127 research outputs found
Intra-day Variability of Sagittarius A* at 3 Millimeters
We report observations and analysis of flux monitoring of Sagittarius A* at
3-mm wavelength using the OVRO millimeter interferometer over a period of eight
days (2002 May 23-30). Frequent phase and flux referencing (every 5 minutes)
with the nearby calibrator source J1744-312 was employed to control for
instrumental and atmospheric effects. Time variations are sought by computing
and subtracting, from each visibility in the database, an average visibility
obtained from all the data acquired in our monitoring program having similar uv
spacings. This removes the confusing effects of baseline-dependent, correlated
flux interference caused by the static, thermal emission from the extended
source Sgr A West. Few-day variations up to ~20% and intra-day variability of
\~20% and in some cases up to ~40% on few-hour time scales emerge from the
differenced data on SgrA*. Power spectra of the residuals indicate the presence
of hourly variations on all but two of the eight days. Monte Carlo simulation
of red-noise light curves indicates that the hourly variations are well
described by a red-noise power spectrum with P(f) ~ f^(-1). Of particular
interest is a ~2.5 hour variation seen prominently on two consecutive days. An
average power spectrum from all eight days of data reveals noteworthy power on
this time scale. There is some indication that few-hour variations are more
pronounced on days when the average daily flux is highest. We briefly discuss
the possibility that these few-hour variations are due to the dynamical
modulation of accreting gas around the central supermassive black hole, as well
as the implications for the structure of the SgrA* photosphere at 3 mm.
Finally, these data have enabled us to produce a high sensitivity 3-mm map of
the extended thermal emission surrounding SgrA*.Comment: Accepted for publication in The Astrophysical Journal Letters, 8
pages, 4 figure
Isolated Wolf-Rayet Stars and O Supergiants in the Galactic Center Region Identified via Paschen-alpha Excess
We report the discovery of 19 hot, evolved, massive stars near the Galactic
center region (GCR). These objects were selected for spectroscopy owing to
their detection as strong sources of Paschen-alpha emission-line excess,
following a narrowband imaging survey of the central 0.65 x 0.25 degress (l, b)
around Sgr A* with the Hubble Space Telescope. Discoveries include 5
carbon-type (WC) and 6 nitrogen-type (WN) Wolf-Rayet stars, 6 O supergiants,
and 2 B supergiants. Two of the O supergiants have X-ray counterparts, the
properties of which are broadly consistent with colliding-wind binaries and
solitary O stars. The infrared photometry of 17 stars is consistent with the
Galactic center distance, but 2 of them are located in the foreground. Several
WC stars exhibit a relatively large infrared excesses, which is possibly the
signature of thermal emission from hot dust. Most of the stars appear scattered
throughout the GCR, with no relation to the three known massive young clusters;
several others lie near the Arches and Quintuplet clusters and may have
originated within one of these systems. The results of this work bring the
total sample of Wolf-Rayet stars in the GCR to 92. All sources of strong
P-alpha excess have been identified in the area surveyed with HST, which
implies that the sample of WN stars in this region is near completion, and is
dominated by late (WNL) types. The current WC sample, although probably not
complete, is almost exclusively dominated by late (WCL) types. The observed
Wolf-Rayet subtype distribution in the GCR is a reflection of the intrinsic
rarity of early subtypes (WNE and WCE) in the inner Galaxy, an effect that is
driven by metallicity.Comment: Correction to Fig 4,5,6,10, and Tables 3, 5. The spectrum of the
previously known WC9 star WR101q had been mistakenly labeled as Star #19 in
Fig. 5 of the original manuscript. Star #19 is actually a newly discovered
WN5b star, whose spectrum was accidentally not included in the original
paper. The correct WN5b spectrum is now included in Fig. 4. An erratum was
submitted to ApJ on Aug 15, 201
HST Palpha Survey of the Galactic Center -- Searching the missing young stellar populations within the Galactic Center
We present preliminary results of our \hst Pa survey of the Galactic
Center (\gc), which maps the central 0.650.25 degrees around Sgr A*.
