Gravity in the Local Universe : density and velocity fields using CosmicFlows-4

This article publicly releases three-dimensional reconstructions of the local Universe gravitational field below z=0.8 that were computed using the CosmicFlows-4 catalog of 56,000 galaxy distances and its sub-sample of 1,008 type Ia supernovae distances. The article also provides measurements of the growth rate of structure using the pairwise correlation of radial peculiar velocities f sigma8 = 0.38(+/-0.04) (ungrouped CF4), f sigma8 = 0.36(+/-0.05) (grouped CF4), f sigma8 = 0.30(+/-0.06) (SNIa) and of the bulk flow in the 3D reconstructed Local Universe of 230 +/- 136 km s-1 at 300 Mpc of distance from the observer. The exploration of 10,000 reconstructions gives that the distances delivered by the Cosmicflows-4 catalog are compatible with a Hubble constant of H0 = 74.5 +/- 0.1 (grouped CF4), H0 = 75.0 +/- 0.35 (ungrouped CF4) and H0 = 75.5 +/- 0.95 (CF4 SNIa subsample).Comment: Submitted A&A Oct 31st, 2022 / (AA/2022/45331) / Accepted January 2023 All Figures and values updated after the december 2022 major correction in CF4 catalo

ADAPTIVE OPTICS IMAGING OF VHS 1256-1257: A LOW MASS COMPANION TO A BROWN DWARF BINARY SYSTEM

Recently, Gauza et al. (2015) reported the discovery of a companion to the late M-dwarf, VHS J125601.92-125723.9 (VHS 1256-1257). The companion's absolute photometry suggests its mass and atmosphere are similar to the HR 8799 planets. However, as a wide companion to a late-type star, it is more accessible to spectroscopic characterization. We discovered that the primary of this system is an equal-magnitude binary. For an age $\sim300$ Myr the A and B components each have a mass of $64.6^{+0.8}_{-2.0}~M_{\mathrm{Jup}}$, and the b component has a mass of $11.2^{+9.7}_{-1.8}$, making VHS 1256-1257 only the third brown dwarf triple system. There exists some tension between the spectrophotometric distance of $17.2\pm2.6$ pc and the parallax distance of $12.7\pm1.0$ pc. At 12.7 pc VHS1256-1257 A and B would be the faintest known M7.5 objects, and are even faint outliers among M8 types. If the larger spectrophotmetric distance is more accurate than the parallax, then the mass of each component increases. In particular, the mass of the b component increases well above the deuterium burning limit to $\sim35~M_{\mathrm{Jup}}$ and the mass of each binary component increases to $73^{+20}_{-17}~M_{\mathrm{Jup}}$. At 17.1 pc, the UVW kinematics of the system are consistent with membership in the AB~Dor moving group. The architecture of the system resembles a hierarchical stellar multiple suggesting it formed via an extension of the star-formation process to low masses. Continued astrometric monitoring will resolve this distance uncertainty and will provide dynamical masses for a new benchmark system.Comment: Accepted to ApJ

Validation of Stratospheric and Mesospheric Ozone Observed by SMILES from International Space Station

We observed ozone O3 in the vertical region between 250 and 0.0005 hPa (~ 12-96 km) using the Superconducting Submillimeter-Wave Limb-Emission Sounder (SMILES) on the Japanese Experiment Module (JEM) of the International Space Station (ISS) between 12 October 2009 and 21 April 2010. The new 4K superconducting heterodyne receiver technology of SMILES allowed us to obtain a one order of magnitude better signal-to-noise ratio for the O3 line observation compared to past spaceborne microwave instruments. The non-sun-synchronous orbit of the ISS allowed us to observe O3 at various local times. We assessed the quality of the vertical profiles of O3 in the 100-0.001 hPa (~ 16-90 km) region for the SMILES NICT Level 2 product version 2.1.5. The evaluation is based on four components: error analysis; internal comparisons of observations targeting three different instrumental setups for the same O3 625.371 GHz transition; internal comparisons of two different retrieval algorithms; and external comparisons for various local times with ozonesonde, satellite and balloon observations (ENVISAT/MIPAS, SCISAT/ACE-FTS, Odin/OSIRIS, Odin/SMR, Aura/MLS, TELIS). SMILES O3 data have an estimated absolute accuracy of better than 0.3 ppmv (3%) with a vertical resolution of 3-4 km over the 60 to 8 hPa range. The random error for a single measurement is better than the estimated systematic error, being less than 1, 2, and 7%, in the 40-1, 80-0.1, and 100-0.004 hPa pressure regions, respectively. SMILES O-3 abundance was 10-20% lower than all other satellite measurements at 8-0.1 hPa due to an error arising from uncertainties of the tangent point information and the gain calibration for the intensity of the spectrum. SMILES O3 from observation frequency Band-B had better accuracy than that from Band-A. A two month period is required to accumulate measurements covering 24 h in local time of O3 profile. However such a dataset can also contain variation due to dynamical, seasonal, and latitudinal effects

