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During some thirty years, 1980-2010, technical studies of optical interferometry from instruments in space were pursued as promising for higher spatial resolution and for higher astrometric accuracy. Nulling interferometry was studied for…
The Gaia spacecraft of the European Space Agency (ESA) has been securing observations of solar system objects (SSOs) since the beginning of its operations. Gaia Data Release 2 (DR2) contains the observations of a selected sample of 14,099…
A complicated and ambitious space mission like Gaia needs a careful monitoring and evaluation of the functioning of all components of the satellite. This has to be performed on different time scales, by different methods, and on different…
Since its launch in 2013, the Gaia space telescope has provided precise measurements of the positions and magnitudes of over 1 billion stars. This has enabled extensive searches for stellar and sub-stellar companions through astrometric and…
GAIA present day (end-2002) photometric performances, estimated basing on the stellar populations crucial for understanding the formation and evolution of the Galaxy, are discussed. Performance of the GAIA photometric systems (PSs) is…
We evaluate the potential of the ESA Cornerstone Mission GAIA in helping populate the database of nearby stars ($d < 25$ pc) for subsequent target selection for DARWIN/TPF. The GAIA high-precision astrometric measurements will make it an…
Context. This study has been developed in the framework of the computational simulations executed for the preparation of the ESA Gaia astrometric mission. Aims. We focus on describing the objects and characteristics that Gaia will…
Galactic aberration (GA) is a small effect in proper motions of celestial objects with an amplitude of about 5 $\mu$as/yr already noticeable in highly accurate astrometric observations such as VLBI and Gaia. However accurate accounting for…
In its all-sky survey, Gaia will monitor astrometrically hundreds of thousands of main-sequence stars within $\approx200$ pc, looking for the presence of giant planetary companions within a few AUs from their host stars. Indeed, Gaia…
GAIA spectroscopic and radial velocity performancies are reviewed on the base of ground-based test observations and simulations. The prospects for accurate analysis of stellar atmospheres (temperature, gravity, chemical abundances,…
In astrometric binaries, the presence of a dark, unseen star can be inferred from the gravitational pull it induces on its luminous binary companion. While the orbit of such binaries can be characterized with precise astrometric…
Combined studies of variable stars and stellar clusters open great horizons, and they allow us to improve our understanding of stellar cluster formation and stellar evolution. In that prospect, the Gaia mission will provide astrometric,…
The European Space Agency's Gaia satellite was launched into orbit around L2 in December 2013 with a payload containing 106 large-format scientific CCDs. The primary goal of the mission is to repeatedly obtain high-precision astrometric and…
The expected accurate astrometric data from Gaia offer the opportunity and the obligation to exploitation by a second all-sky mission. Therefore a proposal was submitted to ESA in May 2013 for a Gaia-like mission in about twenty years. Two…
In its all-sky survey, Gaia will monitor astrometrically and photometrically millions of main-sequence stars with sufficient sensitivity to brown dwarf companions within a few AUs from their host stars and to transiting brown dwarfs on very…
The ESA global astrometry space mission Gaia has been monitoring the position of a billion stars since 2014. The analysis of such a massive dataset is challenging in terms of the data processing involved. In particular, the blind detection…
The Gaia satellite will observe about one billion stars and other point-like sources. The astrometric core solution will determine the astrometric parameters (position, parallax, and proper motion) for a subset of these sources, using a…
Despite decades of dedicated efforts there are still basic questions to answer with regard to Supernova progenitor systems and explosion mechanisms. In particular, in the last years a number of exceptionally bright objects and extremely…
Gaia astrometry of nearby stars is precise enough to detect the tiny displacements induced by substellar companions, but radial velocity data are needed for definitive confirmation. Here we present radial velocity follow-up observations of…
Some ideas for onboard processing and photometry with an astrometry satellite are presented, especially designed for GaiaNIR which may be launched about 2045 as a successor of Gaia. - Increased sensitivity, reduced image overlap, and…