Australian participation in the Gaia Follow-Up Network for Solar System Objects

TL;DR

This paper discusses the development of an Australian ground-based telescope network to support Gaia's Solar System Object discoveries, focusing on follow-up observations for confirmation and orbit determination.

Contribution

It introduces a new international follow-up network for Gaia's Solar System Object discoveries, including the role of the Zadko Telescope in this effort.

Findings

Successful follow-up tests with asteroid 2005 YU55.

Network comprises 37 sites with 53 instruments.

Demonstrated the network's capability for rapid asteroid tracking.

Abstract

The Gaia satellite, planned for launch by the European Space Agency (ESA) in 2013, is the next generation astrometry mission following Hipparcos. Gaia's primary science goal is to determine the kinematics, chemical structure and evolution of the Milky Way Galaxy. In addition to this core science goal, the Gaia space mission is expected to discover thousands of Solar System Objects. Because of orbital constraints Gaia will only have a limited opportunity for astrometric follow-up of these discoveries. In 2010, the Gaia consortium DPAC initiated a program to identify ground-based optical telescopes for a Gaia follow-up network for Solar System Objects to perform the following critical tasks: confirmation of discovery, identification of body, object tracking to constrain orbits. To date this network comprises 37 observing sites (representing 53 instruments). The Zadko Telescope, located in Western Australia, was highlighted as an important network node because of its southern location, longitude and automated scheduling system. We describe the first follow-up tests using the fast moving Potentially Hazardous Asteroid 2005 YU55 as the target.