The tenth data release of the Sloan digital sky survey: First spectroscopic data from the SDSS-iii apache point observatory galactic evolution experiment

The Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) has been in operation since 2000 April. This paper presents the tenth public data release (DR10) from its current incarnation, SDSS-III. This data release includes the first spectroscopic data from the Apache Point Observatory Galaxy Evolution Experiment (APOGEE), along with spectroscopic data from the Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey (BOSS) taken through 2012 July. The APOGEE instrument is a near-infrared R ~ 22,500 300-fiber spectrograph covering 1:514-1:696 μm. The APOGEE survey is studying the chemical abundances and radial velocities of roughly 100,000 red giant star candidates in the bulge, bar, disk, and halo of the Milky Way. DR10 includes 178,397 spectra of 57,454 stars, each typically observed three or more times, from APOGEE. Derived quantities from these spectra (radial velocities, effective temperatures, surface gravities, and metallicities) are also included. DR10 also roughly doubles the number of BOSS spectra over those included in the ninth data release. DR10 includes a total of 1,507,954 BOSS spectra, comprising 927,844 galaxy spectra; 182,009 quasar spectra; and 159,327 stellar spectra, selected over 6373.2 deg2.This is an author-created, un-copyedited version of an article accepted for publication in The Astrophysical Journal Supplement Series. The publisher is not responsible for any errors or omissions in this version of the manuscript or any version derived from it. The Version of Record is available online at http://dx.doi.org/10.1088/0067-0049/211/2/17. The accepted version will be under embargo until the 18th March 2015

The European Solar Telescope

The European Solar Telescope (EST) is a project aimed at studying the magnetic connectivity of the solar atmosphere, from the deep photosphere to the upper chromosphere. Its design combines the knowledge and expertise gathered by the European solar physics community during the construction and operation of state-of-the-art solar telescopes operating in visible and near-infrared wavelengths: the Swedish 1m Solar Telescope, the German Vacuum Tower Telescope and GREGOR, the French Télescope Héliographique pour l'Étude du Magnétisme et des Instabilités Solaires, and the Dutch Open Telescope. With its 4.2 m primary mirror and an open configuration, EST will become the most powerful European ground-based facility to study the Sun in the coming decades in the visible and near-infrared bands. EST uses the most innovative technological advances: the first adaptive secondary mirror ever used in a solar telescope, a complex multi-conjugate adaptive optics with deformable mirrors that form part of the optical design in a natural way, a polarimetrically compensated telescope design that eliminates the complex temporal variation and wavelength dependence of the telescope Mueller matrix, and an instrument suite containing several (etalon-based) tunable imaging spectropolarimeters and several integral field unit spectropolarimeters. This publication summarises some fundamental science questions that can be addressed with the telescope, together with a complete description of its major subsystems

SDSS-III: Massive Spectroscopic Surveys of the Distant Universe, the Milky Way Galaxy, and Extra-Solar Planetary Systems

Building on the legacy of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS-I and II), SDSS-III is a program of four spectroscopic surveys on three scientific themes: dark energy and cosmological parameters, the history and structure of the Milky Way, and the population of giant planets around other stars. In keeping with SDSS tradition, SDSS-III will provide regular public releases of all its data, beginning with SDSS DR8 (which occurred in Jan 2011). This paper presents an overview of the four SDSS-III surveys. BOSS will measure redshifts of 1.5 million massive galaxies and Lya forest spectra of 150,000 quasars, using the BAO feature of large scale structure to obtain percent-level determinations of the distance scale and Hubble expansion rate at z<0.7 and at z~2.5. SEGUE-2, which is now completed, measured medium-resolution (R=1800) optical spectra of 118,000 stars in a variety of target categories, probing chemical evolution, stellar kinematics and substructure, and the mass profile of the dark matter halo from the solar neighborhood to distances of 100 kpc. APOGEE will obtain high-resolution (R~30,000), high signal-to-noise (S/N>100 per resolution element), H-band (1.51-1.70 micron) spectra of 10^5 evolved, late-type stars, measuring separate abundances for ~15 elements per star and creating the first high-precision spectroscopic survey of all Galactic stellar populations (bulge, bar, disks, halo) with a uniform set of stellar tracers and spectral diagnostics. MARVELS will monitor radial velocities of more than 8000 FGK stars with the sensitivity and cadence (10-40 m/s, ~24 visits per star) needed to detect giant planets with periods up to two years, providing an unprecedented data set for understanding the formation and dynamical evolution of giant planet systems. (Abridged)Comment: Revised to version published in The Astronomical Journa

