31 January 2020
About 1000 days after the launch of the satellite Gaia, ESA and DPAC (Data Processing and Analysis Consortium) released the 14/09/2016 the first results of the mission : a high-precision mapping of our Galaxy .
This first delivery data includes two stellar catalogs and a set of light curves of variable stars. The first identifies the positions of 1.15 billion stars, with an accuracy between 0.5 and 15 thousandths of a second of degree, depending on their magnitude. It also includes ultra-precise positions of 250 000 quasars, these very distant extragalactic objects used to realize reference frames. The second catalog is the result of a combination of measurements with Gaia and older data collected 23 years ago by the space mission ESA Hipparcos. This catalog includes 2 million bright stars common to both missions. So these are 2 million new stellar distances that are published with an accuracy three times better than that achieved with Hipparcos, and 20 times more sources.
SYRTE teams contributed to this achievement, particularly through GBOT Service, in charge of optical tracking of Gaia (required for optimum consideration of the effects of aberration), and his participation in the validation process of catalogs, especially concerning quasars.
More details : ESA web site