150 research outputs found
Observational Constraints on the Catastrophic Disruption Rate of Small Main Belt Asteroids
We have calculated 90% confidence limits on the steady-state rate of
catastrophic disruptions of main belt asteroids in terms of the absolute
magnitude at which one catastrophic disruption occurs per year (HCL) as a
function of the post-disruption increase in brightness (delta m) and subsequent
brightness decay rate (tau). The confidence limits were calculated using the
brightest unknown main belt asteroid (V = 18.5) detected with the Pan-STARRS1
(Pan-STARRS1) telescope. We measured the Pan-STARRS1's catastrophic disruption
detection efficiency over a 453-day interval using the Pan-STARRS moving object
processing system (MOPS) and a simple model for the catastrophic disruption
event's photometric behavior in a small aperture centered on the catastrophic
disruption event. Our simplistic catastrophic disruption model suggests that
delta m = 20 mag and 0.01 mag d-1 < tau < 0.1 mag d-1 which would imply that H0
= 28 -- strongly inconsistent with H0,B2005 = 23.26 +/- 0.02 predicted by
Bottke et al. (2005) using purely collisional models. We postulate that the
solution to the discrepancy is that > 99% of main belt catastrophic disruptions
in the size range to which this study was sensitive (100 m) are not
impact-generated, but are instead due to fainter rotational breakups, of which
the recent discoveries of disrupted asteroids P/2013 P5 and P/2013 R3 are
probable examples. We estimate that current and upcoming asteroid surveys may
discover up to 10 catastrophic disruptions/year brighter than V = 18.5.Comment: 61 Pages, 10 Figures, 3 Table
Observations of the GRB afterglow ATLAS17aeu and its possible association with GW170104
We report the discovery and multi-wavelength data analysis of the peculiar
optical transient, ATLAS17aeu. This transient was identified in the skymap of
the LIGO gravitational wave event GW170104 by our ATLAS and Pan-STARRS
coverage. ATLAS17aeu was discovered 23.1hrs after GW170104 and rapidly faded
over the next 3 nights, with a spectrum revealing a blue featureless continuum.
The transient was also detected as a fading x-ray source by Swift and in the
radio at 6 and 15 GHz. A gamma ray burst GRB170105A was detected by 3
satellites 19.04hrs after GW170104 and 4.10hrs before our first optical
detection. We analyse the multi-wavelength fluxes in the context of the known
GRB population and discuss the observed sky rates of GRBs and their afterglows.
We find it statistically likely that ATLAS17aeu is an afterglow associated with
GRB170105A, with a chance coincidence ruled out at the 99\% confidence or
2.6. A long, soft GRB within a redshift range of would be consistent with all the observed multi-wavelength data. The
Poisson probability of a chance occurrence of GW170104 and ATLAS17aeu is
. This is the probability of a chance coincidence in 2D sky location
and in time. These observations indicate that ATLAS17aeu is plausibly a normal
GRB afterglow at significantly higher redshift than the distance constraint for
GW170104 and therefore a chance coincidence. However if a redshift of the faint
host were to place it within the GW170104 distance range, then physical
association with GW170104 should be considered.Comment: 16 pages, 6 figures, accepted to Ap
Cosmological Constraints from Measurements of Type Ia Supernovae discovered during the first 1.5 years of the Pan-STARRS1 Survey
We present griz light curves of 146 spectroscopically confirmed Type Ia
Supernovae () discovered during the first 1.5 years of the
Pan-STARRS1 Medium Deep Survey. The Pan-STARRS1 natural photometric system is
determined by a combination of on-site measurements of the instrument response
function and observations of spectrophotometric standard stars. We find that
the systematic uncertainties in the photometric system are currently 1.2\%
without accounting for the uncertainty in the HST Calspec definition of the AB
system. A Hubble diagram is constructed with a subset of 113 out of 146 SNe Ia
that pass our light curve quality cuts. The cosmological fit to 310 SNe Ia (113
PS1 SNe Ia + 222 light curves from 197 low-z SNe Ia), using only SNe and
assuming a constant dark energy equation of state and flatness, yields
.
