new_contents: # gaia_tools.query: some helper functions for querying the Gaia database
  import numpy
  from astropy.table import Table
  from astroquery.gaia import Gaia
  import psycopg2
  
  def query(sql_query,local=False,dbname='catalogs',user='postgres'):
      """
      NAME:
         query
      PURPOSE:
         perform a query, either on a local server or on the Gaia archive
      INPUT:
         sql_query - the text of the query
      OUTPUT:
         result
      HISTORY:
         2018-05-02 - Written - Bovy (UofT)
      """
      if local and 'gaiadr2.' in sql_query:
          sql_query= sql_query.replace('gaiadr2.','gdr2_')
      elif not local and 'gdr2_' in sql_query:
          sql_query= sql_query.replace('gdr2_','gaiadr2.')
      if local:
          conn= psycopg2.connect("dbname={} user={}".format(dbname,user))
          cur= conn.cursor()
          cur.execute(sql_query)
          out= cur.fetchall()
          names= [desc[0] for desc in cur.description]
          cur.close()
          conn.close()       
          out= Table(numpy.array(out),names=names)
      else:
          job= Gaia.launch_job_async(sql_query)
          out= job.get_results()
      return out
  
  
subject: Add function to run a local or remote query