The Hipparcos catalog - Commentary on: Perryman M. A. C., Lindegren L., Kovalevsky J., et al., 1997, A&A, 323, L49

The Hipparcos catalog - Commentary on: Perryman M. A. C., Lindegren L., Kovalevsky J., et al., 1997, A&A, 323, L49
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DOI:
10.1051/0004-6361/200912202
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发表时间:
2009-06
影响因子:
6.5
通讯作者:
F. V. Leeuwen
F. V. Leeuwen
中科院分区:
物理与天体物理2区
文献类型:
--
作者:
F. V. Leeuwen

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1997年7月,在依巴谷星表出版之际,提交了四封信(Perryman et al. 1997; Lindegren et al. 1997; Høg et al. 1997;货车Leeuwen et al. 1997),内容涉及天体测量数据、双星、第谷星表和测光数据。其中第一篇论文获得的参考文献数量是其他三篇论文的10倍,这表明依巴谷星表的主要影响在哪里,即它包含的近118,000颗恒星的视差和自行数据。依巴谷使命的历史所涵盖的时间跨度与《A&A》杂志大致相同,从1967年在法国提交第一个适度的建议开始(Lacroute 1982)。欧洲航天局(欧空局)领导的使命的研究始于1970年代中期。该使命于1981年底得到欧空局的批准,1982年开始准备输入目录(Turon等人,1992年)和数据处理软件,由两个集团单独分开,并行处理相同的数据(Lindegren等人,1992年; Kovalevsky等人,1992年)。Tycho使命任务很早就被确定为科学利用卫星上的星星测绘仪探测器的一个独特机会(Høg等人,1992年)。发射于1989年8月。远地点助推发动机的故障使卫星被困在地球静止转移轨道上。在将轨道的近地点高度增加到450公里左右之后,于1989年11月开始进行观测。1992年,《A&A》第253卷的第一部分专门介绍了我们对实际使命数据的首次经验,以及对依巴谷数据的探索可能性。1995年,第304卷的很大一部分专门介绍了使命的第一批初步结果,这些结果是基于3年来积累和处理的数据。这使人们第一次看到了正在产生的大量数据和现在已经实现的准确性。该目录最终于1997年公布,本文与上述三篇论文一起构成了该目录在参考文献中的官方介绍。第五篇更广泛的论文发表在同一卷323上,建立了依巴谷星表作为国际天体参考系(ICRS)的光学实现(Kovalevsky et al. 1997)。但这并不是数据处理的结束。在接下来的几年里,很明显,天体测量数据的其他重大改进仍然是可能的。随后的研究(货车Leeuwen 2005;货车Leeuwen & Fantino 2005)最终完成了天体测量数据的重新还原,并于2007年10月提出了一个新的、针对较亮恒星的显著改进的星表(货车Leeuwen 2007 a,B)。然而,欧空局依巴谷项目科学家Michael Perryman,1997年的依巴谷科学团队,以及其他几个与依巴谷数据缩减密切相关的名字的论文,标志着可以被视为依巴谷项目历史上最重要的里程碑,也是天文学的重要里程碑(参见Perryman 2008,在线)。这是第一次精确的绝对视差测量成为可能,而且是针对相对大量的恒星。在依巴谷星表的最新版本中,有近30000颗恒星的视差精度超过10%,允许进行广泛的研究。自1996年以来,已经有超过1600篇论文(以及另外2000篇非参考出版物)至少部分依赖于依巴谷的数据。Perryman等人(1997)的论文只是对依巴谷使命的成就及其产品的一个相当枯燥的总结,这些成就有多么了不起,现在几乎被时间的迷雾所掩盖。集中在所有测量中最关键的,绝对视差的测量上,值得注意的是,使命的最初目标是达到2 mas的平均误差。1997年给出的值略低于1.0 mas,最佳值为0.4 mas,而在最近的2007年降低中,平均值约为0.7至0.8 mas,最佳值的精度为0.09 mas,是使命目标的20倍以上(图1)。这是在使命运行在错误的10.6小时地球静止转移轨道上的情况下实现的。后者使卫星受到强烈变化的扭矩,这给卫星姿态的重建造成了困难。重建的姿态提供了参考系统的所有位置测量。为了达到所获得的准确性,至少可以说,在这些条件下显着。异常轨道还造成在货车艾伦带交叉处经常受到强辐射,逐渐彻底地毁坏了车上的电子设备,减少了从太阳能电池板提取的能量,迫使使命于1993年5月结束。由于仪器性能比预期的好(导致更高的增益系数)和对卫星动态的非常详细的了解,大大减少了校准噪声,最终结果得以改进。考虑到篇幅有限,本文无法涵盖在编制星表的早期阶段对数据的可靠性和分配给它的错误进行的广泛测试(Lindegren 1995; Arenou et al. 1995)。在许多方面,这些测试表明,
In July 1997 four letters were presented on the occasion of the publication of the Hipparcos catalog (Perryman et al. 1997; Lindegren et al. 1997; Høg et al. 1997; van Leeuwen et al. 1997), covering the astrometric data, the double stars, the Tycho catalog, and the photometric data. The first of these papers received about 10 times more references than the other three together, an indication of where the main impact of the Hipparcos catalog has been, namely in the parallax and proper motion data for the nearly 118 000 stars it contained. The history of the Hipparcos mission covers approximately the same time span as the journal A&A, starting at the submission of the first modest proposals in France in 1967 (Lacroute 1982). Studies for a European Space Agency (ESA) led mission started in the mid-1970s. The mission was approved by ESA at the end of 1981, and in 1982 the preparations for the input catalog (Turon et al. 1992) and the data processing software started, uniquely divided between two consortia processing the same data in parallel (Lindegren et al. 1992; Kovalevsky et al. 1992). The Tycho mission was early on established as a unique opportunity to scientifically utilize the star mapper detectors onboard the satellite (Høg et al. 1992). The launch took place in August 1989. The failure of the Apogee Boost Motor left the satellite trapped in its geostationary transfer orbit. After increasing the perigee height of the orbit to around 450 km, the observations were started in November 1989. In 1992, part 1 of Vol. 253 of A&A was dedicated to our first experiences with the actual mission data, as well as the exploration