This survey provides us with a more complete inventory of massive stars within
the \gc, compared to previous observations. We find 157 Pa emitting
sources, which are evolved massive stars. Half of them are located outside of
three young massive star clusters near Sgr A*. The loosely spatial distribution
of these field sources suggests that they are within less massive star
clusters/groups, compared to the three massive ones. Our Pa mosaic not
only resolves previously well-known large-scale filaments into fine structures,
but also reveals many new extended objects, such as bow shocks and H II
regions. In particular, we find two regions with large-scale Pa diffuse
emission and tens of Pa emitting sources in the negative Galactic
longitude suggesting recent star formation activities, which were not known
previously. Furthermore, in our survey, we detect 0.6 million stars, most
of which are red giants or AGB stars. Comparisons of the magnitude distribution
in 1.90 m and those from the stellar evolutionary tracks with different
star formation histories suggest an episode of star formation process about 350
Myr ago in the \gc .Comment: 10 pages, 6 figures, Proceedings of the Galactic Center Workshop
2009, Shangha
On the Progenitor System of the Type Iax Supernova 2014dt in M61
We present pre-explosion and post-explosion Hubble Space Telescope images of
the Type Iax supernova (SN Iax) 2014dt in M61. After astrometrically aligning
these images, we do not detect any stellar sources at the position of the SN in
the pre-explosion images to relatively deep limits (3 sigma limits of M_F438W >
-5.0 mag and M_F814W > -5.9 mag). These limits are similar to the luminosity of
SN 2012Z's progenitor system (M_F435W = -5.43 +/- 0.15 and M_F814W = -5.24 +/-
0.16 mag), the only probable detected progenitor system in pre-explosion images
of a SN Iax, and indeed, of any white dwarf supernova. SN 2014dt is consistent
with having a C/O white-dwarf primary/helium-star companion progenitor system,
as was suggested for SN 2012Z, although perhaps with a slightly smaller or
hotter donor. The data are also consistent with SN 2014dt having a low-mass red
giant or main-sequence star companion. The data rule out main-sequence stars
with M_init > 16 M_sun and most evolved stars with M_init > 8 M_sun as being
the progenitor of SN 2014dt. Hot Wolf-Rayet stars are also allowed, but the
lack of nearby bright sources makes this scenario unlikely. Because of its
proximity (D = 12 Mpc), SN 2014dt is ideal for long-term monitoring, where
images in ~2 years may detect the companion star or the luminous bound remnant
of the progenitor white dwarf.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figures, submitted to ApJ
HST Paschen-alpha Survey of the Galactic Center: Data Reduction and Products
Our HST/NICMOS Pa survey of the Galactic center (GC) provides a uniform,
panoramic, high-resolution map of stars and ionized diffuse gas in the central
416 arcmin^2 of the Galaxy. This survey was carried out with 144 HST orbits
using two narrow-band filters at 1.87 and 1.90 micron in NICMOS Camera 3. In
this paper, we describe in detail the data reduction and mosaicking procedures
followed, including background level matching and astrometric corrections. We
have detected ~570,000 near-IR sources and are able to quantify photometric
uncertainties of the detections. The source detection limit varies across the
survey field but the typical 50% completion limit is ~17th mag (Vega System) in
the 1.90 micron band. A comparison with the expected stellar magnitude
distribution shows that these sources are primarily Main-Sequence massive stars
(>7M) and evolved lower mass stars at the distance of the GC. In particular,
the observed source magnitude distribution exhibits a prominent peak, which
could represent the Red Clump stars within the GC. The observed magnitude and
color of these RC stars support a steep extinction curve in the near-IR toward
the GC. The flux ratios of our detected sources in the two bands also allow for
an adaptive and statistical estimate of extinction across the field. With the
subtraction of the extinction-corrected continuum, we construct a net Pa
emission map and identify a set of Pa-emitting sources, which should mostly be
evolved massive stars with strong stellar winds. The majority of the identified
Pa point sources are located within the three known massive GC stellar
clusters. However, a significant fraction of our Pa-emitting sources are
located outside the clusters and may represent a new class of `field' massive
stars, many of which may have formed in isolation and/or in small groups. The
maps and source catalogues presented here are available electronically.Comment: Accepted for publication in MNRA
High-frequency VLBI observations of SgrA* during a multi-frequency campaign in May 2007
In May 2007 the compact radio source Sgr A* was observed in a global
multi-frequency monitoring campaign, from radio to X-ray bands. Here we present
and discuss first and preliminary results from polarization sensitive VLBA
observations, which took place during May 14-25, 2007. Here, Sgr A* was
observed in dual polarization on 10 consecutive days at 22, 43, and 86 GHz. We
describe the VLBI experiments, our data analysis, monitoring program and show
preliminary images obtained at the various frequencies. We discuss the data
with special regard also to the short term variability.Comment: 6 pages, 5 figures;necessary style files included; contribution for
the conference "The Universe under the Microscope" (AHAR 2008), held in Bad
Honnef (Germany) in April 2008, to be published in Journal of Physics:
