364 RR Lyrae stars in common between Gaia and the HIPPARCOS and Tycho-2 catalogues are published in Gaia Data Release 1 (DR1) as part of the Tycho-Gaia Astrometric Solution (TGAS). Aims. In order to test these first parallax measurements of the primary standard candles of the cosmological distance ladder, which involve astrometry collected by Gaia during the initial 14 months of science operation, we compared them with literature estimates and derived new period-luminosity (PL), period-Wesenheit (PW) relations for classical and Type II Cepheids and infrared PL, PL-metallicity (PLZ), and optical luminosity-metallicity (MV-[Fe/H]) relations for the RR Lyrae stars, with zero points based on TGAS.Methods. Classical Cepheids were carefully selected in order to discard known or suspected binary systems. The final sample comprises 102 fundamental mode pulsators with periods ranging from 1.68 to 51.66 days (of which 33 with sigma(omega)/omega < 0 : 5). The Type II Cepheids include a total of 26 W Virginis and BL Herculis stars spanning the period range from 1.16 to 30.00 days (of which only 7 with sigma(omega)/omega 0 : 5). The RR Lyrae stars include 200 sources with pulsation period ranging from 0.27 to 0.80 days (of which 112 with sigma(omega)/omega < 0 : 5). The new relations were computed using multi- band (V; I; J; K-s) photometry and spectroscopic metal abundances available in the literature, and by applying three alternative approaches: (i) linear least-squares fitting of the absolute magnitudes inferred from direct transformation of the TGAS parallaxes; (ii) adopting astrometry-based luminosities; and (iii) using a Bayesian fitting approach. The last two methods work in parallax space where parallaxes are used directly, thus maintaining symmetrical errors and allowing negative parallaxes to be used. The TGAS-based PL; PW; PLZ, and MV [Fe/H] relations are discussed by comparing the distance to the Large Magellanic Cloud provided by different types of pulsating stars and alternative fitting methods.Results. Good agreement is found from direct comparison of the parallaxes of RR Lyrae stars for which both TGAS and HST measurements are available. Similarly, very good agreement is found between the TGAS values and the parallaxes inferred from the absolute magnitudes of Cepheids and RR Lyrae stars analysed with the Baade-Wesselink method. TGAS values also compare favourably with the parallaxes inferred by theoretical model fitting of the multi-band light curves for two of the three classical Cepheids and one RR Lyrae star, which were analysed with this technique in our samples. The K-band PL relations show the significant improvement of the TGAS parallaxes for Cepheids and RR Lyrae stars with respect to the HIPPARCOS measurements. This is particularly true for the RR Lyrae stars for which improvement in quality and statistics is impressive.Conclusions. TGAS parallaxes bring a significant added value to the previous HIPPARCOS estimates. The relations presented in this paper represent the first Gaia-calibrated relations and form a work-in-progress milestone report in the wait for Gaia-only parallaxes of which a first solution will become available with Gaia Data Release 2 (DR2) in 2018.
|
|
| 5. |
- Crowley, C., et al.
(författare)
-
Gaia Data Release 1 : On-orbit performance of the Gaia CCDs at L2
- 2016
-
Ingår i: Astronomy and Astrophysics. - : EDP Sciences. - 0004-6361 .- 1432-0746. ; 595
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The European Space Agency's Gaia satellite was launched into orbit around L2 in December 2013 with a payload containing 106 large-format scientific CCDs. The primary goal of the mission is to repeatedly obtain high-precision astrometric and photometric measurements of one thousand million stars over the course of five years. The scientific value of the down-linked data, and the operation of the onboard autonomous detection chain, relies on the high performance of the detectors. As Gaia slowly rotates and scans the sky, the CCDs are continuously operated in a mode where the line clock rate and the satellite rotation spin-rate are in synchronisation. Nominal mission operations began in July 2014 and the first data release is being prepared for release at the end of Summer 2016. In this paper we present an overview of the focal plane, the detector system, and strategies for on-orbit performance monitoring of the system. This is followed by a presentation of the performance results based on analysis of data acquired during a two-year window beginning at payload switch-on. Results for parameters such as readout noise and electronic offset behaviour are presented and we pay particular attention to the effects of the L2 radiation environment on the devices. The radiation-induced degradation in the charge transfer efficiency (CTE) in the (parallel) scan direction is clearly diagnosed; however, an extrapolation shows that charge transfer inefficiency (CTI) effects at end of mission will be approximately an order of magnitude less than predicted pre-flight. It is shown that the CTI in the serial register (horizontal direction) is still dominated by the traps inherent to the manufacturing process and that the radiation-induced degradation so far is only a few per cent. We also present results on the tracking of ionising radiation damage and hot pixel evolution. Finally, we summarise some of the detector effects discovered on-orbit which are still being investigated.
|
|
| 6. |
- Prod'homme, T., et al.
