Related papers: Gaia, Fundamental Physics, and Dark Matter
Understanding how young stars and their circumstellar disks form and evolve is key to explain how planets form. The evolution of the star and the disk is regulated by different processes, both internal to the system or related to their…
Astrometric Science and Technology Roadmap for Astrophysics (ASTRA) is a bilateral cooperation between China and Italy with the goal of consolidating astrometric measurement concepts and technologies. In particular, the objectives include…
It has recently been pointed out that Gaia is capable of detecting a stochastic gravitational wave background in the sensitivity band between the frequency of pulsar timing arrays and LISA. We argue that Gaia and THEIA has great potential…
Knowing the distance of an astrophysical object is key to understanding it. However, at present, comparisons of theory and observations are hampered by precision (or lack thereof) in distance measurements or estimates. Putting the many…
The body of photometric and astrometric data on stars in the Galaxy has been growing very fast in recent years (Hipparcos/Tycho, OGLE-3, 2-Mass, DENIS, UCAC2, SDSS, RAVE, Pan Starrs, Hermes, ...) and in two years ESA will launch the Gaia…
The nature of dark matter is one of the most pressing questions in particle physics. Yet all our present knowledge of the dark sector to date comes from its gravitational interactions with astrophysical systems. Moreover, astronomical…
Recent X-ray observations have had a major impact on topics ranging from protostars to cosmology. They have also drawn attention to important and general physical processes that currently limit our understanding of thermal and nonthermal…
Flat rotation curves in disk galaxies represent the main evidence for large amounts of surrounding dark matter. Despite of the difficulty in identifying the dark matter contribution to the total mass density in our Galaxy, stellar…
Astrometry, the precise measurement of star motions, offers an alternative avenue to investigate low-frequency gravitational waves through the spatial deflection of photons, complementing pulsar timing arrays reliant on timing residuals.…
Astrometric weak gravitational lensing is a powerful probe of the distribution of matter on sub-Galactic scales, which harbor important information about the fundamental nature of dark matter. We propose a novel method that utilizes angular…
Mapping the dark matter distribution across our Galaxy represents a central challenge for the near future as a new generation of space-borne and ground-based astronomical surveys swiftly comes online. Here we present a synopsis of the…
The fact that dark matter (DM), thus far, has revealed itself only on scales of galaxies and larger, again thrusts onto astrophysics the opportunity and the responsibility to confront the age old mystery "What is the nature of matter?" By…
Gaia is a space mission currently measuring the five astrometric parameters as well as spectrophotometry of at least 1 billion stars to G = 20.7 mag with unprecedented precision. The sixth parameter in phase space (radial velocity) is also…
During the last century many observations have been made to peep into the dark matter in the universe and many astonishing behaviors of Galaxy clusters have been found which do not fit to any theories formulated before. However, Optical…
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…
We use detailed numerical simulations and the $\upsilon$ Andromedae, planetary system as a template to evaluate the capability of the ESA Cornerstone Mission GAIA in detecting and measuring multiple planets around solar-type stars in the…
The GAIA mission will produce an extraordinary database from which we should be able to deduce not only the Galaxy's current structure, but also much of its history, and thus cast a powerful light on the way in which galaxies in general are…
Detection and orbit determination for thousands of planets with periods up to about 40 years would be obtained by astrometry from two Gaia-like missions, results which cannot be obtained by any other mission, planned or proposed. A billion…
In this concluding article I recall the early history of the Gaia mission, showing that the original science case and expectations of wide community interest in Gaia data have been met. The quarter-century long partnership involving some…
Astrometric positions of moving objects in the Solar System have been measured using a variety of star catalogs in the past. Previous work has shown that systematic errors in star catalogs can affect the accuracy of astrometric…