Open clusters with Hipparcos I. Mean astrometric parameters

New memberships, mean parallaxes and proper motions of all 9 open clusters closer than 300 pc (except the Hyades) and 9 rich clusters between 300 and 500 pc have been computed using Hipparcos data. Precisions, ranging from 0.2 to 0.5 mas for parallaxes and 0.1 to 0.5 mas/yr for proper motions, are of great interest for calibrating photometric parallaxes as well as for kinematical studies. Careful investigations of possible biases have been performed and no evidence of significant systematic errors on the mean cluster parallaxes has been found. The distances and proper motions of 32 more distant clusters, which may be used statistically, are also indicated.Comment: 15 pages, A&A in pres

Cryptic diversity and database errors challenge non-indigenous species surveys: An illustration with Botrylloides spp. in the English Channel and Mediterranean Sea

Molecular tools have been extensively used in recent decades to examine biological invasion processes, and are increasingly being adopted as efficient tools to support non-indigenous species surveys, notably through barcoding approaches, i.e., the use of a reference sequence specific to a given species to validate its identification. The technique is easy to use but requires reliable reference sequences to be available in public databases. In addition, the increasing discovery of cryptic species in marine taxa may complicate taxonomic assignment. We illustrate these two issues in the ascidian genus Botrylloides, in which at least three global marine invaders have been recognized, including B. violaceus and B. diegensis. We obtained COI sequences from >750 colonies of Botrylloides spp. sampled in W Europe or provided by expert colleagues from other regions. Phylogenetic trees clearly distinguished our targeted taxa [i.e., B. violaceus, B. diegensis and B. leachii (native)]. They also revealed another discrete lineage apparently related to a recently described eastern Mediterranean species. By examining public databases, we found sequences of B. diegensis erroneously assigned to B. leachii. This observation has major implications as the introduced B. diegensis can be misidentified as a putatively native species. We also checked published sequences of the genus Botrylloides in the Mediterranean Sea, complemented with new samples. Based on our custom reference database, all published sequences of B. leachii corresponded to B. diegensis, although this NIS has hardly been reported at all in the Mediterranean region. Such database errors are unfortunate, as the barcoding approach is a powerful tool to identify the recognized Botrylloides species currently present in European seas. This is of particular importance because a trait often used during field assessment, i.e., single-color vs. two-color colonies, is misleading to distinguish B. violaceus and B. diegensis respectively: a substantial proportion of the single-color morph are actually B. diegensis in both the Mediterranean Sea and the English Channel. Altogether, this study exemplifies the advantages and disadvantages of molecular barcoding in NIS surveys and studies. The limitations that were identified are all easy to resolve once proper vouchers and collections are set up

It's a wonderful tail: the mass loss history of Mira

Recent observations of the Mira AB binary system have revealed a surrounding arc-like structure and a stream of material stretching 2 degrees away in opposition to the arc. The alignment of the proper motion vector and the arc-like structure shows the structures to be a bow shock and accompanying tail. We have successfully hydrodynamically modelled the bow shock and tail as the interaction between the asymptotic giant branch (AGB) wind launched from Mira A and the surrounding interstellar medium. Our simulations show that the wake behind the bow shock is turbulent: this forms periodic density variations in the tail similar to those observed. We investigate the possiblity of mass-loss variations, but find that these have limited effect on the tail structure. The tail is estimated to be approximately 450,000 years old, and is moving with a velocity close to that of Mira itself. We suggest that the duration of the high mass-loss phase on the AGB may have been underestimated. Finally, both the tail curvature and the rebrightening at large distance can be qualitatively understood if Mira recently entered the Local Bubble. This is estimated to have occured 17 pc downstream from its current location.Comment: 12 pages, 3 colour figures, accepted by ApJ Part II (Letters

A latitude-dependent wind model for Mira's cometary head

We present a 3D numerical simulation of the recently discovered cometary structure produced as Mira travels through the galactic ISM. In our simulation, we consider that Mira ejects a steady, latitude-dependent wind, which interacts with a homogeneous, streaming environment. The axisymmetry of the problem is broken by the lack of alignment between the direction of the relative motion of the environment and the polar axis of the latitude-dependent wind. With this model, we are able to produce a cometary head with a ``double bow shock'' which agrees well with the structure of the head of Mira's comet. We therefore conclude that a time-dependence in the ejected wind is not required for reproducing the observed double bow shock.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figures, accepted for publication in ApJ

Building the cosmic distance scale: from Hipparcos to Gaia

Hipparcos, the first ever experiment of global astrometry, was launched by ESA in 1989 and its results published in 1997 (Perryman et al., Astron. Astrophys. 323, L49, 1997; Perryman & ESA (eds), The Hipparcos and Tycho catalogues, ESA SP-1200, 1997). A new reduction was later performed using an improved satellite attitude reconstruction leading to an improved accuracy for stars brighter than 9th magnitude (van Leeuwen & Fantino, Astron. Astrophys. 439, 791, 2005; van Leeuwen, Astron. Astrophys. 474, 653, 2007). The Hipparcos Catalogue provided an extended dataset of very accurate astrometric data (positions, trigonometric parallaxes and proper motions), enlarging by two orders of magnitude the quantity and quality of distance determinations and luminosity calibrations. The availability of more than 20000 stars with a trigonometric parallax known to better than 10% opened the way to a drastic revision of our 3-D knowledge of the solar neighbourhood and to a renewal of the calibration of many distance indicators and age estimations. The prospects opened by Gaia, the next ESA cornerstone, planned for launch in June 2013 (Perryman et al., Astron. Astrophys. 369, 339, 2001), are still much more dramatic: a billion objects with systematic and quasi simultaneous astrometric, spectrophotometric and spectroscopic observations, about 150 million stars with expected distances to better than 10%, all over the Galaxy. All stellar distance indicators, in very large numbers, will be directly measured, providing a direct calibration of their luminosity and making possible detailed studies of the impacts of various effects linked to chemical element abundances, age or cluster membership. With the help of simulations of the data expected from Gaia, obtained from the mission simulator developed by DPAC, we will illustrate what Gaia can provide with some selected examples.Comment: 16 pages, 16 figures, Conference "The Fundamental Cosmic Distance scale: State of the Art and the Gaia perspective, 3-6 May 2011, INAF, Osservatorio Astronomico di Capodimonte, Naples. Accepted for publication in Astrophysics & Space Scienc

Experimental and numerical evaluation of conduction welded thermoplastic composite joints

The capability of joining two thermoplastic composite parts by welding is a key technology to reduce the weight and cost of assembled parts and enables high volume manufacturing of future aeronautical structures made of thermoplastic composite materials. However, there is not much experimental understanding of the mechanisms involving welded joint failure, and the computational tools available for the simulation of thermoset composites have not yet been completely assessed for thermoplastic materials. In this work, a numerical and experimental evaluation is performed to investigate the strength and failure behavior of conduction welded thermoplastic composite joints. A welded single lap shear joint is designed, manufactured, tested and analyzed proposing two distinct modeling approaches. A simplified modeling strategy which only accounts for damage at the weld is compared to a high-fidelity model which can take into account the physical failure mechanisms at the lamina level. The high-fidelity modeling methodology is able to predict the experimental failure mode of the investigated welded joints with high accuracy and is used to gain new insights into the key-variables that influence the strength of thermoplastic welded joints. It is also found that the joint strength is highly influenced by the failure mechanisms not only of the welded interface but also of the surrounding plies