Published November 2022 | Version Published
Journal Article Open

Gaia Early Data Release 3. The celestial reference frame (Gaia-CRF3)

Creators

  • 1. ROR icon TU Dresden
  • 2. ROR icon Lund University
  • 3. ROR icon Lagrange Laboratory
  • 4. ROR icon European Space Astronomy Centre
  • 5. Telespazio UK S.L. for European Space Agency (ESA), Camino bajo del Castillo, s/n, Urbanizacion Villafranca del Castillo, Villanueva de la Canada, 28692, Madrid, Spain
  • 6. ROR icon Heidelberg University
  • 7. HE Space Operations BV for European Space Agency (ESA), Camino bajo del Castillo, s/n, Urbanizacion Villafranca del Castillo, Villanueva de la Canada, 28692, Madrid, Spain
  • 8. ROR icon Osservatorio Astrofisico di Torino
  • 9. ROR icon University of Barcelona
  • 10. ROR icon University of Edinburgh
  • 11. ATG Europe for European Space Agency (ESA), Camino bajo del Castillo, s/n, Urbanizacion Villafranca del Castillo, Villanueva de la Canada, 28692, Madrid, Spain
  • 12. ROR icon Leiden University
  • 13. ROR icon Osservatorio Astronomico di Padova
  • 14. ROR icon European Space Research and Technology Centre
  • 15. ROR icon Galaxies, Etoiles, Physique et Instrumentation
  • 16. ROR icon Institut de Planétologie et d'Astrophysique de Grenoble
  • 17. ROR icon Laboratory of Astrophysics of Bordeaux
  • 18. ROR icon University of Cambridge
  • 19. ROR icon University of Geneva
  • 20. Aurora Technology for European Space Agency (ESA), Camino bajo del Castillo, s/n, Urbanizacion Villafranca del Castillo, Villanueva de la Canada, 28692, Madrid, Spain
  • 21. ROR icon Centre National d'Études Spatiales
  • 22. ROR icon Université Libre de Bruxelles
  • 23. ROR icon Fund for Scientific Research
  • 24. ROR icon Arcetri Astrophysical Observatory
  • 25. ROR icon Max Planck Institute for Astronomy
  • 26. ROR icon University of Turin
  • 27. INAF – Osservatorio di Astrofísica e Scienza dello Spazio di Bologna, via Piero Gobetti 93/3, 40129, Bologna, Italy
  • 28. ROR icon Royal Observatory of Belgium
  • 29. ROR icon Uppsala University
  • 30. ALTEC S.p.a, Corso Marche, 79, 10146, Torino, Italy
  • 31. Sednai Sàrl, Geneva, Switzerland
  • 32. ROR icon University College London
  • 33. SYRTE, Observatoire de Paris, Université PSL, CNRS, Sorbonne Université, LNE, 61 avenue de l'Observatoire, 75014, Paris, France
  • 34. ROR icon National Observatory of Athens
  • 35. ROR icon Institut de Mécanique Céleste et de Calcul des Éphémérides
  • 36. Serco Gestión de Negocios for European Space Agency (ESA), Camino bajo del Castillo, s/n, Urbanizacion Villafranca del Castillo, Villanueva de la Canada, 28692, Madrid, Spain
  • 37. ROR icon University of Liège
  • 38. ROR icon Centre de Recherche en Astronomie Astrophysique et Géophysique
  • 39. RHEA for European Space Agency (ESA), Camino bajo del Castillo, s/n, Urbanizacion Villafranca del Castillo, Villanueva de la Cañada, 28692, Madrid, Spain
  • 40. ROR icon University of A Coruña
  • 41. ROR icon Observatory of Strasbourg
  • 42. ROR icon Leibniz Institute for Astrophysics Potsdam
  • 43. ROR icon University of Lisbon
  • 44. ROR icon University of California, Irvine
  • 45. ROR icon Osservatorio Astrofisico di Catania
  • 46. ROR icon University of Catania
  • 47. ROR icon Astronomical Observatory of Rome
  • 48. ROR icon Agenzia Spaziale Italiana
  • 49. ROR icon University of Helsinki
  • 50. ROR icon Finnish Geospatial Research Institute
  • 51. ROR icon Université Bourgogne Franche-Comté
  • 52. ROR icon National University of Distance Education
  • 53. ROR icon Konkoly Observatory
  • 54. ROR icon Eötvös Loránd University
  • 55. ROR icon KU Leuven
  • 56. ROR icon Radboud University Nijmegen
  • 57. ROR icon University of Vienna
  • 58. ROR icon École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne
  • 59. ROR icon University of Groningen
  • 60. ROR icon University of Leicester
  • 61. ROR icon Thales (France)
  • 62. ROR icon University of Cádiz