The European Solar Telescope

The European Solar Telescope (EST) is a project aimed at studying the magnetic connectivity of the solar atmosphere, from the deep photosphere to the upper chromosphere. Its design combines the knowledge and expertise gathered by the European solar physics community during the construction and operation of state-of-the-art solar telescopes operating in visible and near-infrared wavelengths: the Swedish 1m Solar Telescope, the German Vacuum Tower Telescope and GREGOR, the French Télescope Héliographique pour l’Étude du Magnétisme et des Instabilités Solaires, and the Dutch Open Telescope. With its 4.2 m primary mirror and an open configuration, EST will become the most powerful European ground-based facility to study the Sun in the coming decades in the visible and near-infrared bands. EST uses the most innovative technological advances: the first adaptive secondary mirror ever used in a solar telescope, a complex multi-conjugate adaptive optics with deformable mirrors that form part of the optical design in a natural way, a polarimetrically compensated telescope design that eliminates the complex temporal variation and wavelength dependence of the telescope Mueller matrix, and an instrument suite containing several (etalon-based) tunable imaging spectropolarimeters and several integral field unit spectropolarimeters. This publication summarises some fundamental science questions that can be addressed with the telescope, together with a complete description of its major subsystems

Deep imaging search for planets forming in the TW Hya protoplanetary disk with the Keck/NIRC2 vortex coronagraph

Distinct gap features in the nearest protoplanetary disk, TW Hya (distance of 59.5$\pm$0.9 pc), may be signposts of ongoing planet formation. We performed long-exposure thermal infrared coronagraphic imaging observations to search for accreting planets especially within dust gaps previously detected in scattered light and submm-wave thermal emission. Three nights of observations with the Keck/NIRC2 vortex coronagraph in $L^\prime$ (3.4-4.1$\mu$m) did not reveal any statistically significant point sources. We thereby set strict upper limits on the masses of non-accreting planets. In the four most prominent disk gaps at 24, 41, 47, and 88 au, we obtain upper mass limits of 1.6-2.3, 1.1-1.6, 1.1-1.5, and 1.0-1.2 Jupiter masses ($M_J$) assuming an age range of 7-10 Myr for TW Hya. These limits correspond to the contrast at 95\% completeness (true positive fraction of 0.95) with a 1\% chance of a false positive within $1^{\prime\prime}$ of the star. We also approximate an upper limit on the product of planet mass and planetary accretion rate of $M_p\dot{M}\lesssim10^{-8} M_J^2/yr$ implying that any putative $\sim0.1 M_J$ planet, which could be responsible for opening the 24 au gap, is presently accreting at rates insufficient to build up a Jupiter mass within TW Hya's pre-main sequence lifetime.VORTE

High-contrast imaging of HD 163296 with the Keck/NIRC2 L′-band vortex coronograph

International audienc

Very-low-mass stellar and substellar companion to solar-like stars from MARVELS. III. A short-period brown dwarf cadidate around an active G0IV subgiant

We present an eccentric, short-period brown dwarf candidate orbiting the active, slightly evolved subgiant star TYC 2087-00255-1, which has effective temperature Teff = 5903±42 K, surface gravity log(g) = 4.07±0.16 (cgs), and metallicity [Fe/H] = −0.23 ± 0.07. This candidate was discovered using data from the first two years of the Multi-object APO Radial Velocity Exoplanets Large-area Survey, which is part of the third phase of Sloan Digital Sky Survey. From our 38 radial velocity measurements spread over a two-year time baseline, we derive a Keplerian orbital fit with semi-amplitude K = 3.571 ± 0.041 km s−1, period P = 9.0090 ± 0.0004 days, and eccentricity e = 0.226±0.011. Adopting a mass of 1.16±0.11M for the subgiant host star, we infer that the companion has a minimum mass of 40.0 ± 2.5MJup. Assuming an edge-on orbit, the semimajor axis is 0.090 ± 0.003 AU. The host star is photometrically variable at the ∼1% level with a period of ∼13.16±0.01 days, indicating that the host star spin and companion orbit are not synchronized. Through adaptive optics imaging we also found a point source 643 ± 10 mas away from TYC 2087-00255-1, which would have a mass of 0.13M if it is physically associated with TYC 2087-00255-1 and has the same age. Future proper motion observation should be able to resolve if this tertiary object is physically associated with TYC 2087-00255-1 and make TYC 2087-00255-1 a triple body system. Core Ca ii H and K line emission indicate that the host is chromospherically active, at a level that is consistent with the inferred spin period and measured vrot sin i, but unusual for a subgiant of this Teff . This activity could be explained by ongoing tidal spin-up of the host star by the companion

