Towards a new full-sky list of radial velocity standard stars

TL;DR

This paper presents the development of a comprehensive, full-sky list of at least 1000 radial velocity standard stars with high accuracy, tailored for calibrating Gaia's Radial Velocity Spectrometer, ensuring stability and coverage.

Contribution

It introduces a new selection process and preliminary list of RV standard stars suitable for Gaia calibration, addressing brightness and density limitations of existing catalogs.

Findings

Preliminary list of 1420 candidate standards created

Selection criteria tailored to Gaia RVS constraints

Ongoing re-observation program for stability verification

Abstract

The calibration of the Radial Velocity Spectrometer (RVS) onboard the ESA Gaia satellite (to be launched in 2012) requires a list of standard stars with a radial velocity (RV) known with an accuracy of at least 300 m/s. The IAU Commission 30 lists of RV standard stars are too bright and not dense enough. We describe the selection criteria due to the RVS constraints for building an adequate full-sky list of at least 1000 RV standards from catalogues already published in the literature. A preliminary list of 1420 candidate standard stars is built and its properties are shown. An important re-observation programme has been set up in order to ensure within it the selection of objects with a good stability until the end of the Gaia mission (around 2018). The present list of candidate standards is available at CDS and usable for many other projects.