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Published May 2021 | Erratum + Accepted Version + Published
Journal Article Open

Gaia Early Data Release 3. Summary of the contents and survey properties

Brown, A. G. A.
Vallenari, A.
Prusti, T.
de Bruijne, J. H. J.
Babusiaux, C.
Biermann, M.
Creevey, O. L.
Evans, D. W.
Eyer, L.
Hutton, A.
Jansen, F.
Jordi, C.
Klioner, S. A.
Lammers, U.
Lindegren, L.
Luri, X.
Mignard, F.
Panem, C.
Pourbaix, D.
Randich, S.
Sartoretti, P.
Soubiran, C.
Walton, N. A.
Arenou, F.
Bailer-Jones, C. A. L.
Bastian, U.
Cropper, M.
Drimmel, R.
Katz, D.
Lattanzi, M. G.
van Leeuwen, F.
Bakker, J.
Cacciari, C.
Castañeda, J.
De Angeli, F.
Ducourant, C.
Fabricius, C.
Fouesneau, M.
Frémat, Y.
Guerra, R.
Guerrier, A.
Guiraud, J.
Jean-Antoine Piccolo, A.
Masana, E.
Messineo, R.
Mowlavi, N.
Nicolas, C.
Nienartowicz, K.
Pailler, F.
Panuzzo, P.
Riclet, F.
Roux, W.
Seabroke, G. M.
Sordo, R.
Tanga, P.
Thévenin, F.
Gracia-Abril, G.
Portell, J.
Teyssier, D.
Altmann, M.
Andrae, R.
Bellas-Velidis, I.
Benson, K.
Berthier, J.
Blomme, R.
Brugaletta, E.
Burgess, P. W.
Busso, G.
Carry, B.
Cellino, A.
Cheek, N.
Clementini, G.
Damerdji, Y.
Davidson, M.
Delchambre, L.
Dell'Oro, A.
Fernández-Hernández, J.
Galluccio, L.
García-Lario, P.
Garcia-Reinaldos, M.
González-Núñez, J.
Gosset, E.
Haigron, R.
Halbwachs, J.-L.
Hambly, N. C.
Harrison, D. L.
Hatzidimitriou, D.
Heiter, U.
Hernández, J.
Hestroffer, D.
Hodgkin, S. T.
Holl, B.
Janßen, K.
Jevardat de Fombelle, G.
Jordan, S.
Krone-Martins, A.
Lanzafame, A. C.
Löffler, W.
Lorca, A.
Manteiga, M.
Marchal, O.
Marrese, P. M.
Moitinho, A.
Mora, A.
Muinonen, K.
Osborne, P.
Pancino, E.
Pauwels, T.
Petit, J.-M.
Recio-Blanco, A.
Richards, P. J.
Riello, M.
Rimoldini, L.
Robin, A. C.
Roegiers, T.
Rybizki, J.
Sarro, L. M.
Siopis, C.
Smith, M.
Sozzetti, A.
Ulla, A.
Utrilla, E.
van Leeuwen, M.
van Reeven, W.
Abbas, U.
Abreu Aramburu, A.
Accart, S.
Aerts, C.
Aguado, J. J.
Ajaj, M.
Altavilla, G.
Álvarez, M. A.
Álvarez Cid-Fuentes, J.
Alves, J.
Anderson, R. I.
Anglada Varela, E.
Antoja, T.
Audard, M.
Baines, D.
Baker, S. G.
Balaguer-Núñez, L.
Balbinot, E.
Balog, Z.
Barache, C.
Barbato, D.
Barros, M.
Barstow, M. A.
Bartolomé, S.
Bassilana, J.-L.
Bauchet, N.
Baudesson-Stella, A.
Becciani, U.
Bellazzini, M.
Bernet, M.
Bertone, S.
Bianchi, L.
Blanco-Cuaresma, S.
Boch, T.
Bombrun, A.
Bossini, D.
