119 research outputs found

    Spectrophotometrically Identified stars in the PEARS-N and PEARS-S fields

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    Deep ACS slitless grism observations and identification of stellar sources are presented within the Great Observatories Origins Deep Survey (GOODS) North and South fields which were obtained in the Probing Evolution And Reionization Spectroscopically (PEARS) program. It is demonstrated that even low resolution spectra can be a very powerful means to identify stars in the field, especially low mass stars with stellar types M0 and later. The PEARS fields lay within the larger GOODS fields, and we used new, deeper images to further refine the selection of stars in the PEARS field, down to a magnitude of mz = 25 using a newly developed stellarity parameter. The total number of stars with reliable spectroscopic and morphological identification was 95 and 108 in the north and south fields respectively. The sample of spectroscopically identified stars allows constraints to be set on the thickness of the Galactic thin disk as well as contributions from a thick disk and a halo component. We derive a thin disk scale height, as traced by the population of M4 to M9 dwarfs along two independent lines of sight, of h_thin = 370 +60/-65 pc. When including the more massive M0 to M4 dwarf population, we derive h_thin = 300 +/- 70pc. In both cases, we observe that we must include a combination of thick and halo components in our models in order to account for the observed numbers of faint dwarfs. The required thick disk scale height is typically h_thick=1000 pc and the acceptable relative stellar densities of the thin disk to thick disk and the thin disk to halo components are in the range of 0.00025<f_halo<0.0005 and 0.05<f_thick<0.08 and are somewhat dependent on whether the more massive M0 to M4 dwarfs are included in our sample

    A Uniform CO Survey of the Molecular Clouds in Orion and Monoceros

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    We report the results of a new large scale survey of the Orion-Monoceros complex of molecular clouds made in the J = 1->0 line of CO with the Harvard-Smithsonian 1.2m millimetre-wave telescope. The survey consists of 52,288 uniformly spaced spectra that cover an area of 432 square degrees on the sky and is the most sensitive large-scale survey of the region to date. Distances to the constituent molecular clouds of the complex, estimated from an analysis of foreground and background stars, have provided information on the three dimensional structure of the entire complex.Comment: Accepted for publication in Astronomy and Astrophysics. 19 pages with 17 colour figures - 39 if you count the sub-figures separately. The figures here have been bit-mapped with some loss of quality and beauty. The paper version in A&A will be in greyscale with the on-line version in colour. In the meantime the colour version can be obtained by following links at http://www.star.bris.ac.uk/mrwm . The 9MB PostScript is recommended if you have appropriate bandwidth or otherwise the 2.3MB PDF is usabl

    A Search for Mid-Infrared Molecular Hydrogen Emission from Protoplanetary Disks

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    We observed the Herbig Ae/Be stars UX Ori, HD 34282, HD 100453, HD 101412, HD 104237 and HD 142666, and the T Tauri star HD 319139 and searched for H2 0-0 S(2) emission at 12.278 micron and H2 0-0 S(1) emission at 17.035 micron with VISIR, ESO-VLT's high-resolution MIR spectrograph. None of the sources present evidence for H2 emission. Stringent 3sigma upper limits to the integrated line fluxes and the mass of optically thin warm gas in the disks are derived. The disks contain less than a few tenths of Jupiter mass of optically thin H2 gas at 150 K at most, and less than a few Earth masses of optically thin H2 gas at 300 K and higher temperatures. We compare our results to a Chiang and Goldreich (1997, CG97) two-layer disk model. The upper limits to the disk's optically thin warm gas mass are smaller than the amount of warm gas in the interior layer of the disk, but they are much larger than the amount of molecular gas in the surface layer. We present a calculation of the expected thermal H2 emission from optically thick disks, assuming a CG97 disk structure, a gas-to-dust ratio of 100 and Tgas = Tdust. The expected H2 thermal emission fluxes from typical disks around Herbig Ae/Be stars (10^-16 to 10^-17 erg/s/cm2 at 140 pc) are much lower than the detection limits of our observations (5*10^-15 erg/s/cm2). H2 emission levels are very sensitive to departures from the thermal coupling between the molecular gas and dust. Additional sources of heating of gas in the disk's surface layer could have a major impact on the expected H2 disk emission. In the observed sources the molecular gas and dust in the surface layer have not significantly departed from thermal coupling (Tgas/Tdust< 2) and that the gas-to-dust ratio in the surface layer is very likely lower than 1000.Comment: 16 pages, 9 figures, accepted by A&A. v2: typo in footnote ** corrected, v3: corrections of the A&A language editor included, typo in title of Fig. 1. correcte