possibilities for the Hipparcos data. In 1995 a large part of Vol. 304 was dedicated to the first preliminary results for the mission, based on 3 years of accumulated and processed data. This provided the first glimpse at the wealth of data being produced and the accuracies that had now been realized. The catalog was finally made public in 1997, and the paper reviewed here with the three papers mentioned above formed part of the official presentation of the catalog in the refereed literature. A fifth, more extensive paper published in the same Vol. 323, established the Hipparcos catalog as the optical realization of the International Celestial Reference System (ICRS) (Kovalevsky et al. 1997). But this was not the end of the data processing. Over the years that followed it became clear that other significant improvements to the astrometric data were still possible. Subsequent studies (van Leeuwen 2005; van Leeuwen & Fantino 2005) culminated in the complete re-reduction of the astrometric data and the presentation of a new, and significantly improved for the brighter stars, catalog in October 2007 (van Leeuwen 2007a,b). However, the paper by the Hipparcos Project Scientist at ESA, Michael Perryman, the Hipparcos Science Team of 1997, and a couple of other names closely associated with the Hipparcos data reductions, marked what can be seen as the most important milestone in the history of the Hipparcos project, as well as an important milestone for astronomy in general (see also Perryman 2008, online). For the first time accurate absolute parallax measurements became available, and for relatively large numbers of stars. In the latest version of the Hipparcos catalog there are nearly 30 000 stars with parallax accuracies better than 10 per cent, allowing for a wide range of studies to take place. Since 1996 there have been over 1600 refereed papers (and a further 2000 non-refereed publications) relying at least partly on the Hipparcos data. The paper by Perryman et al. (1997) is little more than a rather dry summary of achievements by the Hipparcos mission and products from it. How remarkable those achievements were is by now almost hidden in the mist of time. Concentrating on the most crucial of all measurements, those of the absolute parallaxes, it is worth noting that the original aim of the mission was to reach a mean error of 2 mas. The value presented in 1997 was just below 1.0 mas, with best values at 0.4 mas, while in the latest 2007 reductions the mean value is about 0.7 to 0.8 mas and the best values have accuracies of 0.09 mas, more than 20 times the goal of the mission (Fig. 1). This was achieved despite the mission operating in the wrong, 10.6 h geostationary transfer orbit. The latter subjected the satellite to strongly varying torques, which created difficulties in the reconstruction of the satellite attitude. The reconstructed attitude provided the reference system with all positional measurements. To achieve the accuracies that were obtained were, to say the least, remarkable under these conditions. The anomalous orbit also caused frequent exposure to strong radiation at the crossings of the Van Allen belts, which gradually and thoroughly destroyed the electronic equipment onboard and reduced the power that could be extracted from the solar panels, forcing an end to the mission in May 1993. The improvements in the final results were made possible by both a better performance of the instrument than expected (leading to a higher gain factor) and a very detailed understanding of the dynamics of the satellite, significantly reducing calibration noise. Considering the limited space available for a Letter, the paper could not cover the extensive tests that had taken place at earlier stages in the preparation of the catalog on the reliability of the data and the errors assigned to it (Lindegren 1995; Arenou et al. 1995). In many ways these tests, which showed that the