Gaia in the UK

Taking the Galactic Census

Website contributors

We would like to thank the folowing members of the Gaia team and our UK partner organisations for providing articles and resources for Gaia UK website:

  • Francesca De Angeli, Institute of Astronomy, Cambridge ("The Data Processing Centre (DPCI)")
  • Giorgia Busso, Institute of Astronomy, Cambridge ("Blue and Red Photometers")
  • Heather Campbell, Institute of Astronomy, Cambridge ("Supernovae: tools for Cosmology with Gaia")
  • Dafydd Wyn Evans, Institute of Astronomy, Cambridge ("Astronomical coordinate systems")
  • Gerry Gilmore, Institute of Astronomy, Cambridge
  • Nigel Hambly, Institute for Astronomy, Edinburgh University ("Edinburgh University contribution to ESA Gaia:  calibrating instrumental artefacts")
  • Diana Harrison, Institute of Astronomy, Cambridge, ("Source Environment Analysis")
  • Simon Hodgkin, Institute of Astronomy, Cambridge ("Guest Stars with Gaia", "Exploding stars" and "Variable stars")
  • Berry Holl, Observatory of Geneva (Gaia field transit density images and animations)
  • Anna Hourihane, Institute of Astronomy, Cambridge
  • Floor van Leeuwen, Institute of Astronomy, Cambridge (articles in "Stellar parallax" section, "Space velocities, radial velocities and proper motions", "Star clusters: observing the effects of stellar evolution", and "Calibrating the calibrators")
  • Vicki Lonnon, Astrium Ltd. ("Gaia: From Stevenage to Space")
  • Maeve Polkinhorn, Artist Residency Programme Coordinator for North West Cambridge ("North West Cambridge Development: Artist Residency Programme")
  • George Seabroke, Mullard Space Science Laboratory ("e2v", "How CCDs work", "The Gaia CCD challenge" and "Mullard Space Science Laboratory, University College London").

Alerts section

  • Sophie Bartlett: educational activities
  • Heather Campbell: "What is Gaia?", "Why we take more images", "Alerts glossary"
  • Morgan Fraser: "Why we take spectroscopy", "Supernovae", "Black hole transients", "Transients in the future", "Historic  transients", "Stellar transients", "Observe", "Everyone", "Observing advice"
  • Diana Harrison
  • Simon Hodgkin
  • Anna Hourihane: "Who", "Cataclysmic variables", "Alerts glossary"
  • Floor van Leeuwen
  • Goska van Leeuwen
  • Guy Rixon: "Robotic telescopes", "Gaia observation story"
  • Amanda Smith: preparation of cartoon images (throughout the section), supernovae diagrams for "Supernovae" article, and images for "Who" and "What are Gaia Alerts" boxes
  • Grace Treanor: cartoons throughout the section
  •  Romaric Walker: "Alerts glossary".

Credits for box images

Credits for images used in the boxes in the Alerts section, which are included in the pages linked to the boxes are given on the linked pages. Credits for the remaining images are listed below.

  • Observe box image (Alerts page): Derived from "Astronomy Amateur 3 V2" by Halfblue at the English language Wikipedia. Licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 via Commons - https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Astronomy_Amateur_3_V2.jpg.
  • Artist's impression of Gaia: ESA/ATG medialab; background image: ESO/S. Brunier. (Discover box, Alerts page).
  • Who box image on Alerts page: Amanda Smith/Institute of Astronomy (IoA), Cambridge.
  • Artists's impression of a type Ia supernova: ESA/ATG medialab/C. Carreau. (What and Why box, Alerts page; Supernovae box, Why are we looking page).
  • Gaia lift-off: ESA - S. Corvaja, 2013. (Gallery box, Alerts page)
  • Stellar density map: ESA/Gaia – CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO (Why are We Looking?, What and why page; Cataclysmic Variables, Black Hole Transients, Stellar Transients, Transients in the Future and Historic Transients boxes on Why are we looking page).
  • LCOGT 1m telescope in an enclosure. Matt Miller - Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Universal Public Domain Dedication. (Schools box, Discover page).
  • Cambridge Science Festival open day at the Institute Astronomy: Chris Loades  © University of Cambridge All rights reserved. (Everyone box, Discover page).
  • Education box image (Schools page): Sophie Bartlett, "Gaia’s Place in Space" worksheet.
  • Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory. National Optical Astronomy Observatory/Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy/National Science Foundation" or "NOAO/AURA/NSF. (Observing advice box, Schools page).
  • Observing texhniques box image (Schools page): Lockyer, N. (1875) "Elements of astronomy: accompanied with numerous illustrations, a colored representation of the solar, stellar, and nebular spectra, and celestial charts of the northern and the southern hemisphere".
  • What are Gaia Alerts? box (What and Why page): Amanda Smith, IoA.