    The Hubble Space Telescope Wide Field Camera 3 Early Release Science data: Panchromatic Faint Object Counts for 0.2-2 microns wavelength

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    We describe the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3) Early Release Science (ERS) observations in the Great Observatories Origins Deep Survey (GOODS) South field. The new WFC3 ERS data provide calibrated, drizzled mosaics in the UV filters F225W, F275W, and F336W, as well as in the near-IR filters F098M (Ys), F125W (J), and F160W (H) with 1-2 HST orbits per filter. Together with the existing HST Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS) GOODS-South mosaics in the BViz filters, these panchromatic 10-band ERS data cover 40-50 square arcmin at 0.2-1.7 {\mu}m in wavelength at 0.07-0.15" FWHM resolution and 0.090" Multidrizzled pixels to depths of AB\simeq 26.0-27.0 mag (5-{\sigma}) for point sources, and AB\simeq 25.5-26.5 mag for compact galaxies. In this paper, we describe: a) the scientific rationale, and the data taking plus reduction procedures of the panchromatic 10-band ERS mosaics; b) the procedure of generating object catalogs across the 10 different ERS filters, and the specific star-galaxy separation techniques used; and c) the reliability and completeness of the object catalogs from the WFC3 ERS mosaics. The excellent 0.07-0.15" FWHM resolution of HST/WFC3 and ACS makes star- galaxy separation straightforward over a factor of 10 in wavelength to AB\simeq 25-26 mag from the UV to the near-IR, respectively.Comment: 51 pages, 71 figures Accepted to ApJS 2011.01.2

    Hubble Space Telescope WFC3 Early Release Science: Emission-Line Galaxies from Infrared Grism Observations

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    We present grism spectra of emission-line galaxies (ELGs) from 0.6-1.6 microns from the Wide Field Camera 3 on the Hubble Space Telescope. These new infrared grism data augment previous optical Advanced Camera for Surveys G800L 0.6-0.95 micron grism data in GOODS-South from the PEARS program, extending the wavelength covereage well past the G800L red cutoff. The ERS grism field was observed at a depth of 2 orbits per grism, yielding spectra of hundreds of faint objects, a subset of which are presented here. ELGs are studied via the Ha, [OIII], and [OII] emission lines detected in the redshift ranges 0.2<z<1.4, 1.2<z<2.2 and 2.0<z<3.3 respectively in the G102 (0.8-1.1 microns; R~210) and G141 (1.1-1.6 microns; R~130) grisms. The higher spectral resolution afforded by the WFC3 grisms also reveals emission lines not detectable with the G800L grism (e.g., [SII] and [SIII] lines). From these relatively shallow observations, line luminosities, star-formation rates, and grism spectroscopic redshifts are determined for a total of 48 ELGs to m(AB)~25 mag. Seventeen GOODS-South galaxies that previously only had photometric redshifts now have new grism-spectroscopic redshifts, in some cases with large corrections to the photometric redshifts (Delta(z)~0.3-0.5). Additionally, one galaxy had no previously-measured redshift but now has a secure grism-spectroscopic redshift, for a total of 18 new GOODS-South spectroscopic redshifts. The faintest source in our sample has a magnitude m(AB)=26.9 mag. The ERS grism data also reflect the expected trend of lower specific star formation rates for the highest mass galaxies in the sample as a function of redshift, consistent with downsizing and discovered previously from large surveys. These results demonstrate the remarkable efficiency and capability of the WFC3 NIR grisms for measuring galaxy properties to faint magnitudes and redshifts to z>2.Comment: Accepted for publication in AJ. Updated to include referee comments. Updated sample using improved reduction contains 23 new galaxies (Table 1; Figures 2 & 3

