33,752 research outputs found
The XMM-Newton serendipitous ultraviolet source survey catalogue
The XMM-Newton Serendipitous Ultraviolet Source Survey (XMM-SUSS) is a
catalogue of ultraviolet (UV) sources detected serendipitously by the Optical
Monitor (XMM-OM) on-board the XMM-Newton observatory. The catalogue contains
ultraviolet-detected sources collected from 2,417 XMM-OM observations in 1-6
broad band UV and optical filters, made between 24 February 2000 and 29 March
2007. The primary contents of the catalogue are source positions, magnitudes
and fluxes in 1 to 6 passbands, and these are accompanied by profile
diagnostics and variability statistics. The XMM-SUSS is populated by 753,578 UV
source detections above a 3 sigma signal-to-noise threshold limit which relate
to 624,049 unique objects. Taking account of substantial overlaps between
observations, the net sky area covered is 29-54 square degrees, depending on UV
filter. The magnitude distributions peak at 20.2, 20.9 and 21.2 in UVW2, UVM2
and UVW1 respectively. More than 10 per cent of sources have been visited more
than once using the same filter during XMM-Newton operation, and > 20 per cent
of sources are observed more than once per filter during an individual visit.
Consequently, the scope for science based on temporal source variability on
timescales of hours to years is broad. By comparison with other astrophysical
catalogues we test the accuracy of the source measurements and define the
nature of the serendipitous UV XMM-OM source sample. The distributions of
source colours in the UV and optical filters are shown together with the
expected loci of stars and galaxies, and indicate that sources which are
detected in multiple UV bands are predominantly star-forming galaxies and stars
of type G or earlier.Comment: Accepted for publication in MNRA
Pre-main-sequence isochrones -- I. The Pleiades benchmark
We present a critical assessment of commonly used pre-main-sequence
isochrones by comparing their predictions to a set of well-calibrated
colour-magnitude diagrams of the Pleiades in the wavelength range 0.4 to 2.5
microns. Our analysis shows that for temperatures less than 4000 K the models
systematically overestimate the flux by a factor two at 0.5 microns, though
this decreases with wavelength, becoming negligible at 2.2 microns. In optical
colours this will result in the ages for stars younger than 10 Myr being
underestimated by factors between two and three.
We show that using observations of standard stars to transform the data into
a standard system can introduce significant errors in the positioning of
pre-main-sequences in colour-magnitude diagrams. Therefore we have compared the
models to the data in the natural photometric system in which the observations
were taken. Thus we have constructed and tested a model of the system responses
for the Wide-Field Camera on the Isaac Newton Telescope.
As a benchmark test for the development of pre-main-sequence models we
provide both our system responses and the Pleiades sequence.Comment: 15 pages, 12 figures, 7 tables, accepted for publication in MNRAS.
All tables are available online at the Cluster Collaboration homepage
http://www.astro.ex.ac.uk/people/timn/Catalogues
Carbon Stars and other Luminous Stellar Populations in M33
The M33 galaxy is a nearby, relatively metal-poor, late-type spiral. Its
proximity and almost face-on inclination means that it projects over a large
area on the sky, making it an ideal candidate for wide-field CCD mosaic
imaging. Photometry was obtained for more than 10^6 stars covering a 74' x 56'
field centered on M33. Main sequence (MS), supergiant branch (SGB), red giant
branch (RGB) and asymptotic giant branch (AGB) populations are identified and
classified based on broad-band V and I photometry. Narrow-band filters are used
to measure spectral features allowing the AGB population to be further divided
into C and M-star types. The galactic structure of M33 is examined using star
counts, colour-colour and colour-magnitude selected stellar populations. We use
the C to M-star ratio to investigate the metallicity gradient in the disk of
M33. The C/M-star ratio is found to increase and then flatten with increasing
galactocentric radius in agreement with viscous disk formation models. The
C-star luminosity function is found to be similar to M31 and the SMC,
suggesting that C-stars should be useful distance indicators. The ``spectacular
arcs of carbon stars'' in M33 postulated recently by Block et al. (2004) are
found in our work to be simply an extension of M33's disk.Comment: 20 pages, 20 figures. Accepted for publication in The Astronomical
Journa
Natural images from the birthplace of the human eye
Here we introduce a database of calibrated natural images publicly available
through an easy-to-use web interface. Using a Nikon D70 digital SLR camera, we
acquired about 5000 six-megapixel images of Okavango Delta of Botswana, a
tropical savanna habitat similar to where the human eye is thought to have
evolved. Some sequences of images were captured unsystematically while
following a baboon troop, while others were designed to vary a single parameter
such as aperture, object distance, time of day or position on the horizon.
Images are available in the raw RGB format and in grayscale. Images are also
available in units relevant to the physiology of human cone photoreceptors,
where pixel values represent the expected number of photoisomerizations per
second for cones sensitive to long (L), medium (M) and short (S) wavelengths.
This database is distributed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial
Unported license to facilitate research in computer vision, psychophysics of
perception, and visual neuroscience.Comment: Submitted to PLoS ON
The dependence of intrinsic alignment of galaxies on wavelength using KiDS and GAMA
The outer regions of galaxies are more susceptible to the tidal interactions
that lead to intrinsic alignments of galaxies. The resulting alignment signal
may therefore depend on the passband if the colours of galaxies vary spatially.
To quantify this, we measured the shapes of galaxies with spectroscopic
redshifts from the GAMA survey using deep gri imaging data from the KiloDegree
Survey. The performance of the moment-based shape measurement algorithm DEIMOS
was assessed using dedicated image simulations, which showed that the
ellipticities could be determined with an accuracy better than 1% in all bands.
Additional tests for potential systematic errors did not reveal any issues. We
measure a significant difference of the alignment signal between the g,r and
i-band observations. This difference exceeds the amplitude of the linear
alignment model on scales below 2 Mpc/h. Separating the sample into
central/satellite and red/blue galaxies, we find that that the difference is
dominated by red satellite galaxies.Comment: 16 pages, 13 figures, accepted, to appear in A&
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