HIP 38939B: A New Benchmark T Dwarf in the Galactic Plane Discovered with Pan-STARRS1

We report the discovery of a wide brown dwarf companion to the mildly metal-poor ([Fe/H]=-0.24), low galactic latitude (b = 1.88 deg) K4V star HIP 38939. The companion was discovered by its common proper motion with the primary and its red optical (Pan-STARRS1) and blue infrared (2MASS) colors. It has a projected separation of 1630 AU and a near-infrared spectral type of T4.5. As such it is one of only three known companions to a main sequence star which have early/mid-T spectral types (the others being HN Peg B and eps Indi B). Using chromospheric activity we estimate an age for the primary of 900{+1900,-600} Myr. This value is also in agreement with the age derived from the star's weak ROSAT detection. Comparison with evolutionary models for this age range indicates that HIP 38939B falls in the mass range 38+/-20 Mjup with an effective temperature range of 1090+/-60 K. Fitting our spectrum with atmospheric models gives a best fitting temperature of 1100 K. We include our object in an analysis of the population of benchmark T dwarfs and find that while older atmospheric models appeared to over-predict the temperature of the coolest objects compared to evolutionary models, more recent atmospheric models provide better agreement.Comment: ApJ, in press. Tiny changes incorporated into final version: added analysis of likelihood of companionship, clarified the fitting proceedure, and updated the benchmark analysis to highlight when the quoted evolutionary models use the atmospheric model they are being compared to as a boundary conditio

The discovery of a T6.5 subdwarf

We report the discovery of ULAS J131610.28+075553.0, an sdT6.5 dwarf in the UKIDSS Large Area Survey 2 epoch proper motion catalogue. This object displays significant spectral peculiarity, with the largest yet seen deviations from T6 and T7 templates in the Y and K bands for this subtype. Its large, similar to 1 arcsec yr(-1), proper motion suggests a large tangential velocity of V-tan approximate to 240-340 km s(-1), if we assume its M-J lies within the typical range for T6.5 dwarfs. This makes it a candidate for membership of the Galactic halo population. However, other metal-poor T dwarfs exhibit significant under luminosity both in specific bands and bolometrically. As a result, it is likely that its velocity is somewhat smaller, and we conclude it is a likely thick disc or halo member. This object represents the only T dwarf earlier than T8 to be classified as a subdwarf, and is a significant addition to the currently small number of known unambiguously substellar subdwarfs.Peer reviewe

Growing the Grassroots or Backing Bandits? Dilemmas of Donor Support for Haiti’s (UN)Civil Society

Ye

Parallaxes of southern extremely cool objects (PARSEC). II : Spectroscopic follow-up and parallaxes of 52 targets

We present near-infrared spectroscopy for 52 ultracool dwarfs, including two newly discovered late-M dwarfs, one new late-M subdwarf candidate, three new L, and four new T dwarfs. We also present parallaxes and proper motions for 21 of them. Four of the targets presented here have previous parallax measurements, while all the others are new values. This allow us to populate further the spectral sequence at early types (L0-L4). Combining the astrometric parameters with the new near-infrared spectroscopy presented here, we are able to investigate further the nature of some of the objects. In particular, we find that the peculiar blue L1 dwarf SDSS J133148.92-011651.4 is a metal-poor object, likely a member of the galactic thick disk. We discover a new M subdwarf candidate, 2MASS J20115649-6201127. We confirm the low-gravity nature of EROS-MP J0032-4405, DENIS-P J035726.9-441730, and 2MASS J22134491-2136079. We present two new metal-poor dwarfs: the L4pec 2MASS J19285196-4356256 and the M7pec SIPS2346-5928. We also determine the effective temperature and bolometric luminosity of the 21 targets with astrometric measurements, and we obtain a new polynomial relation between effective temperature and near-infrared spectral type. The new fit suggests a flattening of the sequence at the transition between M and L spectral types. This could be an effect of dust formation, which causes a more rapid evolution of the spectral features as a function of the effective temperature.Peer reviewe

