36 research outputs found
The variability processing and analysis of the Gaia mission
We present the variability processing and analysis that is foreseen for the
Gaia mission within Coordination Unit 7 (CU7) of the Gaia Data Processing and
Analysis Consortium (DPAC). A top level description of the tasks is given.Comment: 4 pages, 1 figure. To be published in the proceedings of the
GREAT-ITN conference "The Milky Way Unravelled by Gaia: GREAT Science from
the Gaia Data Releases", 1-5 December 2014, University of Barcelona, Spain,
EAS Publications Series, eds Nicholas Walton, Francesca Figueras, and
Caroline Soubira
Clouds, Streams and Bridges: Redrawing the blueprint of the Magellanic System with Gaia DR1
We present the discovery of stellar tidal tails around the Large and the
Small Magellanic Clouds in the Gaia DR1 data. In between the Clouds, their
tidal arms are stretched towards each other to form an almost continuous
stellar bridge. Our analysis relies on the exquisite quality of the Gaia's
photometric catalogue to build detailed star-count maps of the Clouds. We
demonstrate that the Gaia DR1 data can be used to detect variable stars across
the whole sky, and in particular, RR Lyrae stars in and around the LMC and the
SMC. Additionally, we use a combination of Gaia and Gale to follow the
distribution of Young Main Sequence stars in the Magellanic System. Viewed by
Gaia, the Clouds show unmistakable signs of interaction. Around the LMC, clumps
of RR Lyrae are observable as far as ~20 degrees, in agreement with the most
recent map of Mira-like stars reported in Deason et al (2016). The SMC's outer
stellar density contours show a characteristic S-shape, symptomatic of the
on-set of tidal stripping. Beyond several degrees from the center of the dwarf,
the Gaia RR Lyrae stars trace the Cloud's trailing arm, extending towards the
LMC. This stellar tidal tail mapped with RR Lyrae is not aligned with the
gaseous Magellanic Bridge, and is shifted by some ~5 degrees from the Young
Main Sequence bridge. We use the offset between the bridges to put constraints
on the density of the hot gaseous corona of the Milky Way.Comment: Submitted to MNRA
The Detection of Transiting Exoplanets by Gaia
Context: The space telescope Gaia is dedicated mainly to performing
high-precision astrometry, but also spectroscopy and epoch photometry which can
be used to study various types of photometric variability. One such variability
type is exoplanetary transits. The photometric data accumulated so far have
finally matured enough to allow the detection of some exoplanets.
Aims: In order to fully exploit the scientific potential of Gaia, we search
its photometric data for the signatures of exoplanetary transits.
Methods: The search relies on a version of the Box-Least-Square (BLS) method,
applied to a set of stars prioritized by machine-learning classification
methods. An independent photometric validation was obtained using the public
full-frame images of TESS. In order to validate the first two candidates,
radial-velocity follow-up observations were performed using the spectrograph
PEPSI of the Large Binocular Telescope (LBT).
Results: The radial-velocity measurements confirm that two of the candidates
are indeed hot Jupiters. Thus, they are the first exoplanets detected by Gaia -
Gaia-1b and Gaia-2b.
