Spinning and color properties of the active asteroid (6478) Gault

We report on accurate $BVR_{c}$ observations of (6478) Gault, a 5-6 km diameter inner main-belt asteroid in the Phocaea family, notable for its sporadic, comet-like ejection of dust. This curious behavior has been mainly interpreted as reconfigurations after YORP spin-up, although merging of a contact binary system cannot be fully excluded. We collected optical observations along the 2019 March-April period, at orbital phase angles between $12^{\circ}-21^{\circ}$, to search for direct evidence of asteroid quick spinning rotation. A prevailing period value of $3.34 \pm 0.02$ hours is supported by our and other photometric observations. In the YORP spin-up hypothesis, this period points to a bulk density $\rho \approx 1$ $\textrm{g}/\textrm{cm}^3$. The mean colors are $B-V = +0.82_{\pm 0.3}$, $V-R_{c} = +0.28_{\pm 0.06}$ and $B-R_{c} = +1.11_{\pm 0.4}$, but we have observed a strong bluer color during the April session, with about $\Delta (B-V) \sim 0.35 \pm 0.09$~mag. This color change can be due to asteroid rotation and support the hypothesis that there is a bluer surface under the Gault's dust, as indicated by spectroscopic observations made on 2019 March 31 and April 8 by Marsset et al. (2019).Comment: 8 pages, 12 figures, submitted to Mon. Not. R. Astron. So

A Grid of Synthetic Stellar UV Fluxes

We present preliminary results of a large project aimed at creating an extended theoretical and observational database of stellar spectra in the ultraviolet wavelength range. This library will consist of IUE spectra at low and high resolution, and a set of LTE and NLTE theoretical fluxes. A first grid of 50 model fluxes with solar metallicity, in the wavelength interval 1000 - 4400 AA, is reported here. Calculations are based on the Kurucz (1993) SYNTHE code. The models span effective temperatures between 10,000 K and 50,000 K, and a surface gravity in the range 2.5 <= log g <= 5.0 dex.Comment: 2 pages, 1 figure, To appear in proceedings, "New Quests in Stellar Astrophysics: The Link Between Stars and Cosmology ", March 26-30, 2001, Eds. M. Chavez, A. Bressan, A. Buzzoni & D. Mayy

Evolutionary Population Synthesis in Stellar Systems. I. A Global Approach

A new grid of 450 theoretical models for old simple stellar populations is presented. Evolutionary synthesis explores the influence of relevant parameters such as age, chemical composition, initial mass function, and stellar mass loss, on the integrated spectral energy distribution. Ages range between 4 and 18 Gyr, and the metallicity Z ranges from 0.0001 to 0.03, with helium content Y = 0.23 and 0.25, respectively. Three values are considered for the initial mass function, assumed as a power law, N(M) proportional to M exp-s; s = 1.35, 2.35, and 3.35. The computational code takes into account in a quantitative way the contributions from all the relevant stellar evolutionary phases according to the theory of the stellar evolution. Thus, late stage in the life of low- mass stars, such as the horizontal branch and the asymptotic and postasymptotic giant branches are accounted for. Furthermore, a simplified treatment for the evolution of the horizontal branch is developed, and the influence of different morphologies are investigated

Broad-band colours and overall photometric properties of template galaxy models from stellar population synthesis

We present here a new set of evolutionary population synthesis models for template galaxies along the Hubble morphological sequence. The models, which account for the individual evolution of the bulge, disc, and halo components, provide basic morphological features, along with bolometric luminosity and colour evolution (including Johnson/Cousins, Gunn g, r, i, and Washington C, M, T1, T2 photometric systems) between 1 and 15 Gyr. The luminosity contribution from residual gas is also evaluated, both in terms of nebular continuum and Balmer-line enhancement. Our theoretical framework relies on the observed colours of present-day galaxies, coupled with a minimal set of physical assumptions related to simple stellar population (SSP) evolution theory, to constrain the overall distinctive properties of galaxies at earlier epochs. A comparison with more elaborate photometric models, and with empirical sets of reference spectral energy distributions (SEDs) for early- and late-type galaxies is accomplished, in order to test output reliability and investigate the internal uncertainty of the models. The match with observed colours of present-day galaxies tightly constrain the stellar birth rate, b, which smoothly increases from E to Im types. The comparison with the observed supernova (SN) rate in low-redshift galaxies shows, as well, a pretty good agreement, and allows us to tune up the inferred star formation activity and the SN and hypernova rates among the different galaxy morphological types. Among others, these results could find useful application also in cosmological studies, given for instance the claimed relationship between hypernova events and gamma-ray bursts. One outstanding feature of the back-in-time evolution model is the prevailing luminosity contribution of the bulge at early epochs. As a consequence, the current morphological look of galaxies might drastically change when moving to larger distances, and we discuss here how sensibly this bias could affect the observation (and the interpretation) of high-redshift surveys. In addition to broad-band colours, the modelling of Balmer line emission in disc-dominated systems shows that striking emission lines, like Hα, can very effectively track stellar birth rate in a galaxy. For these features to be useful age tracers as well, however, one should first assess the real change of b versus time on the basis of supplementary (and physically independent) arguments