60 research outputs found
Young nearby open clusters and their luminosity functions
Context. Open clusters are groups of coeval stars sharing properties such as
distance and metallicity, and they are key to understanding stellar evolution.
Aims. Our main goal is to study the evolution of open clusters with a special
focus on the universality of the luminosity function. Methods. We applied an
upgraded version of the convergent point technique on about 50 open clusters.
The selection of cluster members was based purely on the exquisite astrometry
of the Gaia DR3 and Hipparcos catalogues in the five-dimensional or full
six-dimensional space. Results. We present updated lists of bona fide members
of ~50 open clusters within 500 pc and younger than 1 Gyr, exploiting the full
depth of the third Gaia data release complemented by Hipparcos at the bright
end, excluding regions in the Galactic plane. Our catalogues also are
complemented by optical and infrared photometry from the major large-scale
public surveys. All the data will be made available on a dedicated webpage with
interactive plots and a direct link to Aladin and Vizier hosted at the Centre
de Donn\'ees de Strasbourg. We derived luminosity functions for all bound
clusters and compared them in three age groups of ~50 Myr, ~150 Myr, and ~600
Myr, discussing similarities and differences to constrain their dynamical
evolution. Conclusions. Luminosity functions of clusters at 50 Myr are more
likely similar to each other and show a greater degree of similarity than older
clusters. We explain this observation with the universal luminosity function
within the volume of our sample (500 pc). Luminosity functions of clusters with
ages similar to the Pleiades or Hyades are more diverse, perhaps due to
internal dynamical evolution, but more work is needed to provide additional
evidence.Comment: 29 pages, 9 figures, accepted for publication in Astronomy &
Astrophysic
The cosmic waltz of Coma Berenices and Latyshev 2 (Group X). Membership, phase-space structure, mass, and energy distributions
Context. Open clusters (OCs) are fundamental benchmarks where theories of
star formation and stellar evolution can be tested and validated. Coma Ber and
Latyshev 2 (Group X) are the second and third OCs closest to the Sun, making
them excellent targets to search for low-mass stars and ultra-cool dwarfs. In
addition, this pair will experience a flyby in 10-16 Myr which makes it a
benchmark to test OCs pair interactions. Aims. We aim at analysing the
membership, luminosity, mass, phase-space (i.e., positions and velocities), and
energy distributions for Coma Ber and Latyshev 2 and test the hypothesis of the
mixing of their populations at the encounter time. Methods. We develop a new
phase-space membership methodology and apply it to Gaia data. With the
recovered members we infer the phase-space, luminosity and mass distributions
using publicly available Bayesian inference codes. Then, with a publicly
available orbit integration code and members' positions and velocities, we
integrate their orbits 20 Myr into the future. Results. In Coma Ber, we
identify 302 candidate members distributed in the core and tidal tails. The
tails are dynamically cold and asymmetrically populated. The stellar system
called Group X is made of two structures: the disrupted OC Latyshev 2 (186
candidate members) and a loose stellar association called Mecayotl 1 (146
candidate members), both of them will fly by Coma Ber in Myr and
Myr, respectively, and each other in Myr. Conclusions.
We study the dynamical properties of the core and tails of Coma Ber and also
confirm the existence of the OC Latyshev 2 and its neighbour stellar
association Mecayotl 1. Although these three systems will experience encounters
we find no evidence supporting the mixing of their populations.Comment: 25 pages, 19 figures, accepted for publication in Astronomy &
Astrophysic
Chromospherically Active Stars in the RAVE Survey. I. The Catalogue
RAVE, the unbiased magnitude limited survey of the southern sky stars,
contained 456,676 medium-resolution spectra at the time of our analysis.