Bouquillon, S.
Bragaglia, A.
Bramante, L.
Breedt, E.
Bressan, A.
Brouillet, N.
Bucciarelli, B.
Burlacu, A.
Busonero, D.
Butkevich, A. G.
Buzzi, R.
Caffau, E.
Cancelliere, R.
Cánovas, H.
Cantat-Gaudin, T.
Carballo, R.
Carlucci, T.
Carnerero, M. I
Carrasco, J. M.
Casamiquela, L.
Castellani, M.
Castro-Ginard, A.
Castro Sampol, P.
Chaoul, L.
Charlot, P.
Chemin, L.
Chiavassa, A.
Cioni, M.-R. L.
Comoretto, G.
Cooper, W. J.
Cornez, T.
Cowell, S.
Crifo, F.
Crosta, M.
Crowley, C.
Dafonte, C.
Dapergolas, A.
David, M.
David, P.
de Laverny, P.
De Luise, F.
De March, R.
De Ridder, J.
de Souza, R.
de Teodoro, P.
de Torres, A.
del Peloso, E. F.
del Pozo, E.
Delbo, M.
Delgado, A.
Delgado, H. E.
Delisle, J.-B.
Di Matteo, P.
Diakite, S.
Diener, C.
Distefano, E.
Dolding, C.
Eappachen, D.
Edvardsson, B.
Enke, H.
Esquej, P.
Fabre, C.
Fabrizio, M.
Faigler, S.
Fedorets, G.
Fernique, P.
Fienga, A.
Figueras, F.
Fouron, C.
Fragkoudi, F.
Fraile, E.
Franke, F.
Gai, M.
Garabato, D.
Garcia-Gutierrez, A.
García-Torres, M.
Garofalo, A.
Gavras, P.
Gerlach, E.
Geyer, R.
Giacobbe, P.
Gilmore, G.
Girona, S.
Giuffrida, G.
Gomel, R.
Gomez, A.
Gonzalez-Santamaria, I.
González-Vidal, J. J.
Granvik, M.
Gutiérrez-Sánchez, R.
Guy, L. P.
Hauser, M.
Haywood, M.
Helmi, A.
Hidalgo, S. L.
Hilger, T.
Hładczuk, N.
Hobbs, D.
Holland, G.
Huckle, H. E.
Jasniewicz, G.
Jonker, P. G.
Juaristi Campillo, J.
Julbe, F.
Karbevska, L.
Kervella, P.
Khanna, S.
Kochoska, A.
Kontizas, M.
Kordopatis, G.
Korn, A. J.
Kostrzewa-Rutkowska, Z.
Kruszyńska, K.
Lambert, S.
Lanza, A. F.
Lasne, Y.
Le Campion, J.-F.
Le Fustec, Y.
Lebreton, Y.
Lebzelter, T.
Leccia, S.
Leclerc, N.
Lecoeur-Taibi, I.
Liao, S.
Licata, E.
Lindstrøm, E. P.
Lister, T. A.
Livanou, E.
Lobel, A.
Madrero Pardo, P.
Managau, S.
Mann, R. G.
Marchant, J. M.
Marconi, M.
Marcos Santos, M. M. S.
Marinoni, S.
Marocco, F. ORCID icon
Marshall, D. J.
Martin Polo, L.
Martín-Fleitas, J. M.
Masip, A.
Massari, D.
Mastrobuono-Battisti, A.
Mazeh, T.
McMillan, P. J.
Messina, S.
Michalik, D.
Millar, N. R.
Mints, A.
Molina, D.
Molinaro, R.
Molnár, L.
Montegriffo, P.
Mor, R.
Morbidelli, R.
Morel, T.
Morris, D.
Mulone, A. F.
Munoz, D.
Muraveva, T.
Murphy, C. P.
Musella, I.
Noval, L.
Ordénovic, C.
Orrù, G.
Osinde, J.
Pagani, C.
