Follow-up on Gaia

Gaia Follow-Up Network for Solar System Objects

The Gaia Follow-Up Network for Solar System Objects (Gaia-FUN-SSO) has been set up in the framework of a task (DU459) of  Coordination Unit 4 (Object processing) of the DPAC Gaia consortium. Its goal is to coordinate ground-based observations on alerts triggered by the data processing system during the mission for the confirmation of newly detected moving objects or for the improvement of orbits of some critical targets. Gaia scans the sky following a pre-defined scanning law. Ground-based observations are required to avoid the loss of newly detected Solar System objects and to facilitate their subsequent identification by the probe. The GAIA-FUN-SSO site provides access to solar system object alerts, including the ephemeris to help finding the targets for the registered members of the Gaia Follow-up network.

Gaia Photometric Science Alerts

To browse the Gaia Science Alerts published so far, visit the Photometric Science Alerts website. More information about the alerts is available here.

The first Gaia photometric science alert was sent out on 30 August 2014 (see above). Since then, many more were generated to alert the community of the opportunity to observe interesting objects found by Gaia. The latest Gaia photometric science alerts can be found in the feed below.

More follow-up opportunities

An image of the week was dedicated to describe the range of follow-up opportunities for Gaia. This story can be found here.