Comparison of SMILES ClO profiles with satellite, balloon-borne and ground-based measurements

We evaluate the quality of ClO profiles derived from the Superconducting Submillimeter-Wave Limb-Emission Sounder (SMILES) on the International Space Station (ISS). Version 2.1.5 of the level-2 product generated by the National Institute of Information and Communications Technology (NICT) is the subject of this study. Based on sensitivity studies, the systematic error was estimated as 5–10 pptv at the pressure range of 80–20 hPa, 35 pptv at the ClO peak altitude (~ 4 hPa), and 5–10 pptv at pressures ≤ 0.5 hPa for daytime mid-latitude conditions. For nighttime measurements, a systematic error of 8 pptv was estimated for the ClO peak altitude (~ 2 hPa). The SMILES NICT v2.1.5 ClO profiles agree with those derived from another level-2 processor developed by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) within the bias uncertainties, except for the nighttime measurements in the low and middle latitude regions where the SMILES NICT v2.1.5 profiles have a negative bias of ~ 30 pptv in the lower stratosphere. This bias is considered to be due to the use of a limited spectral bandwidth in the retrieval process of SMILES NICT v2.1.5, which makes it difficult to distinguish between the weak ClO signal and wing contributions of spectral features outside the bandwidth. In the middle and upper stratosphere outside the polar regions, no significant systematic bias was found for the SMILES NICT ClO profile with respect to data sets from other instruments such as the Aura Microwave Limb Sounder (MLS), the Odin Sub-Millimetre Radiometer (SMR), the Envisat Michelson Interferometer for Passive Atmospheric Sounding (MIPAS), and the ground-based radiometer at Mauna Kea, which demonstrates the scientific usability of the SMILES ClO data including the diurnal variations. Inside the chlorine-activated polar vortex, the SMILES NICT v2.1.5 ClO profiles show larger volume mixing ratios by 0.4 ppbv (30%) at 50 hPa compared to those of the JAXA processed profiles. This discrepancy is also considered to be an effect of the limited spectral bandwidth in the retrieval processing. We also compared the SMILES NICT ClO profiles of chlorine-activated polar vortex conditions with those measured by the balloon-borne instruments: Terahertz and submillimeter Limb Sounder (TELIS) and the MIPAS-balloon instrument (MIPAS-B). In conclusion, the SMILES NICT v2.1.5 ClO data can be used at pressures ≤ ~30 hPa for scientific analysis

A focus on L dwarfs with trigonometric parallaxes

This is an author-created, un-copyedited version of an article published in Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific. Under embargo until 14 May 2019. IOP Publishing Ltd 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 https://doi.org/10.1088/1538-3873/aaacc5.We report new parallax measurements for ten L and early T type dwarfs, five of which have no previous published values, using observations over 3 years at the robotic Liverpool Telescope. The resulting parallaxes and proper motions have median errors of 2\,mas and 1.5\,mas/year respectively. Their space motions indicate they are all Galactic disk members. We combined this sample with other objects with astrometry from the Liverpool Telescope and with published literature astrometry to construct a sample of 260 L and early T type dwarfs with measured parallaxes, designated the Astrometry Sample. We study the kinematics of the Astrometry Sample, and derived a solar motion of $(U,V,W)_{\bigodot} = (7.9\pm1.7,13.2\pm1.2,7.2\pm1.0)$\,\kms~ with respect to the local standard of rest, in agreement with recent literature. We derive a kinematic age of 1.5-1.7\,Gyr for the Astrometry Sample assuming the age increases monotonically with the total velocity for a given disk sample. This kinematic age is less than half literature values for other low mass dwarf samples. We believe this difference arises for two reasons (1) the sample is mainly composed of mid to late L dwarfs which are expected to be relatively young and (2) the requirement that objects have a measured parallax biases the sample to the brighter examples which tend to be younger.Peer reviewedFinal Accepted Versio