Gaia Data Release 2 - The catalogue of radial velocity standard stars | Astronomy & Astrophysics (A&A)

A&A 616, A7 (2018)

The catalogue of radial velocity standard stars^★,★★

¹, G. Jasniewicz², L. Chemin³, C. Zurbach², N. Brouillet¹, P. Panuzzo⁴, P. Sartoretti⁴, D. Katz⁴, J.-F. Le Campion¹, O. Marchal⁴, D. Hestroffer⁵, F. Thévenin⁶, F. Crifo⁴, S. Udry⁷, M. Cropper⁸, G. Seabroke⁸, Y. Viala⁴, K. Benson⁸, R. Blomme⁹, A. Jean-Antoine¹⁰, H. Huckle⁸, M. Smith⁸, S. G. Baker⁸, Y. Damerdji^11,12, C. Dolding⁸, Y. Frémat⁹, E. Gosset^12,13, A. Guerrier¹⁴, L. P. Guy¹⁵, R. Haigron⁴, K. Janßen¹⁶, G. Plum⁴, C. Fabre¹⁷, Y. Lasne¹⁴, F. Pailler¹⁰, C. Panem¹⁰, F. Riclet¹⁰, F. Royer⁴, G. Tauran¹⁴, T. Zwitter¹⁸, A. Gueguen^4,19 and C. Turon⁴

¹ Laboratoire d’astrophysique de Bordeaux, Univ. Bordeaux, CNRS, B18N, allée Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire, 33615 Pessac, France
e-mail: caroline.soubiran@u-bordeaux.fr
² Laboratoire Univers et Particules de Montpellier, Université Montpellier, CNRS, Place Eugène Bataillon, CC72, 34095 Montpellier Cedex 05, France
³ Unidad de Astronomía, Fac. Cs. Básicas, Universidad de Antofagasta, Avda. U. de Antofagasta 02800, Antofagasta, Chile
⁴ GEPI, Observatoire de Paris, Université PSL, CNRS, 5 place Jules Janssen, 92190 Meudon, France
⁵ IMCCE, Observatoire de Paris, PSL Research University, CNRS, Sorbonne Université, Univ. Lille, 77 Av. Denfert-Rochereau, 75014 Paris, France
⁶ Université Côte d’Azur, Observatoire de la Côte d’Azur, CNRS, Laboratoire Lagrange, Bd de l’Observatoire, CS 34229, 06304 Nice Cedex 4, France
⁷ Observatoire de Genève, Université de Genève, 51 Ch. des Maillettes, 1290 Sauverny, Switzerland
⁸ Mullard Space Science Laboratory, University College London, Holmbury St Mary, Dorking, Surrey RH5 6NT, UK
⁹ Royal Observatory of Belgium, Ringlaan 3, 1180 Brussels, Belgium
¹⁰ CNES Centre Spatial de Toulouse, 18 avenue Edouard Belin, 31401 Toulouse Cedex 9, France
¹¹ CRAAG – Centre de Recherche en Astronomie, Astrophysique et Géophysique, Route de l’Observatoire, Bp 63, Bouzareah 16340, Algiers, Algeria
¹² Institut d’Astrophysique et de Géophysique, Université de Liège, 19c, Allée du 6 Août, 4000 Liège, Belgium
¹³ F.R.S.-FNRS, Rue d’Egmont 5, 1000 Brussels, Belgium
¹⁴ Thales Services, 290 allée du Lac, 31670 Labège, France
¹⁵ Department of Astronomy, University of Geneva, Chemin d’Ecogia 16, 1290 Versoix, Switzerland
¹⁶ Leibniz Institute for Astrophysics Potsdam (AIP), An der Sternwarte 16, 14482 Potsdam, Germany
¹⁷ ATOS for CNES Centre Spatial de Toulouse, 18 avenue Edouard Belin, 31401 Toulouse Cedex 9, France
¹⁸ Faculty of Mathematics and Physics, University of Ljubljana, Jadranska ulica 19, 1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia
¹⁹ Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics, High Energy Group, Gießenbachstraße, 85741 Garching, Germany

Received: 8 February 2018
Accepted: 26 March 2018

Abstract

Aims. The Radial Velocity Spectrometer (RVS) on board the ESA satellite mission Gaia has no calibration device. Therefore, the radial velocity zero point needs to be calibrated with stars that are proved to be stable at a level of 300 m s⁻¹ during the Gaia observations.

Methods. We compiled a dataset of ~71 000 radial velocity measurements from five high-resolution spectrographs. A catalogue of 4813 stars was built by combining these individual measurements. The zero point was established using asteroids.

Results. The resulting catalogue has seven observations per star on average on a typical time baseline of 6 yr, with a median standard deviation of 15 m s⁻¹. A subset of the most stable stars fulfilling the RVS requirements was used to establish the radial velocity zero point provided in Gaia Data Release 2. The stars that were not used for calibration are used to validate the RVS data.

Key words: catalogs – standards – techniques: radial velocities – stars: kinematics and dynamics