    The weak-line T Tauri star V410Tau I. A multi-wavelength study of variability

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    We present the results of an intensive coordinated monitoring campaign in the optical and X-ray wavelength ranges of the low-mass, pre-main sequence star V410Tau carried out with the aim to study the relation between various indicators for magnetic activity that probe emission from different atmospheric layers: optical photometric star spot (rotation) cycle, chromospheric Halpha emission, and coronal X-rays. Two X-ray pointings were carried out with the Chandra satellite simultaneously with the optical observations, and centered near the maximum and minimum levels of the optical lightcurve. A relation of their different count levels to the rotation period of the dominating spot is not confirmed by a third Chandra observation carried out some months later, during another minimum of the 1.87d cycle. Similarly we find no indications for a correlation of the Halpha emission with the spots' rotational phase. The extraordinary stability of the largest spot is confirmed by long-term photometric and radial velocity measurements. Joining our optical photometry with previous data we provide a new estimate for the dominant periodicity of V410Tau. This updated value removes systematic offsets of the time of minimum observed in data taken over the last decade. Furthermore, the combination of the new data with published measurements taken during the last decade allows us to examine long-term changes in the mean light level of the photometry of V410Tau. A variation on the timescale of 5.4yr is suggested. Assuming that this behavior is truely cyclic V410Tau is the first pre-main sequence star on which an activity cycle is detected.Comment: 16 pages, accepted for publication in A&

    Exo--Zodiacal Dust Levels for Nearby Main Sequence Stars

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    The Keck Interferometer Nuller (KIN) was used to survey 25 nearby main sequence stars in the mid-infrared, in order to assess the prevalence of warm circumstellar (exozodiacal) dust around nearby solar-type stars. The KIN measures circumstellar emission by spatially blocking the star but transmitting the circumstellar flux in a region typically 0.1 - 4 AU from the star. We find one significant detection (eta Crv), two marginal detections (gamma Oph and alpha Aql), and 22 clear non-detections. Using a model of our own Solar System's zodiacal cloud, scaled to the luminosity of each target star, we estimate the equivalent number of target zodis needed to match our observations. Our three zodi detections are eta Crv (1250 +/- 260), gamma Oph (200 +/- 80) and alpha Aql (600 +/- 200), where the uncertainties are 1-sigma. The 22 non-detected targets have an ensemble weighted average consistent with zero, with an average individual uncertainty of 160 zodis (1-sigma). These measurements represent the best limits to date on exozodi levels for a sample of nearby main sequence stars. A statistical analysis of the population of 23 stars not previously known to contain circumstellar dust (excluding eta Crv and gamma Oph) suggests that, if the measurement errors are uncorrelated (for which we provide evidence) and if these 23 stars are representative of a single class with respect to the level of exozodi brightness, the mean exozodi level for the class is <150 zodis (3-sigma upper-limit, corresponding to 99% confidence under the additional assumption that the measurement errors are Gaussian). We also demonstrate that this conclusion is largely independent of the shape and mean level of the (unknown) true underlying exozodi distribution

    The complex circumstellar environment of HD142527

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    The recent findings of gas giant planets around young A-type stars suggest that disks surrounding Herbig Ae/Be stars will develop planetary systems. An interesting case is HD142527, for which previous observations revealed a complex circumstellar environment and an unusually high ratio of infrared to stellar luminosity. Its properties differ considerably from other Herbig Ae/Be stars. This suggests that the disk surrounding HD142527 is in an uncommon evolutionary stage. We aim for a better understanding of the geometry and evolutionary status of the circumstellar material around the Herbig Ae/Be star HD142527. We map the composition and spatial distribution of the dust around HD142527. We analyze SEST and ATCA millimeter data, VISIR N and Q-band imaging and spectroscopy. We gather additional relevant data from the literature. We use the radiative transfer code MCMax to construct a model of the geometry and density structure of the circumstellar matter, which fits all of the observables satisfactorily. We find that the disk of HD142527 has three geometrically distinct components separated by a disk gap running from 30 to 130 AU. There is a geometrically flat inner disk running from 0.3 AU up to 30 AU; an optically thin halo-like component of dust in the inner disk regions; and a massive self-shadowed outer disk running from 130 AU up to 200 AU. We derived a total dust mass in small grains of 10^-3 M0 and a vertical height of the inner wall of the outer disk of h = 60 AU. ....Comment: 13 pages, 17 figures. Accepted by A&A 14 January 201
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