GAIA survey of galactic eclipsing binaries

Abstract

General importance and capabilities of observations of eclipsing binaries by the forthcoming ESA mission GAIA are discussed. Availability of spectroscopic observations and a large number of photometric bands on board will make it possible to reliably determine physical parameters for $\sim 10^5$ binary stars. It is stressed that current methods of object by object analysis will have to be modified and included in an automatic analysis pipeline.

To be published in the proceedings of the IAU Colloquium 187 "Exotic Stars as Challenges to Evolution", Miami, Florida, 4-8 March 2002, ASP Conf. Ser. (C. Tout and W. VanHamme, eds.) 6 pages and 3 figures