Gaia catalogues#Gaia DR1

The Initial Gaia Source List (IGSL) is a star catalogue of 1.2 billion objects created in support of the Gaia mission. The mission should have delivered a catalogue based entirely on its own data. For the first catalogue, Gaia DR1, a way was needed to be able to assign the observations to an object and to compare them with the objects from other star catalogues. For this purpose, a separate catalog of objects from several other catalogues was compiled, which roughly represents the state of knowledge of astronomy at the beginning of the Gaia mission.{{cite web|author=R. L. Smart |publisher=Gaia DPAC Data Processing & Analysis Consortium |title=The Initial Gaia Source List and the Attitude Star Catalog GAIA-C3-TN-OATO-RLS-004-02 |date=2013-10-17 |url=https://dms.cosmos.esa.int/COSMOS/doc_fetch.php?id=3223578}}

The Attitude Star Catalog is a subset of the IGSL, required for the first approximation in the iterative evaluation of the Gaia data. A first version was created in 2013, a more refined version in April 2014. In total, the Attitude Star Catalog contains 8,173,331 entries with information on position, proper motion and magnitude.{{cite web|author=R. L. Smart |publisher=DPAC |title=The Attitude Star Catalog |date=2014-04-28 |url=http://igsl.oato.inaf.it/documents/Gaia-C3-TN-OATO-RLS-007.pdf }} Starting with Gaia DR2, the Attitude Star Catalog was replaced with a new list generated from the Gaia Main Data Base (MDB), using the same criteria.

IGSL contains a list of about 200 stars of different spectral classes and magnitudes needed for calibration of the photometric measurements. It is the result of the Gaia Spectrophotometric Standard Stars Survey (SPSS), a selection of stars using Earth-based data in advance of the Gaia mission. Previous catalogues for calibrating magnitudes could not be used for the mission because many of these objects are too bright for Gaia to detect. It was anticipated that some of the stars selected may be previously unrecognized doubles or variable stars that would need to be deleted from the catalogue; for this reason the list contains more stars than necessary.{{cite journal |author=E. Pancino |display-authors=et al |title=The Gaia spectrophotometric standard stars survey - I. Preliminary results |journal=Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society |year=2012 |volume=426 |issue=3 |pages=1767–1781 |doi=10.1111/j.1365-2966.2012.21766.x |doi-access=free |arxiv=1207.6042 |bibcode=2012MNRAS.426.1767P |s2cid=27564967 }}{{cite web|author=C. Jordi |display-authors=et al |title=The Gaia Spectrophotometric Standard Stars |url=http://www.sea-astronomia.es/drupal/sites/default/files/archivos/proceedings10/instrumentacion/POSTERS/poster_jordic.pdf}} For Gaia EDR3 (Early Data Release 3), a selection was made from more than 100,000 objects that were used for the calibration. These are well-observed objects selected according to Stetson Secondary Standards, but only Gaia data were used.{{cite journal|author1=Marco Riello|author2=F. De Angeli|author3=D. W. Evans |title=Gaia Early Data Release 3: Photometric content and validation |journal=Astronomy & Astrophysics |date=2020-12-03 |volume=649 |pages=A3 |issn=0004-6361 |doi=10.1051/0004-6361/202039587 |s2cid=248245902 |doi-access=free |arxiv=2012.01916 }}