When combined with BAO+CMB(Planck)+, the analysis yields and including all
identified systematics (see also Scolnic et al. 2014). The value of is
inconsistent with the cosmological constant value of at the 2.3
level. Tension endures after removing either the BAO or the constraint,
though it is strongest when including the constraint. If we include WMAP9
CMB constraints instead of those from Planck, we find
, which diminishes the discord to . We
cannot conclude whether the tension with flat CDM is a feature of dark
energy, new physics, or a combination of chance and systematic errors. The full
Pan-STARRS1 supernova sample with 3 times as many SNe should provide
more conclusive results.Comment: 38 pages, 16 figures, 14 tables, ApJ in pres
Systematic Uncertainties Associated with the Cosmological Analysis of the First Pan-STARRS1 Type Ia Supernova Sample
We probe the systematic uncertainties from 113 Type Ia supernovae (SNIa) in
the Pan-STARRS1 (PS1) sample along with 197 SN Ia from a combination of
low-redshift surveys. The companion paper by Rest et al. (2013) describes the
photometric measurements and cosmological inferences from the PS1 sample. The
largest systematic uncertainty stems from the photometric calibration of the
PS1 and low-z samples. We increase the sample of observed Calspec standards
from 7 to 10 used to define the PS1 calibration system. The PS1 and SDSS-II
calibration systems are compared and discrepancies up to ~0.02 mag are
recovered. We find uncertainties in the proper way to treat intrinsic colors
and reddening produce differences in the recovered value of w up to 3%. We
estimate masses of host galaxies of PS1 supernovae and detect an insignificant
difference in distance residuals of the full sample of 0.037\pm0.031 mag for
host galaxies with high and low masses. Assuming flatness in our analysis of
only SNe measurements, we find . With additional constraints from BAO,
CMB(Planck) and H0 measurements, we find and
(statistical and systematic errors added in
quadrature). Significance of the inconsistency with depends on whether
we use Planck or WMAP measurements of the CMB:
.Comment: 24 pages, 20 figures. Accepted by Ap
Main-Belt Comet P/2012 T1 (PANSTARRS)
We present initial results from observations and numerical analyses aimed at
characterizing main-belt comet P/2012 T1 (PANSTARRS). Optical monitoring
observations were made between October 2012 and February 2013 using the
University of Hawaii 2.2 m telescope, the Keck I telescope, the Baade and Clay
Magellan telescopes, Faulkes Telescope South, the Perkins Telescope at Lowell
Observatory, and the Southern Astrophysical Research (SOAR) telescope. The
object's intrinsic brightness approximately doubles from the time of its
discovery in early October until mid-November and then decreases by ~60%
between late December and early February, similar to photometric behavior
exhibited by several other main-belt comets and unlike that exhibited by
disrupted asteroid (596) Scheila. We also used Keck to conduct spectroscopic
searches for CN emission as well as absorption at 0.7 microns that could
indicate the presence of hydrated minerals, finding an upper limit CN
production rate of QCN<1.5x10^23 mol/s, from which we infer a water production
rate of QH2O<5x10^25 mol/s, and no evidence of the presence of hydrated
minerals. Numerical simulations indicate that P/2012 T1 is largely dynamically
stable for >100 Myr and is unlikely to be a recently implanted interloper from
the outer solar system, while a search for potential asteroid family
associations reveal that it is dynamically linked to the ~155 Myr-old Lixiaohua
asteroid family.Comment: 15 pages, 4 figures, accepted for publication in ApJ Letter
Supernovae 2016bdu and 2005gl, and their link with SN 2009ip-like transients: another piece of the puzzle
Supernova (SN) 2016bdu is an unusual transient resembling SN 2009ip. SN
2009ip-like events are characterized by a long-lasting phase of erratic
variability which ends with two luminous outbursts a few weeks apart. The
second outburst is significantly more luminous (about 3 mag) than the first. In
the case of SN 2016bdu, the first outburst (Event A) reached an absolute
magnitude M(r) ~ -15.3 mag, while the second one (Event B) occurred over one
month later and reached M(r) ~ -18 mag. By inspecting archival data, a faint
source at the position of SN 2016bdu is detectable several times in the past
few years. We interpret these detections as signatures of a phase of erratic
variability, similar to that experienced by SN 2009ip between 2008 and
mid-2012, and resembling the currently observed variability of the luminous
blue variable SN 2000ch in NGC 3432. Spectroscopic monitoring of SN 2016bdu
during the second peak initially shows features typical of a SN IIn. One month
after the Event B maximum, the spectra develop broad Balmer lines with P Cygni
profiles and broad metal features. At these late phases, the spectra resemble
those of a typical Type II SN. All members of this SN 2009ip-like group are
remarkably similar to the Type IIn SN 2005gl. For this object, the claim of a
terminal SN explosion is supported by the disappearance of the progenitor star.
