Lennart Lindegren

During more than two decades, researchers at Lund Observatory participated in the ESA space astrometry mission Hipparcos, first in the planning and execution of the science data reductions, and then in the utilization of the space data in stellar and galactic research. Since 1995 we are strongly involved in the galactic census project Gaia, a cornerstone mission within the ESA science programme, launched in December 2013 and in nominal operation since July 2014.

Until his retirement in June 2017, the space astrometry group was led by Lennart Lindegren, who is also a member of the Gaia Science Team (GST) appointed by the European Space Agency. The current senior members of the space astrometry team in Lund are Dr. David Hobbs and Dr. Paul McMillan Within the Gaia Data Processing and Analysis Consortium (DPAC) the team in Lund collaborates with specialists at ESAC in Madrid to implement the astrometric core solution, the so-called Astrometric Global Iterative Solution (AGIS), and tools to exploit the scientific results of Gaia. Other associated and formal members of the Lund space astrometry group are listed below.

This research programme is supported since many years by the Swedish National Space Board (current project title: Astrophysical space research using Gaia), and during 1998-2003 by the Swedish Research Council (Stellar multiplicity: Origin and evolution; Statistics and dynamics).