A list of quasars based on the Large Quasar Astrometric Catalog was prepared for IGSL. This in turn goes back to the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. From the more than one million objects, a selection of 150,000 quasars was made, which are in the region of Gaia's magnitude limit. The selected objects are already well observed and documented. In most cases, quasars are very far away, so that their proper motions and parallaxes are negligibly small.{{cite journal |last1=Mignard |first1=F. |last2=Klioner |first2=S. |last3=Lindegren |first3=L. |last4=Bastian |first4=U. |last5=Bombrun |first5=A. |last6=Hernández |first6=J. |last7=Hobbs |first7=D. |last8=Lammers |first8=U. |last9=Michalik |first9=D. |last10=Ramos-Lerate |first10=M. |last11=Biermann |first11=M. |last12=Butkevich |first12=A. |last13=Comoretto |first13=G. |last14=Joliet |first14=E. |last15=Holl |first15=B. |last16=Hutton |first16=A. |last17=Parsons |first17=P. |last18=Steidelmüller |first18=H. |last19=Andrei |first19=A. |last20=Bourda |first20=G. |last21=Charlot |first21=P. |title=Gaia Data Release 1: Reference frame and optical properties of ICRF sources |journal=Astronomy & Astrophysics |date=November 2016 |volume=595 |pages=A5 |doi=10.1051/0004-6361/201629534 |arxiv=1609.07255 |bibcode=2016A&A...595A...5M |s2cid=46661611 }}{{cite journal |last1=Michalik |first1=Daniel |last2=Lindegren |first2=Lennart |title=Quasars can be used to verify the parallax zero-point of the Tycho - Gaia Astrometric Solution |journal=Astronomy & Astrophysics |date=February 2016 |volume=586 |pages=A26 |doi=10.1051/0004-6361/201527444|arxiv=1511.01896 |bibcode=2016A&A...586A..26M |s2cid=119126039 }}

Gaia Ecliptic Pole Catalogue (GEPC) was created for measuring the poles. The southern part of the catalogue was compiled from observations made with the MPG/ESO telescope at the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy in La Silla, Chile. It contains precise positions, UBV I photometry for the southern field and the corresponding magnitudes. The northern part was created with the Canada–France–Hawaii Telescope on Mauna Kea, Hawaii.

The GEPC v3.0 catalogue contains 612,946 objects from a field of one square degree each at the north and south poles. The north pole is relatively sparse and contains 164,468 objects, while the south pole is still in the region of the Large Magellanic Cloud and contains 448,478 objects.{{cite report |last1=Altmann |first1=M. |last2=Bastian |first2=Uli |title=Gaia Data Release 1 |chapter=2.2.4 The Gaia Ecliptic Pole Catalog (GEPC) |date=17 February 2017 |chapter-url=https://gea.esac.esa.int/archive/documentation//GDR1/pdf/GaiaDR1_documentation_1.1.pdf |access-date=17 August 2022 |publisher=European Space Agency and Gaia Data Processing and Analysis Consortium}} The GEPC data was needed right at the beginning of the mission for the initial calibration. The commissioning phase of the Gaia space probe ended on July 18, 2014. This was followed by a calibration phase of 28 days, during which the ecliptic poles were measured intensively. During this time, Gaia was operated in Ecliptic Poles Scan Law mode (EPSL), in which the two poles were measured twice during each revolution. The initial catalogue was used for Gaia DR1 to match Gaia-found objects to previous star catalogues.

Gaia DR1, the first data release based on 14 months of observations made through September 2015, took place on 13 September 2016.{{cite web |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-37355154 |title=Gaia space telescope plots a billion stars |author=Jonathan Amos |website=BBC |date=14 July 2016 |access-date=2022-09-23 }}{{cite press release |url=http://sci.esa.int/gaia/58272-gaia-s-billion-star-map-hints-at-treasures-to-come/ |title=Gaia's billion-star map hints at treasures to come |publisher=ESA |date=13 September 2016 |access-date=2022-09-23 }} It includes "positions and magnitudes in a single photometric band for 1.1 billion stars using only Gaia data, positions, parallaxes and proper motions for more than 2 million stars" based on a combination of Gaia and Tycho-2 data for those objects in both catalogues, "light curves and characteristics for about 3000 variable stars, and positions and magnitudes for more than 2000 extragalactic sources used to define the celestial reference frame".{{Cite web |date = 14 September 2016 |title = Gaia Data Release 1 (Gaia DR1) |url = http://www.cosmos.esa.int/web/gaia/dr1 |access-date = 16 September 2016 }}{{Cite web | date = 15 September 2016 |title = Data Release 1 |url = http://sci.esa.int/gaia/58275-data-release-1/ |access-date = 15 September 2016 }}

