167 research outputs found
The star formation history of Trumpler 14 and Trumpler 16
H-R diagrams are presented for the very young galactic clusters Trumpler 14 and Trumpler 16, which are the two most populous clusters in the region of vigorous star formation surrounding η Carinae. Point spread function photometry of UBV CCD images is presented down to V~19 for over 560 stars in Tr 16 and 290 stars in Tr 14. We have also obtained similar data for a local background field. After determining cluster membership through proper motions from a previous work, we find that the reddening of cluster members is significantly lower than that of the local background stars. Thus, we are able to use individual reddenings to identify likely members at far deeper levels than possible with proper motions. This work has revealed a significant population of pre-main-sequence (PMS) stars in both clusters. The location of the PMS stars in the H-R diagram indicates that the theoretical ``stellar birthline'' of Palla & Stahler follows the locus of stars far better than that of Beech & Mitalas. Comparison with both pre- and post-main-sequence isochrones also reveals that although intermediate-mass stars have been forming continuously over the last 10 Myr, the high-mass stars formed within the last 3 Myr. There is no evidence that the formation of the intermediate-mass stars was truncated by the formation of the high-mass stars
The Relative Age of the Thin and Thick Galactic Disks
We determine the relative ages of the open cluster NGC 188 and selected
Hipparcos field stars by isochrone fitting, and compare them to the age of the
thick disk globular cluster 47 Tuc. The best fit age for NGC 188 was determined
to be Gyr. The solar metallicity Hipparcos field stars yielded a
slightly older thin disk age, Gyr. Two slightly metal-poor (\feh
= -0.22) field stars whose kinematic and orbital parameters indicate that they
are members of the thin disk were found to have an age of Gyr. The
age for 47 Tuc was determined to be Gyr. All errors are internal
errors due to the uncertainty in the values of metallicity and reddening. Thus,
the oldest stars dated in the thin disk are found to be Gyr
younger than 47 Tuc. Furthermore, as discussed by \citet{Chb99} 47 Tuc has a
similar age to three globular clusters located in the inner part of the
Galactic halo, implying that star formation in the thin disk started within
Gyr of star formation in the halo.Comment: 26 pages, 11 figures, to appear in Ap
Palomar 13's Last Stand
We present a proper motion and CCD photometric study of stars in the distant
halo globular cluster Palomar 13. The absolute proper motion of Pal 13 with
respect to the background galaxies, derived from moderate scale photographic
plates separated by a 40-year baseline, is milliarc-seconds per year. The
resultant total space velocity (315 km s) implies that Pal 13 is in the
inner part of its orbit near perigalacticon. Orbital integration reveals the
cluster to possess an inclined, very eccentric, retrograde orbit. These data
confirm that Pal 13 is a paradigm "young halo" globular cluster.
The derived proper motions for cluster stars are used to produce membership
probabilities and a cleaned CCD UBV catalogue for Pal 13. With this data set we
have made small revisions to Pal 13's distance, metallicity, position and light
profile. The membership of four previously reported RR Lyrae variables and a
proportionally large group of blue straggler stars are confirmed. As expected,
the blue stragglers are centrally concentrated.
The small size of this cluster, combined with the shape of its light profile,
which shows a clear departure from a classical King function beyond the tidal
radius, suggests that Pal 13 is in the final throes of destruction. This could
explain the large blue straggler specific frequency, as destructive processes
would preferentially strip less massive stars.Comment: 54 pages, 9 figures, 7 tables, accapted for publication in February
2001 A
The Age Of Globular Clusters In Light Of Hipparcos: Resolving the Age Problem?
We review five independent techniques which are used to set the distance
scale to globular clusters, including subdwarf main sequence fitting utilizing
the recent Hipparcos parallax catalogue. These data together all indicate that
globular clusters are farther away than previously believed, implying a
reduction in age estimates. This new distance scale estimate is combined with a
detailed numerical Monte Carlo study designed to assess the uncertainty
associated with the theoretical age-turnoff luminosity relationship in order to
estimate both the absolute age and uncertainty in age of the oldest globular
clusters. Our best estimate for the mean age of the oldest globular clusters is
now Gyr, with a one-sided, 95% confidence level lower limit of
9.5 Gyr. This represents a systematic shift of over 2 compared to our
earlier estimate, due completely to the new distance scale---which we emphasize
is not just due to the Hipparcos data. This now provides a lower limit on the
age of the universe which is consistent with either an open universe, or a
flat, matter dominated universe (the latter requiring H_0 \le 67 \kmsmpc).
