The Variable Sources in the Gaia archive

TL;DR

The Gaia archive provides an extensive dataset of variable celestial sources, including stars, QSOs, and galaxies, with detailed time series data from a multi-epoch, all-sky survey over 34 months, enabling unprecedented variability studies.

Contribution

This paper presents the largest collection of variable sources from Gaia DR3, with detailed classifications and epoch data, and introduces a citizen science project for variable star classification.

Findings

10.5 million variable sources identified

Largest collection of variable stars and QSOs in Gaia DR3

Published epoch data for nearly 1.3 million sources in Andromeda

Abstract

At the core of the Gaia mission is a multi-epoch survey consisting of astrometric, photometric, spectrophotometric, and spectroscopic measurements. The astrometric time series provides parallaxes and proper motions, along with information on astrometric binary systems. The photometric time series offers a means to investigate the variability of the sources. Due to their whole-sky, multi-epoch nature, multiple instruments, their magnitude range covering 21 magnitudes, and their remarkable photometric precision, these data allow us to describe the variability of celestial phenomena in an unprecedented manner. For the third Gaia Data Release (DR3), the data collection spanned 34 months, with a median number of field-of-view measurements in the G band of about 44, reaching up to 270. At publication time, DR3 delivered the largest collection of variable sources with an associated classification across the entire sky. All these sources have their $G$, $G_{BP}$, $G_{RP}$ epoch data published and accessible in the Gaia ESA archive. In summary, there are 10.5 million variable sources, including 9.5 million variable stars and 1 million QSOs. Additionally, 2.5 million galaxies were identified thanks to spurious variability caused by the non-axisymmetric nature of galaxies and the way Gaia collects data. Moreover, all the epoch data and time series of nearly 1.3 million sources in a pencil beam around the Andromeda galaxy are published, regardless of their status (constant or variable); This dataset is known as the Gaia Andromeda Photometric Survey. We also introduce the citizen science project, GaiaVari to classify variable stars, the Focused Product Release delivered on October 10, 2023. In the future, DR4 will cover 66 months, and we hope DR5 will have accumulated 10.5 years of data.