Nov 07, 2023 | Euclid's first images Today, the ESA’s Euclid space mission has revealed its first full-colour images obtained combining observations from the visible and near infrared instruments. These five images illustrate Euclid's full potential, from bright stars to faint galaxies. Its observations will cover one third of the sky remaining extremely detailed, even when zooming in on distant galaxies. Here at SSDC, we have been working on the development of the software used to process the images observed in the near infrared. For more details see ESA web page and ESA YouTube channel.
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Oct 10, 2023 | Gaia Focused Product released on 10 October 2023! Waiting for Gaia DR4 release, expected not before the end of 2025, and just a few months from Gaia 10th launch anniversary (19 December 2023), the Gaia Data Processing and Analysis Consortium is releasing a juicy subset of new data focused on specific subjects. In particular, this release consists of 5 data products:
Diffuse Interstellar Bands data and Lens Catalogue Names can be downloaded as a single file through the "Gaia DR3 --> DataModel and Statistics" tab. Since Solar System Objects data are not included in our GaiaPortal, updated astrometry for Solar System objects can be accessed through the Gaia ESA Archive. Further information: For further information about Gaia FPR please refer to this page. Gaia FPR related papers are available here.
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Jun 06, 2023 | NASA-ASI IXPE space mission extended for 20 months The NASA Program Scientist and NASA Astrophysics Director have signed the extension memo and funding for the Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer (IXPE) satellite mission, a NASA+ASI, US and Italian, bilateral Small Explorer (SMEX) mission. The IXPE space mission will be extended by 20 months by NASA, with a General Observer program from 2024 February through 2025 September. IXPE will be evaluated at the next NASA Senior Review of Operating Missions, for extension beyond that date. NASA will release the Announcement of Opportunity (AO) for the IXPE Guest Observer (GO) program in the next weeks. This goal has been obtained thanks to the IXPE international collaboration that has made, the IXPE mission, a successful satellite, both technically and scientifically. IXPE has explored, up to now, the polarization state of the X-ray photons (2-8 keV energy band) emitted by several classes of compact astronomical objects with extreme gravitational, electric and magnetic fields. Italy is collaborating on the scientific mission goals with a team of scientists of ASI, INAF, INFN and Roma Tre University. The Italian participation includes also the provision by ASI of the “Luigi Broglio” ground station (Malindi, Kenya) and of the Space Science Data Center (SSDC). The SSDC has provided the instrument Calibration Database (CALDB) and has designed and developed, in collaboration with INAF and INFN, the scientific software modules (IXPE FTOOLs) that are part of the Instrument Pipeline, while is contributing in the scientific exploitation of the incoming data (in particular in the topic of active galactic nuclei and blazars and multifrequency follow-up) and in further developments of the analysis software. The IXPE Team (INAF, INFN, ASI staff) of SSDC is composed by Matteo Perri, Simonetta Puccetti, Riccardo Middei, Marco Laurenti and Stefano Ciprini. Some links:
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Dec 13, 2022 | New GaiaSpecTool available on GaiaPortal@SSDC The new GaiaSPECtool tab is now online! Easy-to-use GaiaPortal combined with powerful GaiaXPy spectra handling! This new tool is based on the official Python package GaiaXPy, developed and maintained by members of the Gaia Data Processing and Analysis Consortium (DPAC) and in particular, Coordination Unit 5 (CU5), and the Data Processing Centre located at the Institute of Astronomy, Cambridge, UK (DPCI). GaiaSPECtool can be used on a single Gaia DR3 source or, for registered users only, on a list of sources to:
GaiaSPECtool can be accessed here, through the GaiaPortal DR3 main tab.
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