File:How many stars will there be in the second Gaia data release? ESA392158.jpg

The second data release (DR2), which occurred on 25 April 2018,{{cite news |last=Overbye |first=Dennis |author-link=Dennis Overbye |title=Gaia's Map of 1.3 Billion Stars Makes for a Milky Way in a Bottle |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/01/science/gaia-map-milky-way.html |date=1 May 2018 |work=The New York Times |access-date=1 May 2018 }}{{cite web| url = https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2018/04/25/605622779/you-are-here-scientists-unveil-precise-map-of-more-than-a-billion-stars| title = You Are Here: Scientists Unveil Precise Map Of More Than A Billion Stars| website = NPR.org}} is based on 22 months of observations made between 25 July 2014 and 23 May 2016. It includes positions, parallaxes and proper motions for about 1.3 billion stars and positions of an additional 300 million stars in the magnitude range g = 3–20,{{ Citation | author = Gaia Helpdesk | date = 9 December 2019 | title = Gaia DR2 primer: Everything you wish you had known before you started working with Gaia Data Release 2 | volume = 1 | url = https://www.cosmos.esa.int/documents/29201/1773953/Gaia+DR2+primer.pdf/a4459741-6732-7a98-1406-a1bea243df79?t=1575906638431 | access-date = 10 December 2019 | format = pdf }} red and blue photometric data for about 1.1 billion stars and single colour photometry for an additional 400 million stars, and median radial velocities for about 7 million stars between magnitude 4 and 13. It also contains data for over 14,000 selected Solar System objects.{{ Cite web | date = 25 April 2018 | title = Gaia Data Release 2 (Gaia DR2) | url = https://www.cosmos.esa.int/web/gaia/dr2 | access-date = 26 April 2018 }}{{cite web | url=http://sci.esa.int/gaia/59821-selected-asteroids-detected-by-gaia-between-august-2014-and-may-2016/ | access-date=2 December 2017 | title=Selected asteroids detected by Gaia between August 2014 and May 2016}}

The coordinates in DR2 use the second Gaia celestial reference frame (Gaia–CRF2{{anchor|CRF}}), which is based on observations of 492,006 sources believed to be quasars and has been described as "the first full-fledged optical realisation of the ICRS ... built only on extragalactic sources."{{ Cite journal | last1 = Gaia Collaboration | last2 = Mignard | first2 = F. | display-authors = et al | date = 2018 | title = Gaia Data Release 2 – The celestial reference frame (Gaia-CRF2) | journal = Astronomy & Astrophysics| volume = 616 | issue = A14 | pages = A14 | doi = 10.1051/0004-6361/201832916 | arxiv = 1804.09377 | bibcode = 2018A&A...616A..14G | s2cid = 52838272 }} Comparison of the positions of 2,843 sources common to Gaia–CRF2 and a preliminary version of the ICRF3 shows a global agreement of 20 to 30 μas, although individual sources may differ by several mas.{{ Cite journal | last1 = Lindegren | first1 = L. | last2 = Hernandez | first2 = J. | last3 = Bombrun | first3 = A. | last4 = Klioner | first4 = S. | display-authors = et al | date = 2018 | title = Gaia Data Release 2 – The astrometric solution | journal = Astronomy & Astrophysics| volume = 616 | issue = A2 | pages = A2 | doi = 10.1051/0004-6361/201832727 | arxiv = 1804.09366 | bibcode = 2018A&A...616A...2L | s2cid = 54497421 }} Since the data processing procedure links individual Gaia observations with particular sources on the sky, in some cases the association of observations with sources will be different in the second data release. Consequently, DR2 uses different source identification numbers than DR1.{{ Cite web | last1 = Prusti | first1 = Timo | last2 = Brown | first2 = Anthony | date = 3 February 2017 | title = Gaia DR2 Schedule | publisher = ESA | url = https://www.cosmos.esa.int/web/gaia/news_20170203 | access-date = 10 March 2018 }} A number of issues have been identified with the DR2 data, including small systematic errors in astrometry and significant contamination of radial velocity values in crowded star fields, which may affect some one percent of the radial velocity values. Ongoing work should resolve these issues in future releases.{{ Cite web | title = Known issues with the Gaia DR2 data | publisher = European Space Agency | url = https://www.cosmos.esa.int/web/gaia/dr2-known-issues | access-date = 31 January 2019 }} A guide for researchers using Gaia DR2, which collected "all information, tips and tricks, pitfalls, caveats and recommendations relevant to" DR2, was prepared by the Gaia Helpdesk in December 2019.

