by
Ulrike Heiter(Uppsala Astronomical Observatory)
→
Europe/Stockholm
Description
Gaia is the ESA space astrometry mission due for launch in late 2011.
Its objective is to map a large part of our Galaxy and its
surroundings by simultaneous positional, radial-velocity, and
multi-colour photometric measurements. During a five-year period Gaia
will survey approximately one billion Galactic stars, and detect and
classify more than ten thousand extrasolar planets, as well as large
numbers of Solar-System and extragalactic objects. It will also
address questions of fundamental physics and cosmology. The data
reduction for Gaia is entrusted to the Gaia Data Processing and
Analysis Consortium (DPAC), involving nearly 300 scientists and
engineers throughout Europe, including teams in Lund and Uppsala.
I will describe the science goals of Gaia and the work carried out in
Uppsala within the DPAC Coordination Unit "Astrophysical Parameters".
This includes calculating synthetic stellar spectra for algorithm
development, obtaining ground-based observations for calibration and
testing purposes, and improving the physics of stellar atmosphere
models.