Very low mass stellar and substellar companions to solar-like stars from MARVELS. II. A short-period companios orbiting an F star with evidence of a stellar tertiary and significant mutual inclination

We report the discovery via radial velocity (RV) measurements of a short-period (P = 2.430420±0.000006 days) companion to the F-type main-sequence star TYC 2930-00872-1. A long-term trend in the RV data also suggests the presence of a tertiary stellar companion with P > 2000 days. High-resolution spectroscopy of the host star yields Teff = 6427 ± 33 K, log g = 4.52 ± 0.14, and [Fe/H] = −0.04 ± 0.05. These parameters, combined with the broadband spectral energy distribution (SED) and a parallax, allow us to infer a mass and radius of the host star of M1 = 1.21 ± 0.08 M and R1 = 1.09+0.15 −0.13 R . The minimum mass of the inner companion is below the hydrogen-burning limit; however, the true mass is likely to be substantially higher. We are able to exclude transits of the inner companion with high confidence. Further, the host star spectrum exhibits a clear signature of Ca H and K core emission, indicating stellar activity, but a lack of photometric variability and small v sin I suggest that the primary’s spin axis is oriented in a pole-on configuration. The rotational period of the primary estimated through an activity–rotation relation matches the orbital period of the inner companion to within 1.5 σ, suggesting that the primary and inner companion are tidally locked. If the inner companion’s orbital angular momentum vector is aligned with the stellar spin axis as expected through tidal evolution, then it has a stellar mass of ∼0.3–0.4 M . Direct imaging limits the existence of stellar companions to projected separations <30 AU. No set of spectral lines and no significant flux contribution to the SED from either companion are detected, which places individual upper mass limits of M{2,3} 1.0 M , provided they are not stellar remnants. If the tertiary is not a stellar remnant, then it likely has a mass of ∼0.5–0.6M , and its orbit is likely significantly inclined from that of the secondary, suggesting that the Kozai–Lidov mechanism may have driven the dynamical evolution of this system

Very-low-mass stellar and substellar companion to solar-like stars from MARVELS. III. A short-period brown dwarf cadidate around an active G0IV subgiant

We present an eccentric, short-period brown dwarf candidate orbiting the active, slightly evolved subgiant star TYC 2087-00255-1, which has effective temperature Teff = 5903±42 K, surface gravity log(g) = 4.07±0.16 (cgs), and metallicity [Fe/H] = −0.23 ± 0.07. This candidate was discovered using data from the first two years of the Multi-object APO Radial Velocity Exoplanets Large-area Survey, which is part of the third phase of Sloan Digital Sky Survey. From our 38 radial velocity measurements spread over a two-year time baseline, we derive a Keplerian orbital fit with semi-amplitude K = 3.571 ± 0.041 km s−1, period P = 9.0090 ± 0.0004 days, and eccentricity e = 0.226±0.011. Adopting a mass of 1.16±0.11M for the subgiant host star, we infer that the companion has a minimum mass of 40.0 ± 2.5MJup. Assuming an edge-on orbit, the semimajor axis is 0.090 ± 0.003 AU. The host star is photometrically variable at the ∼1% level with a period of ∼13.16±0.01 days, indicating that the host star spin and companion orbit are not synchronized. Through adaptive optics imaging we also found a point source 643 ± 10 mas away from TYC 2087-00255-1, which would have a mass of 0.13M if it is physically associated with TYC 2087-00255-1 and has the same age. Future proper motion observation should be able to resolve if this tertiary object is physically associated with TYC 2087-00255-1 and make TYC 2087-00255-1 a triple body system. Core Ca ii H and K line emission indicate that the host is chromospherically active, at a level that is consistent with the inferred spin period and measured vrot sin i, but unusual for a subgiant of this Teff . This activity could be explained by ongoing tidal spin-up of the host star by the companion