Our new study also explicitly quantifies how remaining uncertainties in the
distance scale and stellar evolution models translate into uncertainties in the
derived globular cluster ages. Simple formulae are provided which can be used
to update our age estimate as improved determinations for various quantities
become available.Comment: 41 pages, including 10 eps figs, uses aaspp4.sty and flushrt.sty,
submitted to Ap.J., revised to incorporate FULL Hipparcos catalogue dat
vbyCaHbeta CCD Photometry of Clusters. VIII. The Super-Metal Rich, Old Open Cluster NGC 6791
CCD photometry on the intermediate-band vbyCaHbeta system is presented for
the metal-rich, old open cluster, NGC 6791. Preliminary analysis led to [Fe/H]
above +0.4 with an anomalously high reddening and an age below 5 Gyr. A revised
calibration between (b-y)_0 and [Fe/H] at a given temperature shows that the
traditional color-metallicity relations underestimate the color of the turnoff
stars at high metallicity. With the revised relation, the metallicity from hk
and the reddening for NGC 6791 become [Fe/H] = +0.45 +/- 0.04 and E(b-y) =
0.113 +/- 0.012 or E(B-V) = 0.155 +/- 0.016. Using the same technique,
reanalysis of the photometry for NGC 6253 produces [Fe/H] = +0.58 +/-0.04 and
E(b-y) = 0.120 +/- 0.018 or E(B-V) = 0.160 +/- 0.025. The errors quoted include
both the internal and external errors. For NGC 6791, the metallicity from m_1
is a factor of two below that from hk, a result that may be coupled to the
consistently low metal abundance from DDO photometry of the cluster and the
C-deficiency found from high dispersion spectroscopy. E(B-V) is the same value
predicted from Galactic reddening maps. With E(B-V) = 0.15 and [Fe/H] = +0.45,
the available isochrones predict an age of 7.0 +/- 1.0 Gyr and an apparent
modulus of (m-M) = 13.60 +/- 0.15, with the dominant source of the uncertainty
arising from inconsistencies among the isochrones. The reanalysis of NGC 6253
with the revised lower reddening confirms that on both the hk and m_1
metallicity scales, NGC 6253, while less than half the age of NGC 6791, remains
at least as metal-rich as NGC 6791, if not richer.Comment: Accepted for Astronomical Journal. 42 p. latex file includes 11
figures and 3 tables, one of which is a short version of a data table to
appear in online AJ in its entiret
Stability of helium accretion discs in ultracompact binaries
Stellar companions of accreting neutron stars in ultra compact X-ray binaries
(UCXBs) are hydrogen-deficient. Their helium or C/O accretion discs are
strongly X-ray irradiated. Both the chemical composition and irradiation
determine the disc stability with respect to thermal and viscous perturbations.
At shorter periods, UCXBs are persistent, whereas longer-period systems are
mostly transient. To understand this behaviour one has to derive the stability
criteria for X-ray irradiated hydrogen-poor accretion discs. We use a modified
and updated version of the Dubus et al. code describing time-dependent
irradiated accretion discs around compact objects. We obtained the relevant
stability criteria and compared the results to observed properties of UCXBs.
Although the general trend in the stability behaviour of UCXBs is consistent
with the prediction of the disc instability model, in a few cases the
inconsistency of theoretical predictions with the system observed properties is
weak enough to be attributed to observational and/or theoretical uncertainties.