Conclusions: Gaia-1b and Gaia-2b demonstrate that the approach presented in
this paper is indeed effective. This approach will be used to assemble a set of
additional exoplanet candidates, to be released in Gaia third data release,
ensuring better fulfillment of the exoplanet detection potential of Gaia.Comment: Accepted for publication in A&A, 8 pages, 8 figure
Gaia Photometric Data: DR1 results and DR2 expectations
Gaia DR1 was released in September 2016 and contained a photometric catalogue of over 1 billion sources. At this stage, this only included mean G-band photometry and an estimate of the error. Even though this may sound limited in nature, interesting science can still be achieved with this data thanks to its quality. A high level overview of the photometric processing and some validation results will be presented. Additionally, epoch photometry in the G-band was released in Gaia DR1 for a small number of variable sources in the South Ecliptic Pole which covers the LMC. The second data release (Gaia DR2) is currently being prepared and, if available, some preliminary validation results will be presented. It is planned that this release will contain colour information in the form of integrated BP and RP photometry in addition to the latest G-band photometry
Gaia Data Release 1. Principles of the photometric calibration of the G band
Context. Gaia is an ESA cornerstone mission launched on 19 December 2013 aiming to obtain the most complete and precise 3D map of our Galaxy by observing more than one billion sources. This paper is part of a series of documents explaining the data processing and its results for Gaia Data Release 1, focussing on the G band photometry. Aims. This paper describes the calibration model of the Gaia photometric passband for Gaia Data Release 1. Methods. The overall principle of splitting the process into internal and external calibrations is outlined. In the internal calibration, a self-consistent photometric system is generated. Then, the external calibration provides the link to the absolute photometric flux scales. Results. The Gaia photometric calibration pipeline explained here was applied to the first data release with good results. Details are given of the various calibration elements including the mathematical formulation of the models used and of the extraction and preparation of the required input parameters (e.g. colour terms). The external calibration in this first release provides the absolute zero point and photometric transformations from the Gaia G passband to other common photometric systems. Conclusions. This paper describes the photometric calibration implemented for the first Gaia data release and the instrumental effects taken into account. For this first release no aperture losses, radiation damage, and other second-order effects have not yet been implemented in the calibration
Gaia Data Release 2 - Processing of the photometric data
Context. The second Gaia data release is based on 22 months of mission data with an average of 0.9 billion individual CCD observations per day. A data volume of this size and granularity requires a robust and reliable but still flexible system to achieve the demanding accuracy and precision constraints that Gaia is capable of delivering. Aims. We aim to describe the input data, the treatment of blue photometer/red photometer (BP/RP) low-resolution spectra required to produce the integrated GBP and GRP fluxes, the process used to establish the internal Gaia photometric system, and finally, the generation of the mean source photometry from the calibrated epoch data for Gaia DR2. Methods. The internal Gaia photometric system was initialised using an iterative process that is solely based on Gaia data. A set of calibrations was derived for the entire Gaia DR2 baseline and then used to produce the final mean source photometry. The photometric catalogue contains 2.5 billion sources comprised of three different grades depending on the availability of colour information and the procedure used to calibrate them: 1.5 billion gold, 144 million silver, and 0.9 billion bronze. These figures reflect the results of the photometric processing; the content of the data release will be different due to the validation and data quality filters applied during the catalogue preparation. The photometric processing pipeline, PhotPipe, implements all the processing and calibration workflows in terms of Map/Reduce jobs based on the Hadoop platform. This is the first example of a processing system for a large astrophysical survey project to make use of these technologies. Results. The improvements in the generation of the integrated G-band fluxes, in the attitude modelling, in the cross-matching, and and in the identification of spurious detections led to a much cleaner input stream for the photometric processing. This, combined with the improvements in the definition of the internal photometric system and calibration flow, produced high-quality photometry. Hadoop proved to be an excellent platform choice for the implementation of PhotPipe in terms of overall performance, scalability, downtime, and manpower required for operations and maintenance
Gaia Data Release 2 - Photometric content and validation
Aims. We describe the photometric content of the second data release of the Gaia project (Gaia DR2) and its validation along with the quality of the data. Methods. The validation was mainly carried out using an internal analysis of the photometry. External comparisons were also made, but were limited by the precision and systematics that may be present in the external catalogues used. Results. In addition to the photometric quality assessment, we present the best estimates of the three photometric passbands. Various colour-colour transformations are also derived to enable the users to convert between the Gaia and commonly used passbands. Conclusions. The internal analysis of the data shows that the photometric calibrations can reach a precision as low as 2 mmag on individual CCD measurements. Other tests show that systematic effects are present in the data at the 10 mmag level