Pagano, I.
Palaversa, L.
Palicio, P. A.
Panahi, A.
Pawlak, M.
Peñalosa Esteller, X.
Penttilä, A.
Piersimoni, A. M.
Pineau, F.-X.
Plachy, E.
Plum, G.
Poggio, E.
Poretti, E.
Poujoulet, E.
Prša, A.
Pulone, L.
Racero, E.
Ragaini, S.
Rainer, M.
Raiteri, C. M.
Rambaux, N.
Ramos, P.
Ramos-Lerate, M.
Re Fiorentin, P.
Regibo, S.
Reylé, C.
Ripepi, V.
Riva, A.
Rixon, G.
Robichon, N.
Robin, C.
Roelens, M.
Rohrbasser, L.
Romero-Gómez, M.
Rowell, N.
Royer, F.
Rybicki, K. A.
Sadowski, G.
Sagristà Sellés, A.
Sahlmann, J.
Salgado, J.
Salguero, E.
Samaras, N.
Sanchez Gimenez, V.
Sanna, N.
Santoveña, R.
Sarasso, M.
Schultheis, M.
Sciacca, E.
Segol, M.
Segovia, J. C.
Ségransan, D.
Semeux, D.
Shahaf, S.
Siddiqui, H. I.
Siebert, A.
Siltala, L.
Slezak, E.
Smart, R. L.
Solano, E.
Solitro, F.
Souami, D.
Souchay, J.
Spagna, A.
Spoto, F.
Steele, I. A.
Steidelmüller, H.
Stephenson, C. A.
Süveges, M.
Szabados, L.
Szegedi-Elek, E.
Taris, F.
Tauran, G.
Taylor, M. B.
Teixeira, R.
Thuillot, W.
Tonello, N.
Torra, F.
Torra, J.
Turon, C.
Unger, N.
Vaillant, M.
van Dillen, E.
Vanel, O.
Vecchiato, A.
Viala, Y.
Vicente, D.
Voutsinas, S.
Weiler, M.
Wevers, T.
Wyrzykowski, Ł.
Yoldas, A.
Yvard, P.
Zhao, H.
Zorec, J.
Zucker, S.
Zurbach, C.
Zwitter, T.
Gaia Collaboration

Abstract

Context. We present the early installment of the third Gaia data release, Gaia EDR3, consisting of astrometry and photometry for 1.8 billion sources brighter than magnitude 21, complemented with the list of radial velocities from Gaia DR2. Aims. A summary of the contents of Gaia EDR3 is presented, accompanied by a discussion on the differences with respect to Gaia DR2 and an overview of the main limitations which are present in the survey. Recommendations are made on the responsible use of Gaia EDR3 results. Methods. The raw data collected with the Gaia instruments during the first 34 months of the mission have been processed by the Gaia Data Processing and Analysis Consortium and turned into this early third data release, which represents a major advance with respect to Gaia DR2 in terms of astrometric and photometric precision, accuracy, and homogeneity. Results. Gaia EDR3 contains celestial positions and the apparent brightness in G for approximately 1.8 billion sources. For 1.5 billion of those sources, parallaxes, proper motions, and the (G_(BP) – G_(RP)) colour are also available. The passbands for G, G_(BP), and G_(RP) are provided as part of the release. For ease of use, the 7 million radial velocities from Gaia DR2 are included in this release, after the removal of a small number of spurious values. New radial velocities will appear as part of Gaia DR3. Finally, Gaia EDR3 represents an updated materialisation of the celestial reference frame (CRF) in the optical, the Gaia-CRF3, which is based solely on extragalactic sources. The creation of the source list for Gaia EDR3 includes enhancements that make it more robust with respect to high proper motion stars, and the disturbing effects of spurious and partially resolved sources. The source list is largely the same as that for Gaia DR2, but it does feature new sources and there are some notable changes. The source list will not change for Gaia DR3. Conclusions. Gaia EDR3 represents a significant advance over Gaia DR2, with parallax precisions increased by 30 per cent, proper motion precisions increased by a factor of 2, and the systematic errors in the astrometry suppressed by 30–40% for the parallaxes and by a factor ~2.5 for the proper motions. The photometry also features increased precision, but above all much better homogeneity across colour, magnitude, and celestial position. A single passband for G, G_(BP), and G_(RP) is valid over the entire magnitude and colour range, with no systematics above the 1% level.

