68 research outputs found
Major Substructure in the M31 Outer Halo: the South-West Cloud
We undertake the first detailed analysis of the stellar population and
spatial properties of a diffuse substructure in the outer halo of M31. The
South-West Cloud lies at a projected distance of ~100 kpc from the centre of
M31, and extends for at least ~50 kpc in projection. We use Pan-Andromeda
Archaeological Survey photometry of red giant branch stars to determine a
distance to the South-West Cloud of 793 +/- 45 kpc. The metallicity of the
cloud is found to be [Fe/H] = -1.3 +/- 0.1. This is consistent with the
coincident globular clusters PAndAS-7 and PAndAS-8, which have metallicities
determined using an independent technique of [Fe/H] = -1.35 +/- 0.15. We
measure a brightness for the Cloud of M_V = -12.1 mag; this is ~75 per cent of
the luminosity implied by the luminosity-metallicity relation. Under the
assumption that the South-West Cloud is the visible remnant of an accreted
dwarf satellite, this suggests that the progenitor object was amongst M31's
brightest dwarf galaxies prior to disruption.Comment: 13 pages, 9 figures, accepted for publication in MNRA
The merger that led to the formation of the Milky Way's inner stellar halo and thick disk
The assembly process of our Galaxy can be retrieved using the motions and
chemistry of individual stars. Chemo-dynamical studies of the nearby halo have
long hinted at the presence of multiple components such as streams, clumps,
duality and correlations between the stars' chemical abundances and orbital
parameters. More recently, the analysis of two large stellar surveys have
revealed the presence of a well-populated chemical elemental abundance
sequence, of two distinct sequences in the colour-magnitude diagram, and of a
prominent slightly retrograde kinematic structure all in the nearby halo, which
may trace an important accretion event experienced by the Galaxy. Here report
an analysis of the kinematics, chemistry, age and spatial distribution of stars
in a relatively large volume around the Sun that are mainly linked to two major
Galactic components, the thick disk and the stellar halo. We demonstrate that
the inner halo is dominated by debris from an object which at infall was
slightly more massive than the Small Magellanic Cloud, and which we refer to as
Gaia-Enceladus. The stars originating in Gaia-Enceladus cover nearly the full
sky, their motions reveal the presence of streams and slightly retrograde and
elongated trajectories. Hundreds of RR Lyrae stars and thirteen globular
clusters following a consistent age-metallicity relation can be associated to
Gaia-Enceladus on the basis of their orbits. With an estimated 4:1 mass-ratio,
the merger with Gaia-Enceladus must have led to the dynamical heating of the
precursor of the Galactic thick disk and therefore contributed to the formation
of this component approximately 10 Gyr ago. These findings are in line with
simulations of galaxy formation, which predict that the inner stellar halo
should be dominated by debris from just a few massive progenitors.Comment: 19 pages, 8 figures. Published in Nature in the issue of Nov. 1st,
2018. This is the authors' version before final edit
Undertreatment of osteoporosis in the oldest old? A nationwide study of over 700,000 older people
<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 â a realisation of the Tycho-Gaia Astrometric Solution (TGAS) â 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 âŒ3000 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 yrâ1 for the proper motions. A systematic component of âŒ0.3 mas should be added to the parallax uncertainties. For the subset of âŒ94 000 HIPPARCOS stars in the primary data set, the proper motions are much more precise at about 0.06 mas yrâ1. For the secondary astrometric data set, the typical uncertainty of the positions is âŒ10 mas. The median uncertainties on the mean G-band magnitudes range from the mmag level to âŒ0.03 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
Major substructure in the M31 Outer Halo: the East Cloud
We present the first detailed analysis of the East Cloud, a highly disrupted
diffuse stellar substructure in the outer halo of M31. The core of the
substructure lies at a projected distance of kpc from the centre of
M31 in the outer halo, with possible extensions reaching right into the inner
halo. Using Pan-Andromeda Archaeological Survey photometry of red giant branch
stars, we measure the distance, metallicity and brightness of the cloud. Using
