Current status and development of the SSO FUN alerts

Abstract

International audienceThe astrometry mission Gaia of the European Space Agency (ESA) will scan the entire sky several times over 5 years, down to a visual apparent magnitude of 20. Apart for its primary targets, the stars, that will be mapped during the course of the mission, Gaia is expected to observe more than 300,000 asteroids (Mignard et al., 2007). Although our census of asteroids is about complete at a such magnitude limit, the location of Gaia at L2 may allow the detection of yet-unknown near-Earth asteroids (NEAs). The predefined and smooth scanning law of Gaia, however, is not meant for pointed or follow-up observations. A ground-based network of observers has therefore been set up, the Follow-Up Network for the Solar System Objects (FUN SSO), centered around a central node (the DU459 of the Gaia Data Processing and Analysis Consortium, the DPAC). The aim of this network is to quickly observe from the ground the NEAs newly discovered by Gaia to secure an accurate orbit