Heidelberg 2007 – scientific programme
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GR: Fachverband Gravitation und Relativitätstheorie
GR 401: Hauptvorträge Donnerstag
GR 401.2: Invited Talk
Thursday, March 8, 2007, 09:45–10:30, INF 308 Kl. HS
Testing relativity with Gaia — •Sergei Klioner — Lohrmann-Observatorium, TU Dresden, 01062 Dresden
Gaia is the ESA space mission to be launched in 2011. The aim of the mission is to measure positions, proper motions and parallaxes of celestial objects with an accuracy of up to a few microarcseconds. This unprecedented accuracy allows one to learn a lot about physical characteristics of the Universe provided that the observations are modelled and parametrized properly. One of the principle parts of the proper modelling is relativity, the relativistic effects being several magnitudes larger than the observational accuracy. This in turn can be used to test all the aspects of relativity used in the model. The most precise expected test is that of the gravitational light deflection which is expected to deliver the PPN γ with an accuracy of 5· 10−7. Several other relativistic experiments planned with Gaia will be also reviewed.