GaiaESO @ INAF-OAPd

Gaia-ESO is a public spectroscopic survey, targeting more than 10⁵ stars, systematically covering all major components of the MilkyWay, from halo to star forming regions, providing the first homogeneous overview of the distributions of kinematics and elemental abundances. This alone will revolutionise knowledge of Galactic and stellar evolution: when combined with Gaia astrometry the survey will quantify the formation history and evolution of young, mature and ancient Galactic populations. With well-defined samples, we will survey the bulge, thick and thin discs and halo components, and open star clusters of all ages and masses. The Fibre Large Array Multi Element Spectrograph (FLAMES) spectra will: quantify individual elemental abundances in each star; yield precise radial velocities for a 4-D kinematic phase-space; map kinematic gradients and abundance - phase-space structure throughout the Galaxy; follow the formation, evolution and dissolution of open clusters as they populate the disc, and provide a legacy dataset that adds enormous value to the Gaia mission and ongoing ESO imaging surveys.

For a top-level description of the project see the overview article (PDF, large file - 1.98MB).

Public Gaia-ESO Survey Science Archive can be found at http://ges.roe.ac.uk/