Gaia Newsletter #28 - Gaia

News 2023

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Gaia Newsletter #28

Compilation of news and updates from the Gaia mission since late September 2023.

Gaia Focused Product Release

Published since 10 October 2023.

Gaia Focused Product Release data

The data has been published and is now available from our Gaia Archive and the partner data centres.

Gaia Focused Product Release overview page

Find all important information linked from the overview page

Gaia Focused Product Release events

Find recorded events from this page, as well as press releases written by the different DPAC institutes, in different languages.

Gaia Focused Product Release contents description

Short summary of the Gaia FPR data products is given on this page.

Gaia Focused Product Release stories

Five stories were published to highlight each of the five products focused on in this release. Find from these pages also videos and nice illustrations accompanying the release.

Gaia Focused Product Release Documentation

The Gaia Data Release Documentation is provided both as downloadable PDF and from webpages.

Gaia Focused Product Release papers page

Here you can find the list of papers related to this release, with links to the published papers.

Recorded Focused Product release events

The following events were recorded and are available from the Gaia FPR events page:

Stories on Gaia Cosmos

The following stories have been published on Gaia Cosmos since the last newsletter:

Gaia Focused Product Release stories

Gaia’s Gravitational Lens Candidates, including the following material as published in this story:
- Video "Search for gravitational lenses with Gaia"
- Infographic
- Science images showcasing Gaia's ability to detect gravitational lenses
- Video "Gravitational lensing explained"
Unlocking the secrets of solar system objects - Gaia's surprising role, including the following material as published in this story:
- Overview images showcasing the full Gaia asteroid data set
- Science images showcasing the increased precision of the orbits
- Infographic
- Video "Gaia spectacularly improves asteroid orbits"
Radial velocity time series for long period variables, including the following material as published in this story:
- Sky map images
- Video "Gaia's nominal scanning law explained"
- Science images
- Infographic
- Video "Gaia observations of Mira Long Period Variables" (with more technical version here)
- Interactive application showing these variables onto a skymap. When clicking, one can explore each star in ESAsky.
Revealing both strong and weak diffuse interstellar bands with Gaia, including the following material as published in this story:
- GIF animation showing the DIBs at different distances from the Sun
- Sky map and science images
- Video "Spatial distribution of two diffuse interstellar bands"
Gaia's additional data from engineering images taken in crowded regions, including the following material as published in this story:
- Infographic
- Video "Omega Centauri: Unveiling half a million undetected Gaia stars"
- Science images
- GIF animation showcasing the difference made by adding half a million stars to the cluster core: full data set / faint stars only
- Video "Service Interface Function(SIF) image of the globular cluster omega Centauri"
- GIF animation showing the different ways of obsering: nominally using readout windows versus SIF engineering image
- Existing video "Inside Gaia's billion-pixel camera"
- Video: "Omega Centauri: high-density region explored with Gaia's special observation mode"
- GIF animation comparing DR3 versus DR3 plus FPR, also available as short video

Published across ESA websites

The following stories were published across ESA websites.

Press release for Gaia FPR: New Gaia release reveals rare lenses, cluster cores and unforeseen science, including the following material as published in this press release:

Newest playlists on Gaia Mission YouTube

Find here the latest additions to the Gaia mission YouTube Channel:

ESA Archival Research Visitor Programme

To increase the scientific return from its space science missions, the European Space Agency (ESA) welcomes applications from scientists interested in pursuing research projects based on data publicly available in the ESA Space Science Archives. The ESA Archival Research Visitor Programme is open to scientists, at all career levels, affiliated with institutes in ESA Member States and Collaborating States. Early-career scientists (within 10 years of the PhD) are particularly encouraged to apply. Applications by PhD students are also welcome.

During their stay, visiting scientists will have access to archives and mission specialists for help with the retrieval, calibration, and analysis of archival data. In principle, all areas of space research covered by ESA science missions can be supported. Residence lasts typically between one and three months, also distributed over multiple visits. Research projects can be carried out at ESAC (Madrid, Spain) and at ESTEC (Noordwijk, Netherlands). To offset the expenses incurred by visitors, ESA covers travel costs from and to the home institution and provides support for lodging expenses and meals.

Applications received before 1 November 2023 will be considered for visits in spring and summer 2024. For further details, including areas of research and contact information, please refer to https://www.cosmos.esa.int/web/esdc/visitor-programme or write to the programme coordinators at arvp@cosmos.esa.int.

Gaia Vari

Join Gaia's citizen science project "Gaia Vari" and help classify variable stars. The second campaign is now on!