Due to uncertainties in the data pipeline, the third data release, based on 34 months of observations, has been split into two parts so that data that was ready first, was released first. The first part, EDR3 (Early Data Release 3), consisting of improved positions, parallaxes and proper motions, was released on 3 December 2020.{{ Cite web |website = ESA | title = Gaia Early Data Release 3 (Gaia EDR3) | url = https://www.cosmos.esa.int/web/gaia/earlydr3 | access-date = 12 December 2020 }} The coordinates in EDR3 use a new version of the Gaia celestial reference frame (Gaia–CRF3), based on observations of 1,614,173 extragalactic sources, 2,269 of which were common to radio sources in the third revision of the International Celestial Reference Frame (ICRF3).{{ Cite journal | last1 = Lindegren | first1 = L. | last2 = Klioner | first2 = S. | last3 = Hernandez | first3 = J. | last4 = Bombrun | first4 = A. | display-authors = et al | year = 2021 | title = Gaia Early Data Release 3 – The astrometric solution | journal = Astronomy & Astrophysics | volume = A2 | page = 649 | doi = 10.1051/0004-6361/202039709 | arxiv = 2012.03380 | bibcode = 2021A&A...649A...2L | s2cid = 227342958 }} Included is the Gaia Catalogue of Nearby Stars (GCNS), containing 331,312 stars within (nominally) {{Convert|100|pc|ly|abbr=off}}.{{Cite web|url=https://www.cosmos.esa.int/web/gaia/edr3-gcns|title=Gaia EDR3 - Gaia Catalogue of Nearby Stars - Gaia - Cosmos|website=www.cosmos.esa.int}}{{Cite journal |author=Richard Smart, L. M. Sarro, J. Rybizki, C. Reyle, A. C. Robin |title=Gaia Early Data Release 3: The Gaia Catalogue of Nearby Stars |journal=Astronomy & Astrophysics |year=2021|volume=A6 |page=649 |issn=0004-6361 |doi=10.1051/0004-6361/202039498| arxiv=2012.02061 |bibcode=2021A&A...649A...6G |s2cid=227255512 |url=https://www.aanda.org/articles/aa/abs/forth/aa39498-20/aa39498-20.html}}

The full DR3, published on 13 June 2022, includes the EDR3 data plus Solar System data; variability information; results for non-single stars, for quasars, and for extended objects; astrophysical parameters; and a special data set, the Gaia Andromeda Photometric Survey (GAPS), providing a photometric time series for about 1 million sources located in a 5.5-degree radius field centered on the Andromeda galaxy.{{ Cite web | date = 29 January 2019 | title = Gaia Data Release 3 split into two parts | url = https://www.cosmos.esa.int/web/gaia/news-2019#GaiaDR3Announcement |website=ESA |access-date = 29 January 2019 }}{{ Cite web | date = 26 September 2019 | title = Update to the Gaia data release scenario | website=ESA |url = https://www.cosmos.esa.int/web/gaia/news-2019#DR3Update | access-date = 28 September 2019 }} The release dates of EDR3 and DR3 were delayed by the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on the Gaia Data Processing and Analysis Consortium.{{ citation | date = 18 March 2020 | title = Delay of Gaia (E)DR3 | periodical = Gaia Newsletter | issue = #10 | url = https://www.cosmos.esa.int/web/gaia/news-2020#ScheduleUpdateEDR3andDR3 | access-date = 21 March 2020 }}{{cite web |date=2022 |title=Gaia Data Release 3 overview |url=https://www.cosmos.esa.int/web/gaia/data-release-3 |access-date=23 February 2022}}

Gaia%E2%80%99s_Early_Data_Release_3_in_numbers_ESA22359174.jpeg|Stars and other objects in Gaia Early Data Release 3

GCNS_numbers_small.jpg|Gaia Catalogue of Nearby Stars

GCNS Poster Stellar Densities top image.png|Star density maps of the Gaia Catalogue of Nearby Stars. The Sun is located at the centre of both maps. The regions with higher density of stars are shown; these correspond with known star clusters (Hyades and Coma Berenices) and moving groups.

