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The Hipparcos Astrometry Mission

JUN 01, 1998
The first orbiting observatory dedicated to high‐precision parallax measurement has completed its task. We now have direct distance determinations with accuracies better than 10% to more than 20 000 stars.
Michael Perryman

Much of what we know about the universe has come from astrometry, the precise measurement of star positions. Astrometry has been an important scientific tool for more than two millenia. The name of the European Space Agency’s High Precision Parallax Collecting Satellite—Hipparcos for short—honors the great prechristian astrometer Hipparchus of Nicea. Tycho Brahe, the last great naked‐eye astrometer, died just nine years before Galileo first turned his telescope to the heavens.

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References

  1. 1. For a historical review of developments between 1500 and 1850, see A. Chapman, Dividing the Circle, Ellis Harwood (1990).

  2. 2. European Space Agency. The Hipparcos and Tycho Catalogues, ESA publication SP‐1200, in 17 volumes (1997). See also http://astro.estec.esa.nl/Hipparcos for details, including a full bibliography.

  3. 3. F. van Leeuwen, Space Science Reviews 81, 201 (1997).https://doi.org/SPSRA4

  4. 4. T. Bedding, H. Kjeldsen, J. Christensen‐Dalsgaard, Proc. 10th Cambridge Workshop on Cool Stars, R. Donahue, J. Bookbinder, eds. (1997).

  5. 5. H. Jahreiss, R. Wielen, in Proc. Venice ’97 Hipparcos Symposium B. Battrick ed., ESA publication SP‐402 (1997), p. 675.

  6. 6. M. Crézé, E. Chereul, O. Bienaymé, C. Pichon, Astron. Astrophys. 329, 920 (1997).https://doi.org/AAEJAF

  7. 7. M. Perryman, A. Brown, Y. Lebreton et al., Astron. Astrophys. 331, 81 (1998).https://doi.org/AAEJAF

  8. 8. J. Mermilliod, C. Turon, N. Robichon, F. Arenou, Y. Lebreton, in Proc. Venice ’97 Hipparcos Symposium, B. Battrick ed, ESA publication SP‐402 (1997), p. 643.

  9. 9. M. W. Feast, R. M. Catchpole, Mon. Not. R. Astron. Soc. 286, L1 (1997).https://doi.org/MNRAA4

  10. 10. M. W. Feast, P. Whitelock, in Proc. Venice ’97 Hipparcos Symposium, B. Battrick ed., ESA publication SP‐402, (1997), p. 625.

More about the Authors

Michael Perryman. European Space Agency's Research and Technology Center, Noordwijk, The Netherlands.

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This Content Appeared In
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Volume 51, Number 6

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