The similarity with SN 2005gl suggests that all members of this family may
finally explode as genuine SNe, although the unequivocal detection of
nucleosynthesised elements in their nebular spectra is still missing.Comment: Submitted to MNRAS on April 10, 2017; re-submitted on June 23
including suggestions from the referee. 24 pages, 12 figures, 5 table
NEOWISE Observations of Near-Earth Objects: Preliminary Results
With the NEOWISE portion of the \emph{Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer}
(WISE) project, we have carried out a highly uniform survey of the near-Earth
object (NEO) population at thermal infrared wavelengths ranging from 3 to 22
m, allowing us to refine estimates of their numbers, sizes, and albedos.
The NEOWISE survey detected NEOs the same way whether they were previously
known or not, subject to the availability of ground-based follow-up
observations, resulting in the discovery of more than 130 new NEOs. The
survey's uniformity in sensitivity, observing cadence, and image quality have
permitted extrapolation of the 428 near-Earth asteroids (NEAs) detected by
NEOWISE during the fully cryogenic portion of the WISE mission to the larger
population. We find that there are 98119 NEAs larger than 1 km and
20,5003000 NEAs larger than 100 m. We show that the Spaceguard goal of
detecting 90% of all 1 km NEAs has been met, and that the cumulative size
distribution is best represented by a broken power law with a slope of
1.320.14 below 1.5 km. This power law slope produces 1,900
NEAs with 140 m. Although previous studies predict another break in the
cumulative size distribution below 50-100 m, resulting in an increase in
the number of NEOs in this size range and smaller, we did not detect enough
objects to comment on this increase. The overall number for the NEA population
between 100-1000 m are lower than previous estimates. The numbers of near-Earth
comets will be the subject of future work.Comment: Accepted to Ap
Observational and Dynamical Characterization of Main-Belt Comet P/2010 R2 (La Sagra)
We present observations of comet-like main-belt object P/2010 R2 (La Sagra)
obtained by Pan-STARRS 1 and the Faulkes Telescope-North on Haleakala in
Hawaii, the University of Hawaii 2.2 m, Gemini-North, and Keck I telescopes on
Mauna Kea, the Danish 1.54 m telescope at La Silla, and the Isaac Newton
Telescope on La Palma. An antisolar dust tail is observed from August 2010
through February 2011, while a dust trail aligned with the object's orbit plane
is also observed from December 2010 through August 2011. Assuming typical phase
darkening behavior, P/La Sagra is seen to increase in brightness by >1 mag
between August 2010 and December 2010, suggesting that dust production is
ongoing over this period. These results strongly suggest that the observed
activity is cometary in nature (i.e., driven by the sublimation of volatile
material), and that P/La Sagra is therefore the most recent main-belt comet to
be discovered. We find an approximate absolute magnitude for the nucleus of
H_R=17.9+/-0.2 mag, corresponding to a nucleus radius of ~0.7 km, assuming an
albedo of p=0.05. Using optical spectroscopy, we find no evidence of
sublimation products (i.e., gas emission), finding an upper limit CN production
rate of Q_CN<6x10^23 mol/s, from which we infer an H2O production rate of
Q_H2O<10^26 mol/s. Numerical simulations indicate that P/La Sagra is
dynamically stable for >100 Myr, suggesting that it is likely native to its
current location and that its composition is likely representative of other
objects in the same region of the main belt, though the relatively close
proximity of the 13:6 mean-motion resonance with Jupiter and the (3,-2,-1)
three-body mean-motion resonance with Jupiter and Saturn mean that dynamical
instability on larger timescales cannot be ruled out.Comment: 23 pages, 13 figures, accepted for publication in A
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