Dissertation committee:
M.Kontizas, K. Tsinganos, X. Moussas, P.Niarchos, D. Hadzidimitriou, N, Vlahakis, I Bellas-Velidis
Summary:
The Local Group, our immediate neighbourhood, is the group of galaxies in which
our Galaxy, the Milky Way, formed and is evolving. The Milky Way and the
Andromeda galaxy (M31) are the two dominant spiral galaxies in the LG, and each
is surrounded by an entourage of lower mass companions.
In 2013 the scientific community expects the launch of Gaia. It is an
astrometric satellite, which was approved by ESA’s Science Programme Committee
in 2000. Whereas the direct product of the Gaia mission will be a highly
accurate astrometric and photometric survey to V=20 mag, the science goals are
much broader and account for the support of a large scientific community. A
Universe Model is developed for the simulation needs of the mission. It is a
set of algorithms for computing the positions at any time, and observational
properties of any objects expected to be observed by the Gaia instruments.
The goals of the current study are:
the investigation of the spatial distribution of stellar populations in nearby
galaxies, expected to be resolved in stars by Gaia. These are part of the
extra-galactic objects to be simulated in the framework of the Gaia mission
preparation. The main targets are the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds, along
with six dwarf irregular galaxies in the Local Group - NGC 6822, WLM, IC10,
Phoenix, Sextans A and Sextans B.
the implementation of results from this investigation in the Gaia Universe
Model. Catalogues of stars known to be part of both the Large and Small
Magellanic Clouds and their characteristics (B, V , and I magnitudes) are to be
provided to be used for simulations, including parameters such as Right
Ascension, Declination, V magnitude, V I colour, G magnitude, distance, radial
velocities, proper motions, surface gravity log g, effective temperature Teff ,
metallicity [Fe/H], α enhancement [α/Fe], and extinction AV
