Detection of transiting Jovian exoplanets by Gaia photometry - expected yield

TL;DR

This paper estimates the number of transiting Jovian exoplanets Gaia will detect, using updated mission design and statistical methods, predicting hundreds to thousands of detections depending on follow-up efforts.

Contribution

It provides a new assessment of Gaia's exoplanet detection yield based on recent design updates and empirical statistical procedures.

Findings

Gaia is expected to detect hundreds to thousands of transiting exoplanets.

Detection yield depends on follow-up observational efforts.

Updated design and methods improve previous estimates.

Abstract

Several attempts have been made in the past to assess the expected number of exoplanetary transits that the Gaia space mission will detect. In this Letter we use the updated design of Gaia and its expected performance, and apply recent empirical statistical procedures to provide a new assessment. Depending on the extent of the follow-up effort that will be devoted, we expect Gaia to detect a few hundreds to a few thousands transiting exoplanets.