Spectra cover the CaII IRT range which is a known indicator of chromospheric
activity. Our previous work (Matijevi\v{c} et al. 2012) classified all spectra
using locally linear embedding. It identified 53,347 cases with a suggested
emission component in calcium lines. Here we use a spectral subtraction
technique to measure the properties of this emission. Synthetic templates are
replaced by the observed spectra of non-active stars to bypass the difficult
computations of non-LTE profiles of the line cores and stellar parameter
dependence. We derive both the equivalent width of the excess emission for each
calcium line on a 5\AA\ wide interval and their sum EW_IRT for ~44,000
candidate active dwarf stars with S/N>20 and with no respect to the source of
their emission flux. From these ~14,000 show a detectable chromospheric flux
with at least 2\sigma\ confidence level. Our set of active stars vastly
enlarges previously known samples. Atmospheric parameters and in some cases
radial velocities of active stars derived from automatic pipeline suffer from
systematic shifts due to their shallower calcium lines. We re-estimate the
effective temperature, metallicity and radial velocities for candidate active
stars. The overall distribution of activity levels shows a bimodal shape, with
the first peak coinciding with non-active stars and the second with the pre
main-sequence cases. The catalogue will be publicly available with the next
RAVE public data releases.Comment: 13 pages, 9 figure
CHROMOSPHERICALLY ACTIVE STARS in the RAVE SURVEY. II. YOUNG DWARFS in the SOLAR NEIGHBORHOOD
© 2017. The American Astronomical Society. All rights reserved. A large sample of over 38,000 chromospherically active candidate solar-like stars and cooler dwarfs from the RAVE survey is addressed in this paper. An improved activity identification with respect to the previous study was introduced to build a catalog of field stars in the solar neighborhood with an excess emission flux in the calcium infrared triplet wavelength region. The central result of this work is the calibration of the age-activity relation for main-sequence dwarfs in a range from a few 10 Myr up to a few Gyr. It enabled an order of magnitude age estimation of the entire active sample. Almost 15,000 stars are shown to be younger than 1 Gyr and ∼2000 younger than 100 Myr. The young age of the most active stars is confirmed by their position off the main sequence in the J - K versus N UV - V diagram showing strong ultraviolet excess, mid-infrared excess in the J - K versus W 1 - W 2 diagram, and very cool temperatures (J - K < 0.7). They overlap with the reference pre-main-sequence RAVE stars often displaying X-ray emission. The activity level increasing with the color reveals their different nature from the solar-like stars and probably represents an underlying dynamo-generating magnetic fields in cool stars. Of the RAVE objects from DR5, 50% are found in the TGAS catalog and supplemented with accurate parallaxes and proper motions by Gaia. This makes the database of a large number of young stars in a combination with RAVE's radial velocities directly useful as a tracer of the very recent large-scale star formation history in the solar neighborhood. The data are available online in the Vizier database
Chromospherically Active Stars in the RAVE Survey. II. Young dwarfs in the Solar neighborhood
A large sample of over 38,000 chromospherically active candidate solar-like stars and cooler dwarfs from the RAVE survey is addressed in this paper. An improved activity identification with respect to the previous study was introduced to build a catalog of field stars in the Solar neighborhood with an excess emission flux in the calcium infrared triplet wavelength region. The central result of this work is the calibration of the age--activity relation for the main sequence dwarfs in a range from a few up to a few Gyr. It enabled an order of magnitude age estimation of the entire active sample. Almost 15,000 stars are shown to be younger than and 2000 younger than . The young age of the most active stars is confirmed by their position off the main sequence in the versus diagram showing strong ultraviolet excess, mid-infrared excess in the versus diagram and very cool temperatures (). They overlap with the reference pre-main sequence RAVE stars often displaying X-ray emission. The activity level increasing with the color reveals their different nature from the solar-like stars and probably represents an underlying dynamo generating magnetic fields in cool stars. 50\% of the RAVE objects from DR5 are found in the TGAS catalog and supplemented with accurate parallaxes and proper motions by Gaia. This makes the database of a large number of young stars in a combination with RAVE's radial velocities directly useful as a tracer of the very recent large-scale star formation history in the Solar neighborhood. The data are available online in the Vizier database
Gaia Data Release 2 - Observational Hertzsprung-Russell diagrams
Context. Gaia Data Release 2 provides high-precision astrometry and three-band photometry for about 1.3 billion sources over the full sky. The precision, accuracy, and homogeneity of both astrometry and photometry are unprecedented.: Aims. We highlight the power of the Gaia DR2 in studying many fine structures of the Hertzsprung-Russell diagram (HRD). Gaia allows us to present many different HRDs, depending in particular on stellar population selections. We do not aim here for completeness in terms of types of stars or stellar evolutionary aspects. Instead, we have chosen several illustrative examples.: Methods. We describe some of the selections that can be made in Gaia DR2 to highlight the main structures of the Gaia HRDs. We select both field and cluster (open and globular) stars, compare the observations with previous classifications and with stellar evolutionary tracks, and we present variations of the Gaia HRD with age, metallicity, and kinematics. Late stages of stellar evolution such as hot subdwarfs, post-AGB stars, planetary nebulae, and white dwarfs are also analysed, as well as low-mass brown dwarf objects. Results. The Gaia HRDs are unprecedented in both precision and coverage of the various Milky Way stellar populations and stellar evolutionary phases. Many fine structures of the HRDs are presented. The clear split of the white dwarf sequence into hydrogen and helium white dwarfs is presented for the first time in an HRD. The relation between kinematics and the HRD is nicely illustrated. Two different populations in a classical kinematic selection of the halo are unambiguously identified in the HRD. Membership and mean parameters for a selected list of open clusters are provided. They allow drawing very detailed cluster sequences, highlighting fine structures, and providing extremely precise empirical isochrones that will lead to more insight in stellar physics. Conclusions. Gaia DR2 demonstrates the potential of combining precise astrometry and photometry for large samples for studies in stellar evolution and stellar population and opens an entire new area for HRD-based studies
<i>Gaia</i> Data Release 1. Summary of the astrometric, photometric, and survey properties
Context. At about 1000 days after the launch of Gaia we present the first Gaia data release, Gaia DR1, consisting of astrometry and photometry for over 1 billion sources brighter than magnitude 20.7.
