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IERS Message No. 312                                  September 16, 2016
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First Gaia data release


First data from the Gaia satellite are now available. Gaia is an ESA
space mission to chart a three-dimensional map of our Galaxy. It will
also provide a celestial reference frame in the optical range of
unprecedented accuracy.

More on Gaia and the first data release:
http://www.cosmos.esa.int/web/gaia/home
http://www.cosmos.esa.int/web/gaia/dr1
http://gaia.esac.esa.int/documentation/GDR1/
http://gea.esac.esa.int/archive/

A first cursory comparison of Gaia against VLBI (i.e. optical vs. radio
positions) was made by Leonid Petrov. Results can be found in 
http://astrogeo.org/petrov/discussion/vlbi_gaia .
Please note that these are only preliminary results and do not
represent views of the IERS or any constituent organizations.


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