Arnaud Siebert

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I am an assistant astronomer working for the Centre de Données (CDS) wich is part of Strasbourg's observatory. My research interests are linked to the formation and evolution of galaxies with a particular emphasis on our host the Milky-Way. My interests reside mainly (but not only) in understanding how dynamical processes shape large disk galaxies such as the Milky-Way or the Andromeda galaxy. To achieve my goals, I use both numerical simulations (N-body and hydrodynamical codes) and large surveys of stars in the Galaxy that give access to the phase-space information (position+velocities). Below, you will find some more informations about the projects I am currently involved in. This page is currently under construction and more information will become available as time permits.

	RAVE is an ambitious program to conduct a survey to measure the radial velocities, metallicities and abundance ratios for up to a million stars using the 1.2-m UK Schmidt Telescope of the Anglo-Australian Observatory (AAO), over the period 2003-2010.
The survey represents a giant leap forward in our understanding of our own Milky Way galaxy, providing a vast stellar kinematic database larger than any other survey proposed for this coming decade. The main data product will be a southern hemisphere survey of about a million stars. This survey would comprise 0.7 million thin disk main sequence stars, 250,000 thick disk stars, 100,000 bulge and halo stars, and a further 50,000 giant stars including some out to 10 kpc from the Sun. RAVE will offer the first truly representative inventory of stellar radial velocities for all major components of the Galaxy. Its completeness and homogeneity will make it an invaluable stand-alone resource, but its full potential will be realised when the radial velocities are combined with proper motions and parallaxes from other sources (USNO, Tycho).

	Gaia is a mission that will conduct a census of one thousand million stars in our Galaxy. It will monitor each of its target stars about 40 times over a five-year period, precisely charting their positions, distances, movements, and changes in brightness.