Exoplanets: Gaia and the importance of ground based spectroscopy follow-up

TL;DR

This paper discusses Gaia's role in exoplanet detection and characterization, emphasizing the importance of ground-based spectroscopy for follow-up and presenting a study on stellar parameters of giant stars as preparatory work.

Contribution

It highlights Gaia's potential in exoplanet research and demonstrates how ground-based spectroscopy complements Gaia's astrometric data for stellar characterization.

Findings

Gaia will provide high-accuracy astrometric orbits for thousands of low-mass objects.

Spectroscopy combined with Gaia data enhances understanding of planetary formation and evolution.

Derived stellar parameters for a sample of field giant stars as preparatory work for Gaia.

Abstract

The search for extrasolar planets has developed rapidly and, today, more than 1700 planets have been found orbiting stars. Thanks to Gaia, we will collect high-accuracy astrometric orbits of thousands of new low-mass celestial objects, such as extra-solar planets and brown dwarfs. These measurements in combination with spectroscopy and with present day and future extrasolar planet search programs (like HARPS, ESPRESSO) will have a crucial contribution to several aspects of planetary astrophysics (formation theories, dynamical evolution, etc.). Moreover, Gaia will have a strong contribution on the stellar chemical and kinematic characterisation studies. In this paper we present a short overview of the importance of Gaia in the context of exoplanet research. As preparatory work for Gaia, we will then present a study where we derived stellar parameters for a sample of field giant stars.