596 research outputs found
Hubble Space Telescope Goddard High Resolution Spectrograph (GHRS) Instrument Handbook (for the Post-COSTAR Observatory), version 5.0
This Handbook exists as a basic reference manual for the Goddard High Resolution Spectrograph (GHRS), and describes its properties and operation
White Dwarf Cosmochronology in the Solar Neighborhood
The study of the stellar formation history in the solar neighborhood is a
powerful technique to recover information about the early stages and evolution
of the Milky Way. We present a new method which consists of directly probing
the formation history from the nearby stellar remnants. We rely on the volume
complete sample of white dwarfs within 20 pc, where accurate cooling ages and
masses have been determined. The well characterized initial-final mass relation
is employed in order to recover the initial masses (1 < M/Msun < 8) and total
ages for the local degenerate sample. We correct for moderate biases that are
necessary to transform our results to a global stellar formation rate, which
can be compared to similar studies based on the properties of main-sequence
stars in the solar neighborhood. Our method provides precise formation rates
for all ages except in very recent times, and the results suggest an enhanced
formation rate for the solar neighborhood in the last 5 Gyr compared to the
range 5 < Age (Gyr) < 10. Furthermore, the observed total age of ~10 Gyr for
the oldest white dwarfs in the local sample is consistent with the early
seminal studies that have determined the age of the Galactic disk from stellar
remnants. The main shortcoming of our study is the small size of the local
white dwarf sample. However, the presented technique can be applied to larger
samples in the future.Comment: 25 pages, 10 figures, accepted for publication in the Astrophysical
Journa
Ages of young stars
Determining the sequence of events in the formation of stars and planetary
systems and their time-scales is essential for understanding those processes,
yet establishing ages is fundamentally difficult because we lack direct
indicators. In this review we discuss the age challenge for young stars,
specifically those less than ~100 Myr old. Most age determination methods that
we discuss are primarily applicable to groups of stars but can be used to
estimate the age of individual objects. A reliable age scale is established
above 20 Myr from measurement of the Lithium Depletion Boundary (LDB) in young
clusters, and consistency is shown between these ages and those from the upper
main sequence and the main sequence turn-off -- if modest core convection and
rotation is included in the models of higher-mass stars. Other available
methods for age estimation include the kinematics of young groups, placing
stars in Hertzsprung-Russell diagrams, pulsations and seismology, surface
gravity measurement, rotation and activity, and lithium abundance. We review
each of these methods and present known strengths and weaknesses. Below ~20
Myr, both model-dependent and observational uncertainties grow, the situation
is confused by the possibility of age spreads, and no reliable absolute ages
yet exist. The lack of absolute age calibration below 20 Myr should be borne in
mind when considering the lifetimes of protostellar phases and circumstellar
material.Comment: Accepted for publication as a chapter in Protostars and Planets VI,
University of Arizona Press (2014), eds. H. Beuther, R. Klessen, C.
Dullemond, Th. Hennin
Lithium abundances from the 6104A line in cool Pleiades stars
Lithium abundances determined by spectral synthesis from both the 6708A
resonance line and the 6104 subordinate line are reported for 11 late-type
Pleiades stars, including spectra previously analysed by Russell (1996). We
report a 0.7 dex scatter in the abundances from 6708A, and a scatter at least
as large from the 6104A line. We find a reasonable correllation between the
6104A and 6708A Li abundances, although four stars have 6104A-determined
abundances which are significantly larger than the 6708-determined values, by
up to 0.5 dex, suggesting problems with the homogeneous, one-dimensional
atmospheres being used. We show that these discrepancies can be explained,
although probably not uniquely, by the presence of star spots with plausible
coverage fractions. The addition of spots does not significantly reduce the
apparent scatter in Li abundances, leaving open the possibility that at least
some of the spread is caused by real star-to-star differences in pre-main-
sequence Li depletion.Comment: 13 pages, 7 figures; Accepted by A&A 17/05/0
Fast spectroscopic variations on rapidly-rotating, cool dwarfs. 3: Masses of circumstellar absorbing clouds on AB Doradus