Asteroids in Gaia data release 3 ESA24305910.png|This image shows the orbits of the more than 150 000 asteroids in DR3, from the inner parts of the Solar System to the Trojan asteroids at the distance of Jupiter, with different colour codes.

Gaia Focused Product Release from October 2023 focused on Omega Centauri and contained more that half a million stars from that region.{{cite web |title=New Gaia release reveals rare lenses, cluster cores and unforeseen science |url=https://www.esa.int/Science_Exploration/Space_Science/Gaia/New_Gaia_release_reveals_rare_lenses_cluster_cores_and_unforeseen_science |website=www.esa.int |access-date=15 October 2023 |language=en}}

File:Gaia reveals crowded core of massive star cluster.png|Focused Product Release

File:Gaia view of Omega Centauri from Gaia’s Data Release 3 in 2022.jpg|Gaia view of Omega Centauri from Gaia’s Data Release 3 in 2022

File:Gaia view of Omega Centauri Focused Product Release.jpg|Gaia view of Omega Centauri from Gaia’s Focused Product Release in 2023

The full data release for the five-year nominal mission, DR4, will include full astrometric, photometric and radial-velocity catalogues, variable-star and non-single-star solutions, source classifications plus multiple astrophysical parameters for stars, unresolved binaries, galaxies and quasars, an exo-planet list and epoch and transit data for all sources. Most measurements in DR4 are expected to be 1.7 times more precise than DR2; proper motions will be 4.5 times more precise.{{cite conference | first = Anthony G.A. | last = Brown | title = The Future of the Gaia Universe | conference = 53rd ESLAB symposium "the Gaia universe" | date = 12 April 2019 | url = https://zenodo.org/record/2637972 | doi = 10.5281/zenodo.2637971 }} DR4 is expected to be released no earlier than mid-2026.

The last catalogue, DR5, will consist of all data collected during the lifespan of the mission. It will be 1.4 times more precise than DR4, while proper motions will be 2.8 times more precise than DR4. It will be published no earlier than the end of 2030.

The Gaia Archive is a catalogue that contains positions and brightnesses for 1.7 billion stars, including distances and proper motions for more than 1.3 billion stars.{{Cite web|title=Gaia|url=https://irsa.ipac.caltech.edu/Missions/gaia.html#:~:text=Gaia%20Catalogue,,%20and%20Cross-Reference%20tables.|access-date=2020-12-15|website=irsa.ipac.caltech.edu}}

An outreach application, Gaia Sky, has been developed to explore the galaxy in three dimensions using Gaia data.{{ Cite web | last = Sagristà Sellés | first = Toni | date = 2016 | title = Gaia Sky | publisher = Astronomisches Rechen-Institut (ZAH), Universität Heidelberg | place = Heidelberg | url = https://zah.uni-heidelberg.de/gaia/outreach/gaiasky/ |access-date=2019-11-21 }}

• Data Processing and Analysis Consortium
• List of astronomical catalogues

{{reflist}}

• [https://gea.esac.esa.int/archive/documentation//GDR3/index.html Gaia DR3 Documentation]
• [https://gea.esac.esa.int/archive/documentation//GEDR3/index.html Gaia EDR3 Documentation]
• [https://gea.esac.esa.int/archive/documentation//GDR2/index.html Gaia DR2 Documentation]
• [https://gea.esac.esa.int/archive/documentation//GDR1/index.html Gaia DR1 Documentation]
• [https://sci.esa.int/web/gaia/ ESA Gaia page]
• [https://gea.esac.esa.int/archive/ Gaia Archive]

Category:Astrometry

*

*

Catalogue