Additional Information

© ESO 2021. Article published by EDP Sciences. Received 12 October 2020; Accepted 29 October 2020; Published online 28 April 2021. This work presents results from the European Space Agency (ESA) space mission Gaia. Gaia data are being processed by the Gaia Data Processing and Analysis Consortium (DPAC). Funding for the DPAC is provided by national institutions, in particular the institutions participating in the Gaia MultiLateral Agreement (MLA). The Gaia mission website is https://www.cosmos.esa.int/gaia. The Gaia archive website is https://archives.esac.esa.int/gaia. The Gaia mission and data processing have financially been supported by, in alphabetical order by country: the Algerian Centre de Recherche en Astronomie, Astrophysique et Géophysique of Bouzareah Observatory; the Austrian Fonds zur Förderung der wissenschaftlichen Forschung (FWF) Hertha Firnberg Programme through grants T359, P20046, and P23737; the BELgian federal Science Policy Office (BELSPO) through various PROgramme de Développement d'Expériences scientifiques (PRODEX) grants and the Polish Academy of Sciences – Fonds Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek through grant VS.091.16N, and the Fonds de la Recherche Scientifique (FNRS); the Brazil-France exchange programmes Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP) and Coordenação de Aperfeicoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES) – Comité Français d'Evaluation de la Coopération Universitaire et Scientifique avec le Brésil (COFECUB); the National Science Foundation of China (NSFC) through grants 11573054 and 11703065 and the China Scholarship Council through grant 201806040200; the Tenure Track Pilot Programme of the Croatian Science Foundation and the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne and the project TTP-2018-07-1171 "Mining the Variable Sky", with the funds of the Croatian-Swiss Research Programme; the Czech-Republic Ministry of Education, Youth, and Sports through grant LG 15010 and INTER-EXCELLENCE grant LTAUSA18093, and the Czech Space Office through ESA PECS contract 98058; the Danish Ministry of Science; the Estonian Ministry of Education and Research through grant IUT40-1; the European Commission's Sixth Framework Programme through the European Leadership in Space Astrometry (ELSA) Marie Curie Research Training Network (MRTN-CT-2006-033481), through Marie Curie project PIOF-GA-2009-255267 (Space AsteroSeismology & RR Lyrae stars, SAS-RRL), and through a Marie Curie Transfer-of-Knowledge (ToK) fellowship (MTKD-CT-2004-014188); the European Commission's Seventh Framework Programme through grant FP7-606740 (FP7-SPACE-2013-1) for the Gaia European Network for Improved data User Services (GENIUS) and through grant 264895 for the Gaia Research for European Astronomy Training (GREAT-ITN) network; the European Research Council (ERC) through grants 320360 and 647208 and through the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation and excellent science programmes through Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant 745617 as well as grants 670519 (Mixing and Angular Momentum tranSport of massIvE stars – MAMSIE), 687378 (Small Bodies: Near and Far), 682115 (Using the Magellanic Clouds to Understand the Interaction of Galaxies), and 695099 (A sub-percent distance scale from binaries and Cepheids – CepBin); the European Science Foundation (ESF), in the framework of the Gaia Research for European Astronomy Training Research Network Programme (GREAT-ESF); the European Space Agency (ESA) in the framework of the Gaia project, through the Plan for European Cooperating States (PECS) programme through grants for Slovenia, through contracts C98090 and 4000106398/12/NL/KML