(författare)
-
Electrode level Monte Carlo model of radiation damage effects on astronomical CCDs
- 2011
-
Ingår i: Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. - : Oxford University Press (OUP). - 1365-2966 .- 0035-8711. ; 414:3, s. 2215-2228
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Current optical space telescopes rely upon silicon charge-coupled devices (CCDs) to detect and image the incoming photons. The performance of a CCD detector depends on its ability to transfer electrons through the silicon efficiently, so that the signal from every pixel may be read out through a single amplifier. This process of electron transfer is highly susceptible to the effects of solar proton damage (or non-ionizing radiation damage). This is because charged particles passing through the CCD displace silicon atoms, introducing energy levels into the semiconductor band gap which act as localized electron traps. The reduction in charge transfer efficiency (CTE) leads to signal loss and image smearing. The European Space Agency's astrometric Gaia mission will make extensive use of CCDs to create the most complete and accurate stereoscopic map to date of the Milky Way. In the context of the Gaia mission CTE is referred to with the complementary quantity charge transfer inefficiency (CTI = 1-CTE). CTI is an extremely important issue that threatens Gaia's performances: the CCDs are very large so that the electrons need to be transferred a long way; the focal plane is also very large and difficult to shield; the mission will operate at second Lagrange point where the direct solar protons are highly energetic (penetrating) and the science requirements on image quality are very stringent. In order to tackle this issue, in depth experimental studies and modelling efforts are being conducted to explore the possible consequences and to mitigate the anticipated effects of radiation damage. We present here a detailed Monte Carlo model that has been developed to simulate the operation of a damaged CCD at the pixel electrode level. This model implements a new approach to both the charge density distribution within a pixel and the charge capture and release probabilities, which allows the reproduction of CTI effects on a variety of measurements for a large signal level range in particular for signals of the order of a few electrons.
|
|
| 7. |
- Holl, Berry, et al.
(författare)
-
The impact of CCD radiation damage on Gaia astrometry - II. Effect of image location errors on the astrometric solution
- 2012
-
Ingår i: Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. - : Oxford University Press (OUP). - 1365-2966 .- 0035-8711. ; 422:4, s. 2786-2807
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Gaia, the next astrometric mission of the European Space Agency, will use a camera composed of 106 CCDs to collect multiple observations for one billion stars. The astrometric core solution of Gaia will use the estimated location of the stellar images on the CCDs to derive the astrometric parameters (position, parallax and proper motion) of the stars. The Gaia CCDs will suffer from charge transfer inefficiency (CTI) mainly caused by radiation damage. CTI is expected to significantly degrade the quality of the collected images which ultimately affects the astrometric accuracy of Gaia. This paper is the second and last in a study aiming at characterizing and quantifying the impact of CCD radiation damage on Gaia astrometry. Here we focus on the effect of the image location errors induced by CTI on the astrometric solution. We apply the Gaia Astrometric Global Iterative Solution (AGIS) to simulated Gaia-like observations for 1 million stars including CTI-induced errors as described in the first paper. We show that a magnitude-dependent image location bias is propagated in the astrometric solution, biasing the estimation of the astrometric parameters as well as decreasing its precision. We demonstrate how the Gaia scanning law dictates this propagation and the ultimate sky distribution of the CTI-induced errors. The possibility of using the residuals of the astrometric solution to improve the calibration of the CTI effects is investigated. We also estimate the astrometric errors caused by (faint) disturbing stars preceding the stellar measurements on the CCDs. Finally, we show that, for single stars, the overall astrometric accuracy of Gaia can be preserved to within 10 per cent of the CTI-free case for all magnitudes by appropriate modelling at the image location estimation level and using the solution residuals.
|
|
| 8. |
- Prod'homme, T., et al.
(författare)
-
The impact of CCD radiation damage on Gaia astrometry - I. Image location estimation in the presence of radiation damage
- 2012
-
Ingår i: Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. - : Oxford University Press (OUP). - 1365-2966 .- 0035-8711. ; 419:4, s. 2995-3017
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The Gaia mission has been designed to perform absolute astrometric measurements with unprecedented accuracy; the end-of-mission parallax standard error is required to be of the order of 10 mu as for the brightest stars (V= 10) and 30 mu as for a G2V-type star of magnitude 15. These requirements set a stringent constraint on the accuracy of the estimation of the location of the stellar image on the charge-coupled device (CCD) for each observation: e.g. 0.3 mas or 0.005 pixel for the same V= 15 G2V star. However, the Gaia CCDs will suffer from charge transfer inefficiency (CTI) caused by radiation damage that will degrade the stellar image quality and may degrade the astrometric performance of Gaia if not properly addressed. For the first time at this level of detail, the potential impact of radiation damage on the performance of Gaia is investigated. In this paper (first of a series of papers), we focus on the evaluation of the CTI impact on the image location accuracy using a large set of CTI-free and damaged synthetic Gaia observations supported by experimental test results. We show that CTI decreases the stellar image signal-to-noise ratio and irreversibly degrades the image location estimation precision. As a consequence, the location estimation standard errors increase by up to 6 per cent in the Gaia operating conditions for a radiation damage level equivalent to the end-of-mission accumulated dose. We confirm that, in addition, the CTI-induced image distortion introduces a systematic bias in the image location estimation (up to 0.05 pixel or 3 mas in the Gaia operating conditions). Hence, a CTI-mitigation procedure is critical to achieve the Gaia requirements. We present a novel approach to CTI mitigation that enables, without correction of the raw data, unbiased estimation of the image location and flux from damaged observations. We show that its current implementation reduces the maximum measured location bias for the faintest magnitude to 0.005 pixel (similar to 4 x 10(-4) pixel at magnitude 15) and that the Gaia image location estimation accuracy is preserved. In the second paper, we will investigate how the CTI effects and CTI-mitigation scheme affect the final astrometric accuracy of Gaia by propagating the residual errors through the astrometric solution.
|
|