New time-resolved H alpha, Ca II H and K and Mg II h and k spectra of the rapidly-rotating K0 dwarf star AB Doradus (= HD 36705). The transient absorption features seen in the H alpha line are also present in the Ca II and Mg II resonance lines. New techniques are developed for measuring the average strength of the line absorption along lines of sight intersecting the cloud. These techniques also give a measure of the projected cloud area. The strength of the resonance line absorption provides useful new constraints on the column densities, projected surface areas, temperatures and internal turbulent velocity dispersions of the circumstellar clouds producing the absorption features. At any given time the star appears to be surrounded by at least 6 to 10 clouds with masses in the range 2 to 6 x 10(exp 17) g. The clouds appear to have turbulent internal velocity dispersions of order 3 to 20 km/s, comparable with the random velocities of discrete filamentary structures in solar quiescent prominences. Night-to-night changes in the amount of Ca II resonance line absorption can be explained by changes in the amplitude of turbulent motions in the clouds. The corresponding changes in the total energy of the internal motions are of order 10(exp 29) erg per cloud. Changes of this magnitude could easily be activated by the frequent energetic (approximately 10(exp 34) erg) x ray flares seen on this star
A multi-color optical survey of the orion nebula cluster. II. The H-R diagram
We present a new analysis of the stellar population of the Orion Nebula Cluster (ONC) based on multi-band optical
photometry and spectroscopy.We study the color–color diagrams in BVI, plus a narrowband filter centered at 6200 Å, finding evidence that intrinsic color scales valid for main-sequence dwarfs are incompatible with the ONC in the M
spectral-type range, while a better agreement is found employing intrinsic colors derived from synthetic photometry, constraining the surface gravity value as predicted by a pre-main-sequence isochrone.We refine these model colors even further, empirically, by comparison with a selected sample of ONC stars with no accretion and no extinction. We consider the stars with known spectral types from the literature, and extend this sample with the addition of 65 newly classified stars from slit spectroscopy and 182 M-type from narrowband photometry; in this way, we isolate a sample of about 1000 stars with known spectral type. We introduce a new method to self-consistently derive the stellar reddening and the optical excess due to accretion from the location of each star in the BVI color–color diagram. This enables us to accurately determine the extinction of the ONC members, together with an estimate of their accretion luminosities. We adopt a lower distance for the Orion Nebula than previously assumed, based on recent parallax measurements. With a careful choice of also the spectral-type–temperature transformation, we produce the new Hertzsprung–Russell diagram of the ONC population, more populated than previous works. With respect to previous works, we find higher luminosity for late-type stars and a slightly lower luminosity for early types. We determine the age distribution of the population, peaking from ~2 to ~3 Myr depending on the model. We study the distribution of the members in the mass–age plane and find that taking into account selection effects due to incompleteness,
removes an apparent correlation between mass and age.We derive the initial mass function for low- and intermediate mass members of the ONC, which turns out to be model dependent and shows a turnover at M ≲ 0.2 M_⊙
Rotation of Late-Type Stars in Praesepe with K2
We have Fourier analyzed 941 K2 light curves of likely members of Praesepe,
measuring periods for 86% and increasing the number of rotation periods (P) by
nearly a factor of four. The distribution of P vs. (V-K), a mass proxy, has
three different regimes: (V-K)<1.3, where the rotation rate rapidly slows as
mass decreases; 1.3<(V-K)<4.5, where the rotation rate slows more gradually as
mass decreases; and (V-K)>4.5, where the rotation rate rapidly increases as
mass decreases. In this last regime, there is a bimodal distribution of
periods, with few between 2 and 10 days. We interpret this to mean
that once M stars start to slow down, they do so rapidly. The K2 period-color
distribution in Praesepe (790 Myr) is much different than in the Pleiades
(125 Myr) for late F, G, K, and early-M stars; the overall distribution
moves to longer periods, and is better described by 2 line segments. For mid-M
stars, the relationship has similarly broad scatter, and is steeper in
Praesepe. The diversity of lightcurves and of periodogram types is similar in
the two clusters; about a quarter of the periodic stars in both clusters have
multiple significant periods. Multi-periodic stars dominate among the higher
masses, starting at a bluer color in Praesepe ((V-K)1.5) than in the
Pleiades ((V-K)2.6). In Praesepe, there are relatively more light curves
that have two widely separated periods, 6 days. Some of these could
be examples of M star binaries where one star has spun down but the other has
not.Comment: Accepted by Ap
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