  • 63. ROR icon University of Maryland, Baltimore County
  • 64. ROR icon Goddard Space Flight Center
  • 65. ROR icon Eurix (Italy)
  • 66. ROR icon Tel Aviv University
  • 67. ROR icon Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics
  • 68. ROR icon University of Porto
  • 69. ROR icon University of Chile
  • 70. ROR icon International School for Advanced Studies
  • 71. ROR icon University of Cantabria
  • 72. ROR icon University of Antofagasta
  • 73. DLR Gesellschaft für Raumfahrtanwendungen (GfR), mbH Münchener Straße 20, 82234, Weßling, Germany
  • 74. ROR icon University of Hertfordshire
  • 75. ROR icon Collurania Teramo Observatory
  • 76. ROR icon Universidade de São Paulo
  • 77. Mésocentre de calcul de Franche-Comté, Université de Franche-Comté, 16 route de Gray, 25030, Besançon Cedex, France
  • 78. ROR icon Queen's University Belfast
  • 79. Centre de Données Astronomique de Strasbourg, Strasbourg, France
  • 80. ROR icon Observatoire de la Côte d'Azur
  • 81. ROR icon Durham University
  • 82. ROR icon European Southern Observatory
  • 83. ROR icon Max Planck Institute for Astrophysics
  • 84. ROR icon Pablo de Olavide University
  • 85. ROR icon Barcelona Supercomputing Center
  • 86. ROR icon Universidade de Vigo
  • 87. ROR icon Luleå University of Technology
  • 88. Vera C Rubin Observatory, 950 N. Cherry Avenue, Tucson, AZ, 85719, USA
  • 89. ROR icon National and Kapodistrian University of Athens
  • 90. TRUMPF Photonic Components GmbH, Lise-Meitner-Straße 13, 89081, Ulm, Germany
  • 91. ROR icon Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias
  • 92. ROR icon University of La Laguna
  • 93. ROR icon Delft University of Technology
  • 94. Radagast Solutions, Simon Vestdijkpad 24, 2321WD, Leiden, The Netherlands
  • 95. ROR icon Laboratoire Univers et Particules de Montpellier
  • 96. ROR icon Université de Caen Normandie
  • 97. ROR icon Laboratory of Space Studies and Instrumentation in Astrophysics
  • 98. ROR icon Netherlands Institute for Space Research
  • 99. ROR icon University of Warsaw
  • 100. Scalian for CNES Centre Spatial de Toulouse, 18 avenue Edouard Belin, 31401, Toulouse Cedex 9, France
  • 101. ROR icon University of Rennes 1
  • 102. ROR icon Astronomical Observatory of Capodimonte
  • 103. ROR icon Shanghai Astronomical Observatory
  • 104. ROR icon University of Chinese Academy of Sciences
  • 105. ROR icon University of Copenhagen
  • 106. ROR icon Las Cumbres Observatory Global Telescope Network
  • 107. ROR icon Liverpool John Moores University
  • 108. ROR icon Infrared Processing and Analysis Center
  • 109. ROR icon Research Institute in Astrophysics and Planetology
  • 110. ROR icon Complutense University of Madrid
  • 111. ROR icon Rudjer Boskovic Institute
  • 112. ROR icon Villanova University
  • 113. ROR icon Brera Astronomical Observatory
  • 114. ROR icon Rutherford Appleton Laboratory
  • 115. ROR icon Charles University
  • 116. ROR icon Weizmann Institute of Science
  • 117. ROR icon Princeton University
  • 118. ROR icon Centro de Astrobiología
  • 119. ROR icon University of Namur
  • 120. CGI Deutschland B.V. & Co. KG, Mornewegstr. 30, 64293, Darmstadt, Germany
  • 121. ROR icon Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań
  • 122. ROR icon University of Bristol
  • 123. ROR icon University of Padua
  • 124. ROR icon European Organization for Nuclear Research
  • 125. ROR icon Association of Universities For Research In Astronomy
  • 126. ROR icon Institut d'Astrophysique de Paris
  • 127. ROR icon Sorbonne University
  • 128. ROR icon University of Ljubljana

Abstract

Context. Gaia-CRF3 is the celestial reference frame for positions and proper motions in the third release of data from the Gaia mission, Gaia DR3 (and for the early third release, Gaia EDR3, which contains identical astrometric results). The reference frame is defined by the positions and proper motions at epoch 2016.0 for a specific set of extragalactic sources in the (E)DR3 catalogue.