Aims. A summary of Gaia DR1 is presented along with illustrations of the scientific quality of the data, followed by a discussion of the limitations due to the preliminary nature of this release.
Methods. The raw data collected by Gaia during the first 14 months of the mission have been processed by the Gaia Data Processing and Analysis Consortium (DPAC) and turned into an astrometric and photometric catalogue.
Results. Gaia DR1 consists of three components: a primary astrometric data set which contains the positions, parallaxes, and mean proper motions for about 2 million of the brightest stars in common with the HIPPARCOS and Tycho-2 catalogues – a realisation of the Tycho-Gaia Astrometric Solution (TGAS) – and a secondary astrometric data set containing the positions for an additional 1.1 billion sources. The second component is the photometric data set, consisting of mean G-band magnitudes for all sources. The G-band light curves and the characteristics of ∼3000 Cepheid and RR-Lyrae stars, observed at high cadence around the south ecliptic pole, form the third component. For the primary astrometric data set the typical uncertainty is about 0.3 mas for the positions and parallaxes, and about 1 mas yr−1 for the proper motions. A systematic component of ∼0.3 mas should be added to the parallax uncertainties. For the subset of ∼94 000 HIPPARCOS stars in the primary data set, the proper motions are much more precise at about 0.06 mas yr−1. For the secondary astrometric data set, the typical uncertainty of the positions is ∼10 mas. The median uncertainties on the mean G-band magnitudes range from the mmag level to ∼0.03 mag over the magnitude range 5 to 20.7.
Conclusions. Gaia DR1 is an important milestone ahead of the next Gaia data release, which will feature five-parameter astrometry for all sources. Extensive validation shows that Gaia DR1 represents a major advance in the mapping of the heavens and the availability of basic stellar data that underpin observational astrophysics. Nevertheless, the very preliminary nature of this first Gaia data release does lead to a number of important limitations to the data quality which should be carefully considered before drawing conclusions from the data
The GALAH Survey: Stellar streams and how stellar velocity distributions vary with Galactic longitude, hemisphere and metallicity
Using GALAH survey data of nearby stars, we look at how structure in the
planar (u,v) velocity distribution depends on metallicity and on viewing
direction within the Galaxy. In nearby stars, with distance d < 1 kpc, the
Hercules stream is most strongly seen in higher metallicity stars [Fe/H] > 0.2.
The Hercules stream peak v value depends on viewed galactic longitude, which we
interpret as due to the gap between the stellar stream and more circular orbits
being associated with a specific angular momentum value of about 1640 km/s kpc.
The association of the gap with a particular angular momentum value supports a
bar resonant model for the Hercules stream.
Moving groups previously identified in Hipparcos observations are easiest to
see in stars nearer than 250 pc, and their visibility and peak velocities in
the velocity distributions depends on both viewing direction (galactic
longitude and hemisphere) and metallicity. We infer that there is fine
structure in local velocity distributions that varies over distances of a few
hundred pc in the Galaxy.Comment: accepted for publication in MNRA
Two Intermediate-mass Transiting Brown Dwarfs from the TESS Mission
We report the discovery of two intermediate-mass transiting brown dwarfs (BDs), TOI-569b and TOI-1406b, from NASA's Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite mission. TOI-569b has an orbital period of P=.55604±0.00016 days, a mass of Mb = 64.1±1.9 MJ, and a radius of Rb = 0.75±0.02 RJ. Its host star, TOI-569, has a mass of Må = 1.21±0.05 M, a radius of Rå = 1.47±0.03 R, [Fe H 0.29 0.09] = + dex, and an effective temperature of Teff = 5768±10K. TOI-1406b has an orbital period of P=10.57415±0.00063 days, a mass of Mb = 46.0± 2.7 MJ, and a radius of Rb = 0.86±0.03 RJ. The host star for this BD has a mass of Må = 1.18±0.09 M, a radius of Rå = 1.35±0.03 R, [Fe/H] =-0.08± 0.09 dex, and an effective temperature of Teff = 6290±100 K. Both BDs are in circular orbits around their host stars and are older than 3 Gyr based on stellar isochrone models of the stars. TOI-569 is one of two slightly evolved stars known to host a transiting BD (the other being KOI-415). TOI-1406b is one of three known transiting BDs to occupy the mass range of 40-50 MJ and one of two to have a circular orbit at a period near 10 days (with the first being KOI-205b). Both BDs have reliable ages from stellar isochrones, in addition to their well-constrained masses and radii, making them particularly valuable as tests for substellar isochrones in the BD mass-radius diagram
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