Hubble Space Telescope data, we independently measure the distance and
metallicity to the two globular clusters coincident with the East Cloud core,
PA-57 and PA-58, and find their distances to be consistent with the cloud. Four
further globular clusters coincident with the substructure extensions are
identified as potentially associated. Combining the analyses, we determine a
distance to the cloud of kpc, a metallicity of , and a brightness of mag. Even allowing for the
inclusion of the potential extensions, this accounts for less than per
cent of the progenitor luminosity implied by the luminosity-metallicity
relation. Using the updated techniques developed for this analysis, we also
refine our estimates of the distance and brightness of the South-West Cloud, a
separate substructure analyzed in the previous work in this series.Comment: 14 pages, 11 figures, 5 table
Casemix, management, and mortality of patients receiving emergency neurosurgery for traumatic brain injury in the Global Neurotrauma Outcomes Study: a prospective observational cohort study
Gaia Data Release 1: Testing parallaxes with local Cepheids and RR Lyrae stars
Context. Parallaxes for 331 classical Cepheids, 31 Type II Cepheids, and 364 RR Lyrae stars in common between Gaia and the Hipparcos and Tycho-2 catalogues are published in Gaia Data Release 1 (DR1) as part of the Tycho-Gaia Astrometric Solution (TGAS). Aims. In order to test these first parallax measurements of the primary standard candles of the cosmological distance ladder, which involve astrometry collected by Gaia during the initial 14 months of science operation, we compared them with literature estimates and derived new period-luminosity (PL), period-Wesenheit (PW) relations for classical and Type II Cepheids and infrared PL, PL-metallicity (PLZ), and optical luminosity-metallicity (M V -[Fe/H]) relations for the RR Lyrae stars, with zero points based on TGAS. Methods. Classical Cepheids were carefully selected in order to discard known or suspected binary systems. The final sample comprises 102 fundamental mode pulsators with periods ranging from 1.68 to 51.66 days (of which 33 with Ï Î© /Ω < 0.5). The Type II Cepheids include a total of 26 W Virginis and BL Herculis stars spanning the period range from 1.16 to 30.00 days (of which only 7 with Ï Î© /Ω < 0.5). The RR Lyrae stars include 200 sources with pulsation period ranging from 0.27 to 0.80 days (of which 112 with Ï Î© /Ω < 0.5). The new relations were computed using multi-band (V,I,J,K s ) photometry and spectroscopic metal abundances available in the literature, and by applying three alternative approaches: (i) linear least-squares fitting of the absolute magnitudes inferred from direct transformation of the TGAS parallaxes; (ii) adopting astrometry-based luminosities; and (iii) using a Bayesian fitting approach. The last two methods work in parallax space where parallaxes are used directly, thus maintaining symmetrical errors and allowing negative parallaxes to be used. The TGAS-based PL,PW,PLZ, and M V - [Fe/H] relations are discussed by comparing the distance to the Large Magellanic Cloud provided by different types of pulsating stars and alternative fitting methods. Results. Good agreement is found from direct comparison of the parallaxes of RR Lyrae stars for which both TGAS and HST measurements are available. Similarly, very good agreement is found between the TGAS values and the parallaxes inferred from the absolute magnitudes of Cepheids and RR Lyrae stars analysed with the Baade-Wesselink method. TGAS values also compare favourably with the parallaxes inferred by theoretical model fitting of the multi-band light curves for two of the three classical Cepheids and one RR Lyrae star, which were analysed with this technique in our samples. The K-band PL relations show the significant improvement of the TGAS parallaxes for Cepheids and RR Lyrae stars with respect to the Hipparcos measurements. This is particularly true for the RR Lyrae stars for which improvement in quality and statistics is impressive. Conclusions. TGAS parallaxes bring a significant added value to the previous Hipparcos estimates. The relations presented in this paper represent the first Gaia-calibrated relations and form a work-in-progress milestone report in the wait for Gaia-only parallaxes of which a first solution will become available with Gaia Data Release 2 (DR2) in 2018. © ESO, 2017
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