for Hungary, and through contract 4000115263/15/NL/IB for Germany; the Academy of Finland and the Magnus Ehrnrooth Foundation; the French Centre National d'Etudes Spatiales (CNES), the Agence Nationale de la Recherche (ANR) through grant ANR-10-IDEX-0001-02 for the "Investissements d'avenir" programme, through grant ANR-15-CE31-0007 for project "Modelling the Milky Way in the Gaia era" (MOD4Gaia), through grant ANR-14-CE33-0014-01 for project "The Milky Way disc formation in the Gaia era" (ARCHEOGAL), and through grant ANR-15-CE31-0012-01 for project "Unlocking the potential of Cepheids as primary distance calibrators" (UnlockCepheids), the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS) and its SNO Gaia of the Institut des Sciences de l'Univers (INSU), the "Action Fédératrice Gaia" of the Observatoire de Paris, the Région de Franche-Comté, and the Programme National de Gravitation, Références, Astronomie, et Métrologie (GRAM) of CNRS/INSU with the Institut National Polytechnique (INP) and the Institut National de Physique nucléaire et de Physique des Particules (IN2P3) co-funded by CNES; the German Aerospace Agency (Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt e.V., DLR) through grants 50QG0501, 50QG0601, 50QG0602, 50QG0701, 50QG0901, 50QG1001, 50QG1101, 50QG1401, 50QG1402, 50QG1403, 50QG1404, and 50QG1904 and the Centre for Information Services and High Performance Computing (ZIH) at the Technische Universität (TU) Dresden for generous allocations of computer time; the Hungarian Academy of Sciences through the Lendület Programme grants LP2014-17 and LP2018-7 and through the Premium Postdoctoral Research Programme (L. Molnár), and the Hungarian National Research, Development, and Innovation Office (NKFIH) through grant KH_18-130405; the Science Foundation Ireland (SFI) through a Royal Society – SFI University Research Fellowship (M. Fraser); the Israel Science Foundation (ISF) through grant 848/16; the Agenzia Spaziale Italiana (ASI) through contracts I/037/08/0, I/058/10/0, 2014-025-R.0, 2014-025-R.1.2015, and 2018-24-HH.0 to the Italian Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica (INAF), contract 2014-049-R.0/1/2 to INAF forthe Space Science Data Centre (SSDC, formerly known as the ASI Science Data Center, ASDC), contracts I/008/10/0, 2013/030/I.0, 2013-030-I.0.1-2015, and 2016-17-I.0 to the Aerospace Logistics Technology Engineering Company (ALTEC S.p.A.), INAF, and the Italian Ministry of Education, University, and Research (Ministero dell'Istruzione, dell'Università e della Ricerca) through the Premiale project "MIning The Cosmos Big Data and Innovative Italian Technology for Frontier Astrophysics and Cosmology" (MITiC); the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO) through grant NWO-M-614.061.414, through a VICI grant (A.H.), and through a Spinoza prize (A.H.), and the Netherlands Research School for Astronomy (NOVA); the Polish National Science Centre through HARMONIA grant 2018/06/M/ST9/00311, DAINA grant 2017/27/L/ST9/03221, and PRELUDIUM grant 2017/25/N/ST9/01253, and the Ministry of Science and Higher Education (MNiSW) through grant DIR/WK/2018/12; the Portugese Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT) through grants SFRH/BPD/74697/2010 and SFRH/BD/128840/2017 and the Strategic Programme UID/FIS/00099/2019 for CENTRA; the Slovenian Research Agency through grant P1-0188; the Spanish Ministry of Economy (MINECO/FEDER, UE) through grants ESP2016-80079-C2-1-R, ESP2016-80079-C2-2-R, RTI2018-095076-B-C21, RTI2018-095076-B-C22, BES-2016-078499, and BES-2017-083126 and the Juan de la Cierva formación 2015 grant FJCI-2015-2671, the Spanish Ministry of Education, Culture, and Sports through grant