Conference Series by Institute of Physics Publishing, R. Schoedel, A. Eckart,
S. Pfalzner, and E. Ros (eds.
Near-infrared counterparts to Chandra X-ray sources toward the Galactic Center. II. Discovery of Wolf-Rayet stars and O supergiants
We present new identifications of infrared counterparts to the population of
hard X-ray sources near the Galactic center detected by the Chandra X-ray
Observatory. We have confirmed 16 new massive stellar counterparts to the X-ray
population, including nitrogen-type (WN) and carbon-type (WC) Wolf-Rayet stars,
and O supergiants. For the majority of these sources, the X-ray photometry is
consistent with thermal emission from plasma having temperatures in the range
of kT=1-8 keV or non-thermal emission having power-law indices in the range of
-1<gamma<3, and X-ray luminosities in the range of Lx~1e32-1e34 erg/s. Several
sources have exhibited X-ray variability of several factors between separate
observations. The X-ray properties are not a ubiquitous feature of single
massive stars but are typical of massive binaries, in which the high-energy
emission is generated by the collision of supersonic winds, or by accretion
onto a compact companion. However, the possibility of intrinsic hard X-ray
generation from single stars cannot be completely ruled out. The spectral
energy distributions of these sources exhibit significant infrared excess,
attributable to free-free emission from ionized stellar winds, supplemented by
hot dust emission in the case of the WC stars. With the exception of one object
located near the outer regions of the Quintuplet cluster, most of the new stars
appear isolated or in loose associations. Seven hydrogen-rich WN and O stars
are concentrated near the Sagittarius B HII region, while other similar stars
and more highly evolved hydrogen-poor WN and WC stars lie scattered within ~50
pc, in projection, of Sagitarrius A West. We discuss various mechanisms capable
of generating the observed X-rays and the implications these stars have for
massive star formation in the Galaxy's Central Molecular Zone.Comment: Accepted to ApJ on December 5, 2009. 61 pages, including 17 figure
V5856 Sagittarii/2016: Broad Multi-Epoch Spectral Coverage of a Sustained High Luminosity Nova
Nova V5856 Sagittarii is unique for having remained more than nine magnitudes
above its pre-outburst brightness for more than six years. Extensive visible
and IR spectra from the time of outburst to the present epoch reveal separate
emitting regions with distinct spectral characteristics. Permitted emission
lines have both broad and narrow components, whereas the forbidden line
profiles are almost entirely broad. The permitted line components frequently
display P Cygni profiles indicating high optical depth, whereas the broad
components do not show detectable absorption. The densities and velocities
deduced from the spectra, including differences in the O I 7773 and 8446 lines,
are not consistent with an on-going wind. Instead, the prolonged high
luminosity and spectral characteristics are indicative of a post-outburst
common envelope that enshrouds the binary, and is likely the primary source of
the visible and IR emission.Comment: 27 pages; 13 figures. Accepted for publication in the Ap
Discovery of a Luminous Blue Variable with an Ejection Nebula Near the Quintuplet Cluster
We report on the discovery of a luminous blue variable (LBV) lying ≈7 pc in projection from the Quintuplet cluster. This source, which we call LBV G0.120 – 0.048, was selected for spectroscopy owing to its detection as a strong source of Paschen-α (Pα) excess in a recent narrowband imaging survey of the Galactic center region with the Hubble Space Telescope/Near-Infrared Camera and Multi-Object Spectrometer. The K-band spectrum is similar to that of the Pistol Star and other known LBVs. The new LBV was previously cataloged as a photometric variable star, exhibiting brightness fluctuations of up to ≈1 mag between 1994 and 1997, with significant variability also occurring on month-to-month timescales. The luminosity of LBV G0.120 – 0.048, as derived from Two-Micron All Sky Survey photometry, is approximately equivalent to that of the Pistol Star. However, the time-averaged brightness of LBV G0.120 – 0.048 between 1994 and 1997 exceeded that of the Pistol Star; LBV G0.120 – 0.048 also suffers more extinction, which suggests that it was intrinsically more luminous in the infrared than the Pistol Star between 1994 and 1997. Pα images reveal a thin circular nebula centered on LBV G0.120 – 0.048 with a physical radius of ≈0.8 pc. We suggest that this nebula is a shell of ejected material launched from a discrete eruption that occurred between 5000 and 10,000 years ago. Because of the very short amount of time that evolved massive stars spend in the LBV phase, and the close proximity of LBV G0.120 – 0.048 to the Quintuplet cluster, we suggest that this object might be coeval with the cluster, and may have once resided within it
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