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Gaia Newsletter #23

 

Compilation of news and updates from the Gaia mission since late June 2022.

 

Gaia Future Releases

The Gaia Data Release 3 (Gaia DR3) released 13 June 2022 covered 34 months of data. Already before this milestone, the processing for future releases had been proceeding. Gaia Data Release 4 (Gaia DR4) will cover 66 months of observations including all data from the nominal mission. In the current schedule the Gaia DR4 is anticipated to take place not before end of 2025. Unlike for Gaia EDR3/DR3, there are no plans to split Gaia DR4. However, some early tasters of very specific products will be provided in 2023.

This Focused Product Release (FPR) is planned to contain six different flavours of data:

  1. Updated astrometry for Solar System objects,
  2. Astrometry and photometry from engineering images taken in selected regions of high source density (only Omega Cen for this FPR),
  3. The first results of quasars' environment analysis for gravitational lenses search,
  4. Extended radial velocity epoch data for Long Period Variables,
  5. Pre-main sequence accretion parameters, and
  6. Diffuse Interstellar Bands from aggregated RVS spectra.

All these products will be expanded in Gaia DR4. The schedule for Gaia Data Release 5 (Gaia DR5), containing the nominal and extension periods of the mission fully, will be decided after the long term planning has been approved by ESA and the member states funding the Gaia Data Processing and Analysis Consortium (DPAC).

 

Gaia science performance pages updated

The webpages with the expected science performance for the Gaia mission have been updated taking into account Gaia Data Release 3. Expected performances are available for Gaia DR4 and Gaia DR5. PyGaia will be updated soon as well.

 

Gaia DR3 papers

The Gaia DR3 papers page has been updated with links to the papers published since June 2022. Please realize that the Gaia DR3 papers are complementary to the Gaia EDR3 papers.

 

Public Gaia DPAC documents

A selection of documents by the Gaia Data Processing and Analysis Consortium (DPAC) are made available to the public. They can help give some more context and insight specifically needed for understanding certain published articles. With each data release, documents are published when they are referred to from release papers or from the data release documentation.

 

Gaia Community tools

From the Gaia Tools page a link to a webpage discussing Gaia community tools has been added. It lists useful tools developed by the scientific community and accessible often through Github. There is no guarantee from Gaia mission side that these tools will remain available and that they work, we just wanted to help you, as user, find these tools.

 

Updates to the Gaia Help Pages

New Frequently Asked Questions have been added to the Gaia help pages: "Why are there cases with negative flux ratio F2/F1 in the binary_masses table?" and "Why are there no inclinations for astrometric or astrometric-spectroscopic orbits in the NSS_two_body_orbit table?". A silent release of the Gaia DR3 documentation has been published fixing minor typos.

 

ESA Archival Research Visitor Programme

To increase the scientific return from its Space Science missions, the European Space Agency 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 and for PhD students are also welcome.

Residence lasts typically between one and three months, also distributed over multiple visits, depending on the complexity of the research project. The research projects can be carried out at ESAC (Madrid, Spain) and at ESTEC (Noordwijk, Netherlands). 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.

The next deadline for applications is 31 October 2022. For further details, including areas of research and contact information, please refer to this webpage.

 

Published on esa.int/gaia

The following stories were published on esa portal on space science dedicated to the Gaia mission since late June:

 

Stories on Gaia Cosmos

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

Highlighted on @ESAGaia twitter over summer were the "Gaia Data Release 3 stories":

 

ESA Research Fellowships in Space Sciences

The call for European Space Agency's Research Fellowships in Space Science has been opened. The deadline for applications has been extended to 7 October.

ESA's postdoctoral Research Fellowship programme offers early-career scientists and engineers the possibility to carry out research in a variety of disciplines related to Space Science, Space Applications or Space Technology. Research Fellowships in Space Science specifically offer the opportunity to contribute to ESA's endeavour to explore our Solar System and the Universe, in the fields of Heliophysics, Planetary Science, Astrophysics and Fundamental Physics.

Approximately 11 ESA Fellowships in Space Science are offered this year. Independent proposals for innovative research associated with one or more of our missions are welcome. More information on the Research Fellowship programme and on how to apply can be found on this webpage.

 

Shaw Prize award ceremony

In May 2022 it was announced that the Shaw Prize in Astronomy was awarded to Lennart Lindegren and Michael Perryman, for their "lifetime contributions to space astrometry, and in particular for their role in the conception and design of the European Space Agency's Hipparcos and Gaia missions."

More information on the awarded Shaw Prize can be found in this press release by the IAU and in this announcement by the Shaw Prize.

The Shaw Prize award ceremony will be livestreamed on 29 September through:

 

Workshops / conferences related to Gaia

Find an overview of upcoming Gaia related conferences and workshops here. If you wish to advertise your Gaia related workshop or conference here, get in touch with the Gaia Helpdesk.

 

Did you know...

 

Gaia PhD theses

A list of PhD theses related to Gaia can be found on this page. Newest additions to this page are:

 

Year Name Title Institute(s) Country Supervisor(s)
2021 Breuval, Louise The Cepheid Distance Scale: from the Gaia Local Calibration to Distant Galaxies LESIA, Paris Observatory France Pierre Kervella
2021 Godoy-Rivera, Diego Exploring Gyrochronology with Precise Stellar Characterization (paper 1, paper 2, paper 3)


The Ohio State University

 United States Marc H. Pinsonneault
2021 Cullinane, Lara The Structure and Kinematics of the Magellanic Stellar Periphery The Australian National University Australia Dougal Mackey, Gary Da Costa
2021 Bennett, Morgan Vertical Oscillations in the Solar Neighbourhood and the Sagittarius Dwarf Galaxy University of Toronto Canada Jo Bovy
2022 Guo, Difeng A Gaia Census of Young Moving Groups in the Solar Neigborhood Anthon Pannekoek Institute for Astronomy and Astrophysics, University of Amsterdam The Netherlands Lex Kaper, Anthony Brown
2020 Zhihong, He Searching for Open Clusters in Gaia DR2 and Study of Galactic Spiral Structure University of Science and Technology of China China Ye Xu
2022 Viscasillas Vázquez, Carlos Chemical abundances of neutron capture elements in the Milky Way Institute of Theoretical Physics and Astronomy (ITPA) - Vilnius University Lithuania Gražina Tautvaišienė

 

Interested in communicating your Gaia science results?

We are interested to hear about your Gaia science results. Maybe you have an image or visualisation to share, or you might be working towards a paper to be published. On the “Communicate your Gaia science results page” you can find some guidelines on how to contact us and what type of information will be needed from you. Please remember to contact us early in the process!