Release of the 3rd catalog of Gaia, the mission to know the origin and evolution of our galaxy

The third delivery of mission data will be made public on 3 December 2020 at midday (12:00 p.m.). Coinciding with the publication of the Gaia’s 3rd catalog, the Institute of Cosmos Sciences of the University of Barcelona (ICCUB) —one of the scientific units of the Institute of Space Studies of Catalonia (IEEC — Institut d’Estudis Espacials de Catalunya)— organises an educational talk and a colloquium aimed at the scientific community.

Gaia, the Galaxy in your hands

In the educational talk "Gaia, the Galaxy in your hands", IEEC researchers at the ICCUB Gaia group, Dr. Mercè Romero and Dr. Josep Manel Carrasco, will review Gaia's strategy for observing the Universe and analyse the latest discoveries about the Universe that the mission is obtaining.

Mercè Romero holds a PhD in Aerospace Science and Technology by the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC) and is a lecturer at the University of Barcelona (UB). She is currently part of the internal validation group of Gaia data in preparation for the final catalog. Her research focuses on the study of the structure and kinematics of our Galaxy, focusing specifically on determining the shape of the disk and the characteristics of the Galactic bar.

Josep Manel Carrasco holds a PhD in physics by the UB and works with the photometric and spectrometric calibration of mission data, assessing the state of the satellite and creating the data catalog in the CU9 coordination unit. Creator of the Miralcel dissemination project, he is a regular contributor to the program La República Santboiana on Ràdio Sant Boi. He recently published the book "Cosmos: A Quick Immersion" (Cosmos: Una inmersión rápida) in Tibidabo Ediciones.

Colloquium on Gaia-eDR3 data

The DPAC (Data Processing and Analysis Consortium) spanish team will share in a colloquium the lessons learned during the data processing phases and the obtaining of the first scientific results published in the “performance verification papers”. They propose a dynamic session with questions/answers via chat, to talk about the tools available, give some recipes for the use of data, share their first experiences and explain the science that has begun to be glimpsed. 

You will find the program of the colloquium as well as the link to participate here.

The DPAC consortium brings together more than 450 European scientists and engineers, and is responsible for processing and publishing the data. The members of this consortium belong to different universities and research centers in Spain, among which is the ICCUB (UB-IEEC).

Images

2020_12_GaiaSatellite.jfif
Caption: Artistic representation of the Gaia satellite.
Credit: ESA/ATG Medialab i ESO/S. Brunier