LE PONCIN-LAFFITE , Christophe

The origin of Saturn's inner mid-sized moons (Mimas, Enceladus, Tethys, Dione and Rhea) and Saturn's rings is debated. Charnoz et al. [Charnoz, S., Salmon J., Crida A., 2010. Nature 465, 752-754] introduced the idea that the smallest inner moons could form from the spreading of the rings' edge while Salmon et al. [Salmon, J., Charnoz, S.,...

POLAC (Paris Observatory Lunar Analysis Center) is an ILRS analysis center founded by J. Chapront, M. Chapront-Touzé and G. Francou in 1996. They developed in the 80's a semi-analytical solution of the lunar motion named ELP (Ephémérides lunaires Parisienne). Thus, the original purpose of POLAC was the adjustment of ELP to the lunar laser...

The ESA astrometric mission Gaia has been launched in December 2013. It is currently in its commissioning phase, with the first scientific data expected to be downloaded in June 2014. Gaia has the capability to observe, in addition to about one billion of stars, a large number of solar system objects (SSO) [1]. The satellite and telescope will...

After its successful launch in December 2013, and commissioning period, ESA's astrometric space mission Gaia has now started its scientific operations. In addition to the 3D census of our Milky Way with high precision parallax, proper motion, and other parameters derived for a billion of stars, Gaia will also provide a scientific harvest for...