Aims. We describe the construction of Gaia-CRF3 and its properties in terms of the distributions in magnitude, colour, and astrometric quality.

Methods. Compact extragalactic sources in Gaia DR3 were identified by positional cross-matching with 17 external catalogues of quasi-stellar objects (QSO) and active galactic nuclei (AGN), followed by astrometric filtering designed to remove stellar contaminants. Selecting a clean sample was favoured over including a higher number of extragalactic sources. For the final sample, the random and systematic errors in the proper motions are analysed, as well as the radio-optical offsets in position for sources in the third realisation of the International Celestial Reference Frame (ICRF3).

Results. Gaia-CRF3 comprises about 1.6 million QSO-like sources, of which 1.2 million have five-parameter astrometric solutions in Gaia DR3 and 0.4 million have six-parameter solutions. The sources span the magnitude range G = 13–21 with a peak density at 20.6 mag, at which the typical positional uncertainty is about 1 mas. The proper motions show systematic errors on the level of 12 µas yr–1 on angular scales greater than 15 deg. For the 3142 optical counterparts of ICRF3 sources in the S/X frequency bands, the median offset from the radio positions is about 0.5 mas, but it exceeds 4 mas in either coordinate for 127 sources. We outline the future of Gaia-CRF in the next Gaia data releases. Appendices give further details on the external catalogues used, how to extract information about the Gaia-CRF3 sources, potential (Galactic) confusion sources, and the estimation of the spin and orientation of an astrometric solution.

Copyright and License

© Gaia Collaboration (Klioner, S. A., et al.) 2022. Open Access article, published by EDP Sciences, under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Acknowledgement

