Related papers: Gaia, counting down to launch
Energy consumption reserves a large portion of the budget for school buildings. At the same time, the students that use such facilities are the adults of the years to come and thus, should they embrace energy-aware behaviors, then…
The Payload Data Handling System (PDHS) of Gaia is a technological challenge, since it will have to process a huge amount of data with limited resources. Its main tasks include the optimal codification of science data, its packetisation and…
Gaia is an ambitious space observatory devoted to obtain the largest and most precise astrometric catalogue of astronomical objects from our Galaxy and beyond. On-board processing and transmission of the huge amount of data generated by the…
In recent years Java has matured to a stable easy-to-use language with the flexibility of an interpreter (for reflection etc.) but the performance and type checking of a compiled language. When we started using Java for astronomical…
We present the results of realistic end-to-end simulations of observations of nearby stars with the proposed global astrometry mission GAIA, recently recommended within the context of ESA's Horizon 2000 Plus long-term scientific program. We…
The Cassini spacecraft will enter Saturn's atmosphere on 15th September 2017. This event may be visible from Earth as a 'meteor' flash, and entry dynamics simulations and results from observation of spacecraft entries at Earth are…
The Gaia mission has triggered major developments in the field of Galactic dynamics in recent years, which we discuss in this review. The structure and kinematics of all Galactic components - disc, bar/bulge and halo - are now mapped in…
As a short introduction to the astronomy session, the response of the community to the Call for Themes issued by ESA and the specific themes selected by the Astronomy Working Group are briefly presented in connection with the four grand…
Solar Orbiter is intended to become ESA's next solar mission in heritage of the successful SOHO project. The scientific objectives of the mission, its design, and its scientific payload are reviewed. Specific emphasis is given to the…
ESA and NASA are studying projects having a tremendous return on variable star research. Other national space agencies are also studying or developing projects of smaller costs but with impressive returns. The projects range from global…
With announcing their "Parastronaut Feasibility Project", the European Space Agency ESA promises to make every reasonable effort to send astronauts with disability to space. This could spark hope in the 15% of all people who live with some…
This paper presents the analytical solution of the inverse ray tracing problem for photons emitted by a star and collected by an observer located in the gravitational field of the Solar System. This solution has been conceived to suit the…
The Gaia all-sky astrometric survey is challenged by several issues affecting the spacecraft stability. Amongst them, we find the focus evolution, straylight and basic angle variations Contrary to pre-launch expectations, the image quality…
The NEAT (Nearby Earth Astrometric Telescope) mission is a proposal submitted to ESA for its 2010 call for M-size mission within the Cosmic Vision 2015-2025 plan. The main scientific goal of the NEAT mission is to detect and characterize…
The Gaia mission has revolutionized our view of the Milky Way and its satellite citizens. The field of Galactic Archaeology has been piecing together the formation and evolution of the Galaxy for decades, and we have made great strides,…
Astrophysical studies require a knowledge of very accurate positions, motions and distances of stars. A brief overview is given of the significance and development of astrometry by ESA's two astrometric satellites, Hipparcos and Gaia,…
In this communication, we show how asteroids observations from the Gaia mission can be used to perform local tests of General Relativity (GR). This ESA mission, launched in December 2013, will observe --in addition to the stars-- a large…
STE-QUEST is a fundamental science mission which is considered for launch within the Cosmic Vision programme of the European Space Agency (ESA). Its main scientific objectives relate to probing various aspects of Einstein's theory of…
Technical reports on operations and features of the Pierre Auger Observatory, including ongoing and planned enhancements and the status of the future northern hemisphere portion of the Observatory. Contributions to the 31st International…
The wealth of information in the Gaia catalogue of exoplanets will constitute a fundamental contribution to several hot topics of the astrophysics of planetary systems. I briefly review the potential impact of Gaia micro-arsec astrometry in…