Informazioni sull’evento

02/09/2018

Joint Astrophysical Colloquium

Preparing for the Great Dig in the Sky (with apologies to Pink Floyd)

Rodrigo Ibata (Observatoire astronomique de Strasbourg)

Thursday 08/02/2018 @ 14:00, Sala IV piano Battiferro

In late April the Gaia space mission will publish the catalogue corresponding to its second data release. This survey will be of tremendous value for studies of our Galaxy. By mapping out the kinematics of the stellar populations, it will allow us to derive the dark matter distribution in the Milky Way to unprecedented accuracy, as well as possibly casting light on the nature of this enigmatic component of the cosmos. In this talk I will present several dynamical techniques we are working on to try and prepare ourselves for this imminent event. These include a stream-finding algorithm that hunts for tidally disrupted former satellites and a new Jeans equation solver, which overcomes the mass-anisotropy degeneracy, and is applicable to dark-matter dominated dwarf galaxies. I will also present the Canada-France Imagining Survey, a large programme on the CFHT which we are conducting to enrich the astrophysical information that can be derived from Gaia.