Oct 10, 2023
New press release on the Gaia Mission: Rare lenses, cluster nuclei and surprising discoveries
Today, the European Space Agency (ESA) is releasing another treasure trove of knowledge about its Gaia mission. The star surveyor has discovered half a million new and faint stars in a massive star cluster, identified more than 380 possible cosmic lenses, and determined the positions of more than 150,000 asteroids in the solar system with extreme precision.
The Lohrmann Observatory of TU Dresden has been involved in the ESA Gaia mission for more than 20 years. The goal is to create the most accurate and complete catalog of about two billion celestial objects, mainly stars of our galaxy, but also e.g., extragalactic objects or asteroids of our solar system. For this purpose, Gaia measures the positions, movements, brightness and colors of these objects with the highest accuracy. At regular intervals, the Gaia Consortium publishes results in their "Data Releases" - based on the observations that have been gathered and processed.
Five astronomically relevant and highly diverse topics have been selected to demonstrate the richness and diversity of the data collected by Gaia, and are now being made available to the public in what is called a Focused Product Release (FPR).
The Gaia FPR contains in detail:
- Astrometry and photometry of the stars in the largest globular cluster visible from Earth: Omega Centauri.
- First results of the search for gravitational lenses in the vicinity of quasars
- Improved astrometry of objects in our solar system
- Extended radial velocity data for long-period variable stars
- Measurement of diffuse interstellar bands
The Lohrmann Observatory has been directly involved in the first three topics mentioned above. On the one hand, through the development of software and the creation of special data sets that were used in the work. On the other hand, through the development of corresponding models based on general theory of relativity, with which the position and motion of the observed objects can even be mathematically described in this precision in the first place.
More information from the ESA Gaia website
Gaia „Focused Product Release“ (FPR)
ESA Livestream (15:00- 16:30 MEST)
Contact:
Prof. Sergei A. Klioner
Lohrmann Observatory
Tel.: +49 351 463-32821