This note describes an effort to detect additional stellar sources in known transiting exoplanet (TEP) systems, which are unresolved or barely resolved in the Gaia Data Release 2 (DR2) catalog (Gaia Collaboration et al. 2016, 2018). The presence of multiple unresolved stars in photometric and spectroscopic observations of a transiting planetary system biases measurements of the planet's radius, mass, and atmospheric conditions (e.g., Buchhave et al. 2011; Evans et al. 2016; Southworth & Evans 2016). In addition to the effect on individual planetary systems, the presence of unresolved stars across the sample of known exoplanets biases our overall understanding of planetary systems, due to the systematic underestimation of both masses and radii (Ciardi et al. 2015).
Another new Gaia discovery that popped up on twitter today: there is a gap in the HR main sequence stars.
Quote from: AegeanBlue on 06/23/2018 07:41 amAnother new Gaia discovery that popped up on twitter today: there is a gap in the HR main sequence stars.So, who's this gap going to be named after?
Using data from ESA’s Gaia stellar surveyor, astronomers have identified four stars that are possible places of origin of ‘Oumuamua, an interstellar object spotted during a brief visit to our Solar System in 2017.
While future observations of these four stars might shed new light on their properties and potential to be the home system of ‘Oumuamua, the astronomers are also looking forward to future releases of Gaia data. At least two are planned in the 2020s, which will include a much larger sample of radial velocities, enabling them to reconstruct and investigate the trajectories of many more stars.