This work presents results from the European Space Agency (ESA) space mission GaiaGaia 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), and the Research Council of Katholieke Universiteit (KU) Leuven through grant C16/18/005 (Pushing AsteRoseismology to the next level with TESS, GaiA, and the Sloan DIgital Sky SurvEy – PARADISE); 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 Chilean Agencia Nacional de Investigación y Desarrollo (ANID) through Fondo Nacional de Desarrollo Científico y Tecnológico (FONDECYT) Regular Project 1210992 (L. Chemin); the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC) through grants 11573054, 11703065, and 12173069, the China Scholarship Council through grant 201806040200, and the Natural Science Foundation of Shanghai through grant 21ZR1474100; 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 Cooperation in Science and Technology (COST) through COST Action CA18104 ‘Revealing the Milky Way with Gaia (MW-Gaia)’; the European Research Council (ERC) through grants 320360, 647208, and 834148 and through the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation and excellent science programmes through Marie Sklodowska-Curie grant 745617 (Our Galaxy at full HD – Gal-HD) and 895174 (The build-up and fate of self-gravitating systems in the Universe) as well as grants 687378 (Small Bodies: Near and Far), 682115 (Using the Magellanic Clouds to Understand the Interaction of Galaxies), 695099 (A sub-percent distance scale from binaries and Cepheids – CepBin), 716155 (Structured ACCREtion Disks – SACCRED), 951549 (Sub-percent calibration of the extra-galactic distance scale in the era of big surveys – UniverScale), and 101004214 (Innovative Scientific Data Exploration and Exploitation Applications for Space Sciences – EXPLORE); 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 contracts C98090 and 4000106398/12/NL/KML for Hungary, through contract 4000115263/15/NL/IB for Germany, and through PROgramme de Développement d’Expériences scientifiques (PRODEX) grant 4000127986 for Slovenia; the Academy of Finland through grants 299543, 307157, 325805, 328654, 336546, and 345115 and the Magnus Ehrnrooth Foundation; the French Centre National d’Études 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), through grant ANR-15-CE31-0012-01 for project ‘Unlocking the potential of Cepheids as primary distance calibrators’ (UnlockCepheids), through grant ANR-19-CE31-0017 for project ‘Secular evolution of galxies’ (SEGAL), and through grant ANR-18-CE31-0006 for project ‘Galactic Dark Matter’ (GaDaMa), the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS) and its SNO Gaia of the Institut des Sciences de l’Univers (INSU), its Programmes Nationaux: Cosmologie et Galaxies (PNCG), Gravitation Références Astronomie Métrologie (PNGRAM), Planétologie (PNP), Physique et Chimie du Milieu Interstellaire (PCMI), and Physique Stellaire (PNPS), the ‘Action Fédératrice Gaia’ of the Observatoire de Paris, the Région de Franche-Comté, 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, 50QG1904, 50QG2101, 50QG2102, and 50QG2202, and the Centre for Information Services and High Performance Computing (ZIH) at the Technische Universität Dresden for generous allocations of computer time; the Hungarian Academy of Sciences through the Lendület Programme grants LP2014-17 and LP2018-7 and the Hungarian National Research, Development, and Innovation Office (NKFIH) through grant KKP-137523 (‘SeismoLab’); the Science Foundation Ireland (SFI) through a Royal Society - SFI University Research Fellowship (M. Fraser); the Israel Ministry of Science and Technology through grant 3-18143 and the Tel Aviv University Center for Artificial Intelligence and Data Science (TAD) through a grant; 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 ΓNAF for the 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. Helmi), and through a Spinoza prize (A. Helmi), and the Netherlands Research School for Astronomy (NOVA); the Polish National Science Centre through HARMONIA grant 2018/30/M/ST9/00311 and DAINA grant 2017/27/L/ST9/03221 and the Ministry of Science and Higher Education (MNiSW) through grant DIR/WK/2018/12; the Portuguese Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT) through national funds, grants SFRH/BD/128840/2017 and PTDC/FIS-AST/30389/2017, and work contract DL 57/2016/CP1364/CT0006, the Fundo Europeu de Desenvolvimento Regional (FEDER) through grant POCI-01-0145-FEDER-030389 and its Programa Operacional Competitividade e Internacionalização (COMPETE2020) through grants UIDB/04434/2020 and UIDP/04434/2020, and the Strategic Programme UIDB/00099/2020 for the Centro de Astrof sica e Gravitação (CENTRA); the Slovenian Research Agency through grant P1-0188; the Spanish Ministry of Economy (MINECO/FEDER, UE), the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation (MICIN), the Spanish Ministry of Education, Culture, and Sports, and the Spanish Government through grants BES-2016-078499, BES-2017-083126, BES-C-2017-0085, ESP2016-80079-C2-1-R, ESP2016-80079-C2-2-R, FPU16/03827, PDC2021-121059-C22, RTI2018-095076-B-C22, and TIN2015-65316-P (‘Computación de Altas Prestaciones VII’), the Juan de la Cierva Incorporación Programme (FJCI-2015-2671 and IJC2019-04862-I for F. Anders), the Severo Ochoa Centre of Excellence Programme (SEV2015-0493), and MICIN/AEI/10.13039/501100011033 (and the European Union through European Regional Development Fund ‘A way of making Europe’) through grant RTI2018-095076-B-C21, the Institute of Cosmos Sciences University of Barcelona (ICCUB, Unidad de Excelencia ‘Mar a de Maeztu’) through grant 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-2021/36, ED481A-2019/155, and ED481A-2021/296, the Centro de Investigación en Tecnolog as de la Información y las Comunicaciones (CITIC), funded by the Xunta de Galicia and the European Union (European Regional Development Fund – 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-2017-2-0002, AECT-2017-3-0006, AECT-2018-1-0017, AECT-2018-2-0013, AECT-2018-3-0011, AECT-2019-1-0010, AECT-2019-2-0014, AECT-2019-3-0003, AECT-2020-1-0004, and DATA-2020-1-0010, 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 funded by MICIN/AEI/10.13039/501100011033 and the European Science Foundation (‘Investing in your future’); the Swedish National Space Agency (SNSA/Rymdstyrelsen); the Swiss State Secretariat for Education, Research, and Innovation through the Swiss Activités Nationales Complémentaires and the Swiss National Science Foundation through an Eccellenza Professorial Fellowship (award PCEFP2_194638 for R. Anderson); 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/S000984/1, ST/S001123/1, ST/S001948/1, ST/S001980/1, ST/S002103/1, ST/V000969/1, ST/W002469/1, ST/W002493/1, ST/W002671/1, ST/W002809/1, and EP/V520342/1.

Further acknowledgments can be found at https://gea.esac.esa.int/archive/documentation/GEDR3/Miscellaneous/sec_acknowl/.

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2022-11-23
Published online