FPU16/03827, the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation (MICINN) through grant AYA2017-89841P for project "Estudio de las propiedades de los fósiles estelares en el entorno del Grupo Local" and through grant TIN2015-65316-P for project "Computación de Altas Prestaciones VII", the Severo Ochoa Centre of Excellence Programme of the Spanish Government through grant SEV2015-0493, the Institute of Cosmos Sciences University of Barcelona (ICCUB, Unidad de Excelencia "María de Maeztu") through grants MDM-2014-0369 and CEX2019-000918-M, the University of Barcelona's official doctoral programme for the development of an R+D+i project through an Ajuts de Personal Investigador en Formació (APIF) grant, the Spanish Virtual Observatory through project AyA2017-84089, the Galician Regional Government, Xunta de Galicia, through grants ED431B-2018/42 and ED481A-2019/155, support received from the Centro de Investigación en Tecnologías de la Información y las Comunicaciones (CITIC) funded by the Xunta de Galicia, the Xunta de Galicia and the Centros Singulares de Investigación de Galicia for the period 2016-2019 through CITIC, the European Union through the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) / Fondo Europeo de Desenvolvemento Rexional (FEDER) for the Galicia 2014-2020 Programme through grant ED431G-2019/01, the Red Española de Supercomputación (RES) computer resources at MareNostrum, the Barcelona Supercomputing Centre – Centro Nacional de Supercomputación (BSC-CNS) through activities AECT-2016-1-0006, AECT-2016-2-0013, AECT-2016-3-0011, and AECT-2017-1-0020, the Departament d'Innovació, Universitats i Empresa de la Generalitat de Catalunya through grant 2014-SGR-1051 for project "Models de Programació i Entorns d'Execució Parallels" (MPEXPAR), and Ramon y Cajal Fellowship RYC2018-025968-I; the Swedish National Space Agency (SNSA/Rymdstyrelsen); the Swiss State Secretariat for Education, Research, and Innovation through the Mesures d'Accompagnement, the Swiss Activités Nationales Complémentaires, and the Swiss National Science Foundation; the United Kingdom Particle Physics and Astronomy Research Council (PPARC), the United Kingdom Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC), and the United Kingdom Space Agency (UKSA) through the following grants to the University of Bristol, the University of Cambridge, the University of Edinburgh, the University of Leicester, the Mullard Space Sciences Laboratory of University College London, and the United Kingdom Rutherford Appleton Laboratory (RAL): PP/D006511/1, PP/D006546/1, PP/D006570/1, ST/I000852/1, ST/J005045/1, ST/K00056X/1, ST/K000209/1, ST/K000756/1, ST/L006561/1, ST/N000595/1, ST/N000641/1, ST/N000978/1, ST/N001117/1, ST/S000089/1, ST/S000976/1, ST/S001123/1, ST/S001948/1, ST/S002103/1, and ST/V000969/1. This work made use of the following software: Astropy, a community-developed core Python package for Astronomy (Astropy Collaboration 2013, 2018, http://www.astropy.org), IPython (Pérez & Granger 2007, https://ipython.org/), Jupyter (https://jupyter.org/), Matplotlib (Hunter 2007, https://matplotlib.org), SciPy (Virtanen et al. 2020, https://www.scipy.org), NumPy (Harris et al. 2020, https://numpy.org), and TOPCAT (Taylor 2005, http://www.starlink.ac.uk/topcat/). This work has made use of NASA's Astrophysics Data System. We thank the referee, Andy Casey, for a careful reading of the manuscript.

Errata

Gaia Early Data Release 3 - Summary of the contents and survey properties (Corrigendum). Gaia Collaboration, A. G. A. Brown, et. al., A&A, 650 (2021) C3; DOI: https://doi.org/10.1051/0004-6361/202039657e

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Additional details

Created:
August 20, 2023
Modified:
October 20, 2023