Hipparcos (1989-1993), the first space astrometry mission, was hardly finished, but already scientists were dreaming about the project which would take its place : this would be Gaia, a flagship mission of the European Space Agency’s scientific programme.
The scientific community was eagerly awaiting its launch. This was particularly so at the Paris Observatory, where three of its departments - the « laboratoire Galaxies, étoiles Physique et Instrumentation » – GEPI - (the laboratory for galaxies, stars, physics and instruments), the « Institut de mécanique céleste et de calculs des éphémérides » – IMCCE (the Institute for celestial mechanics and ephemeris calculations) and the « département Système de référence Temps-Espace » – SYRTE(the Time-Space reference systems department) have been intimately involved with the project right from the start.
Gaia has been clearly identified as a scientific priority project at the Paris Observatory.
A colossal volume of data – on the order of a « petaoctet » – will have to be processed. To do this, a consortium - the Data Processing and Analysing Consortium (DPAC) – has been created:it includes 25 European countries.
More than 30 members of the Paris Observatory are in the DPAC, and work on various aspects of the data reduction (spectroscopy, solar system objects, binary systems and exoplanets), simulations, ephemeris calculations and observations of the satellite, as well as the final validation of the Catalogue.
To furnish day by day news about Gaia, scientists at the Paris Observatory have created a web site specially dedicated to this outstanding space venture, in which they have been involved right from the start.
