6,584 research outputs found
Discovery in IC10 of the farthest known symbiotic star
We report the discovery of the first known symbiotic star in IC10, a
starburst galaxy belonging to the Local Group, at a distance of ~750kpc. The
symbiotic star was identified during a survey of emission-line objects. It
shines at V = 24.62+-0.04, V - R_C = 2.77+-0.05 and R_C - I_C = 2.39+-0.02 and
suffers from E(B-V) = 0.85+-0.05 reddening. The spectrum of the cool component
well matches that of solar neighborhood M8III giants. The observed emission
lines belong to Balmer series, [SII], [NII] and [OIII]. They suggest a low
electronic density, negligible optical depth effects and 35,000K < T_eff <
90,000K for the ionizing source. The spectrum of the new symbiotic star in IC10
is an almost perfect copy of that of Hen 2-147, a well known Galactic symbiotic
star and Mira.Comment: 5 pages including 3 figures. MNRAS Letters accepted. Also available
at http://pessoais.ov.ufrj.br/denise
Spatially resolved physical and chemical properties of the planetary nebula NGC 3242
Optical integral-field spectroscopy was used to investigate the planetary
nebula NGC 3242. We analysed the main morphological components of this source,
including its knots, but not the halo. In addition to revealing the properties
ofthe physical and chemical nature of this nebula, we also provided reliable
spatially resolved constraints that can be used for future photoionisation
modelling of the nebula. The latter is ultimately necessary to obtain a fully
self-consistent 3D picture of the physical and chemical properties of the
object. The observations were obtained with the VIMOS instrument attached to
VLT-UT3. Maps and values for specific morphological zones for the detected
emission-lines were obtained and analysed with routines developed by the
authors to derive physical and chemical conditions of the ionised gas in a 2D
fashion. We obtained spatially resolved maps and mean values of the electron
densities, temperatures, and chemical abundances, for specific morphological
structures in NGC 3242. These results show the pixel-to-pixel variations of the
the small- and large-scale structures of the source. These diagnostic maps
provide information free from the biases introduced by traditional single
long-slit observations. In general, our results are consistent with a uniform
abundance distribution for the object, whether we look at abundance maps or
integrated fluxes from specified morphological structures. The results indicate
that special care should be taken with the calibration of the data and that
only data with extremely good signal-to-noise ratio and spectral coverage
should be used to ensure the detection of possible spatial variations.Comment: 11 pages, 8 figures accepted for publication in Astronomy &
Astrophysic
High-velocity collimated outflows in planetary nebulae: NGC 6337, He 2-186, and K 4-47
We have obtained narrow-band images and high-resolution spectra of the
planetary nebulae NGC 6337, He 2-186, and K 4-47, with the aim of investigating
the relation between their main morphological components and several
low-ionization features present in these nebulae. The data suggest that NGC
6337 is a bipolar PN seen almost pole on, with polar velocities higher than 200
km/s. The bright inner ring of the nebula is interpreted to be the "equatorial"
density enhancement. It contains a number of low-ionization knots and outward
tails that we ascribe to dynamical instabilities leading to fragmentation of
the ring or transient density enhancements due to the interaction of the
ionization front with previous density fluctuations in the ISM. The lobes show
a pronounced point-symmetric morphology and two peculiar low-ionization
filaments whose nature remains unclear. The most notable characteristic of He
2-186 is the presence of two high-velocity (higher than 135 km/s) knots from
which an S-shaped lane of emission departs toward the central star. K 4-47 is
composed of a compact core and two high-velocity, low-ionization blobs. We
interpret the substantial broadening of line emission from the blobs as a
signature of bow shocks, and using the modeling of Hartigan, Raymond, & Hartman
(1987), we derive a shock velocity of 150 km/s and a mild inclination of the
outflow on the plane of the sky. We discuss possible scenarios for the
formation of these nebulae and their low-ionization features. In particular,
the morphology of K 4-47 hardly fits into any of the usually adopted mass-loss
geometries for single AGB stars. Finally, we discuss the possibility that
point-symmetric morphologies in the lobes of NGC 6337 and the knots of He 2-186
are the result of precessing outflows from the central stars.Comment: 16 pages plus 7 figures, ApJ accepted. Also available at
http://www.iac.es/publicaciones/preprints.htm
QCALT: a tile calorimeter for KLOE-2 upgrade
The upgrade of the DANE machine layout requires a modification of the
size and position of the inner focusing quadrupoles of KLOE-2 thus asking for
the realization of two new calorimeters covering the quadrupoles area. To
improve the reconstruction of events with photons hitting the
quadrupoles a calorimeter with high efficiency to low energy photons (20-300
MeV), time resolution of less than 1 ns and space resolution of few cm, is
needed. To match these requirements, we are designing a tile calorimeter,
QCALT, where each single tile is readout by mean of SiPM for a total
granularity of 2400 channels. We show first tests of the different calorimeter
components
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