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Gaia: A Stereoscopic Census of Our Galaxy

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 October 2010

T. Prusti*
Affiliation:
European Space Agency, ESTEC, The Netherlands
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Abstract

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Gaia is a space astrometry mission, a broad survey project following the measurement and operational principles of Hipparcos. It will help solving one of the most difficult yet deeply fundamental challenges in modern astronomy: to create an extraordinarily precise three-dimensional map of about one billion stars throughout our Galaxy and beyond. In the process, it will map their three-dimensional motions, which encode the origin and subsequent evolution of the Galaxy. Through comprehensive photometric and spectroscopic classification, it will provide the detailed physical properties of each star observed: characterising their luminosity, temperature, gravity, and elemental composition. This massive stellar census will provide the basic observational data to tackle an enormous range of important problems related to the origin, structure, and evolutionary history of our Galaxy.

Type
Contributed Papers
Copyright
Copyright © International Astronomical Union 2010