Two systems might require the presence of some amount of hydrogen in the donor
star.Comment: Astronomy & Astrophysics, in pres
3-Dimensional Kinematics in low foreground extinction windows of the Galactic Bulge: Radial Velocities for 6 bulge fields
The detailed structure of the Galactic bulge still remain uncertain. The
strong difficulties of obtaining observations of stars in the Galactic bulge
have hindered the acquisition of a kinematic representation for the inner kpc
of the Milky Way. The observation of the 3-d kinematics in several low
foreground extinction windows can solve this problem. We have developed a new
technique, which combines precise stellar HST positions and proper motions with
integral field spectroscopy, in order to obtain reliable 3-d stellar kinematics
in crowded fields of the Galactic center. In addition, we present results using
the new techniques for six fields in our project. A significant vertex
deviation has been found in some of the fields in agreement with previous
determinations. This result confirms the presence of a stellar bar in the
Galactic bulge.Comment: 14 pages, 15 figures, Accepted for publication in A&
Star Clusters
This review concentrates almost entirely on globular star clusters. It
emphasises the increasing realisation that few of the traditional problems of
star cluster astronomy can be studied in isolation: the influence of the Galaxy
affects dynamical evolution deep in the core, and the spectrum of stellar
masses; in turn the evolution of the core determines the highest stellar
densities, and the rate of encounters. In this way external tidal effects
indirectly influence the formation and evolution of blue stragglers, binary
pulsars, X-ray sources, etc. More controversially, the stellar density appears
to influence the relative distribution of normal stars. In the opposite sense,
the evolution of individual stars governs much of the early dynamics of a
globular cluster, and the existence of large numbers of primordial binary stars
has changed important details of our picture of the dynamical evolution. New
computational tools which will become available in the next few years will help
dynamical theorists to address these questions.Comment: 10 pages, 3 figures, Te
Kinematic study of the disrupting globular cluster Palomar 5 using VLT spectra
Wide-field photometric data from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey have recently
revealed that the Galactic globular cluster Palomar 5 is in the process of
being tidally disrupted (Odenkirchen et al. 2001). Here we investigate the
kinematics of this sparse remote star cluster using high resolution spectra
from the Very Large Telescope (VLT). Twenty candidate cluster giants located
within 6 arcmin of the cluster center have been observed with the UV-Visual
Echelle Spectrograph (UVES) on VLT-UT2. The spectra provide radial velocities
with a typical accuracy of 0.15 km/s. We find that the sample contains 17
certain cluster members with very coherent kinematics, two unrelated field
dwarfs, and one giant with a deviant velocity, which is most likely a cluster
binary showing fast orbital motion. From the confirmed members we determine the
heliocentric velocity of the cluster as -58.7 +- 0.2 km/s. The total
line-of-sight velocity dispersion of the cluster stars is 1.1 +- 0.2 km/s (all
members) or 0.9 +- 0.2 km/s (stars on the red giant branch only). This is the
lowest velocity dispersion that has so far been measured for a stellar system
classified as a globular cluster. The shape of the velocity distribution
suggests that there is a significant contribution from orbital motions of
binaries and that the dynamical part of the velocity dispersion is therefore
still substantially smaller than the total dispersion. ... (abridged)Comment: 29 pages including 10 figures, accepted for publication in the
Astronomical Journa
ROSAT observations of X-ray emission from planetary nebulae
We have searched the entire ROSAT archive for useful observations to study
X-ray emission from Galactic planetary nebulae (PNs). The search yields a
sample of 63 PNs, which we call the ROSAT PN sample. About 20-25% of this
sample show X-ray emission; these include 13 definite detections and three
possible detections (at a 2-sigma level). All X-ray sources in these PNs are
concentrated near the central stars. Only A 30, BD+30 3639, and NGC 6543 are
marginally resolved by the ROSAT instruments. Three types of X-ray spectra are
seen in PNs. Type 1 consists of only soft X-ray emission (<0.5 keV), peaks at
0.1-0.2 keV, and can be fitted by blackbody models at temperatures 1-2 10^5 K.
Type 2 consists of harder X-ray emission, peaks at >0.5 keV, and can be fitted
by thin plasma emission models at temperatures of a few 10^6 K. Type 3 is a
composite of a bright Type 1 component and a fainter Type 2 component.
Unresolved soft sources with Type 1 spectra or the soft component of Type 3
spectra are most likely photospheric emission from the hot central stars.
Absorption cross sections are large for these soft-energy photons; therefore,
only large, tenuous, evolved PNs with hot central stars and small absorption
column densities have been detected. The origin of hard X-ray emission from PNs
is uncertain. PNs with Type 2 spectra are small, dense, young nebulae with
relatively cool (<<10^5 K) central stars, while PNs with Type 3 X-ray spectra
are large, tenuous, evolved nebulae with hot central stars. The hard X-ray
luminosities are also different between these two types of PNs, indicating
perhaps different origins of their hard X-ray emission. Future Chandra and XMM
observations with high spatial and spectral resolution will help to understand
the origin of hard X-ray emission from PNs.Comment: To be published in The Astrophysical Journal Supplement Series. 21
pages, 7 figures, 5 table
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