We observed the carbon-rich asymptotic giant branch (AGB) star TX Piscium (TX Psc) with ALMA in CO(2-1) emission to investigate the circumstellar envelope (CSE) and mass-loss history of this object. Previous observations with Herschel in the far infrared have shown a ring-like structure in dust emission (2011A&A...532A.135J). Our molecular gas observations of the CO(2-1) emission line cover this structure with significantly higher spatial resolution to investigate its origin.
The gamma-ray production mechanism and its localization in blazars are still a matter of debate. The main goal of this paper is to constrain the location of the high-energy emission in the blazar TXS 2013+370 and to study the physical and geometrical properties of the inner jet region on sub-pc scales. TXS 2013+370 was monitored during 2002-2013 with VLBI at 15, 22, 43, and 86GHz, which allowed us to image the jet base with an angular resolution of >=0.4pc. By employing CLEAN imaging and Gaussian model-fitting, we performed a thorough kinematic analysis at multiple frequencies, which provided estimates of the jet speed, orientation, and component ejection times. Additionally, we studied the jet expansion profile and used the information on the jet geometry to estimate the location of the jet apex. VLBI data were combined with single-dish measurements to search for correlated activity between the radio, mm, and gamma-ray emission. For this purpose, we employed a cross-correlation analysis, supported by several significance tests. The high-resolution VLBI imaging revealed the existence of a spatially bent jet, described by co-existing moving emission features and stationary features. New jet features, labeled as A1, N, and N1, are observed to emerge from the core, accompanied by flaring activity in radio/mm- bands and rays. The analysis of the transverse jet width profile constrains the location of the mm core to lie <=2pc downstream of the jet apex, and also reveals the existence of a transition from parabolic to conical jet expansion at a distance of ~54pc from the core, corresponding to ~1.5x10^6^ Schwarzschild radii. The cross-correlation analysis of the broad-band variability reveals a strong correlation between the radio-mm and gamma-ray data, with the 1mm emission lagging 49 days behind the rays. Based on this, we infer that the high energy emission is produced at a distance of the order of ~1pc from the VLBI core, suggesting that the seed photon fields for the external Compton mechanism originate either in the dusty torus or in the broad-line region.
We present the discovery of another seven Y dwarfs from the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE). Using these objects, as well as the first six WISE Y dwarf discoveries from Cushing et al. (2011ApJ...743...50C), we further explore the transition between spectral types T and Y. We find that the T/Y boundary roughly coincides with the spot where the J-H colors of brown dwarfs, as predicted by models, turn back to the red. Moreover, we use preliminary trigonometric parallax measurements to show that the T/Y boundary may also correspond to the point at which the absolute H (1.6{mu}m) and W2 (4.6{mu}m) magnitudes plummet. We use these discoveries and their preliminary distances to place them in the larger context of the solar neighborhood. We present a table that updates the entire stellar and substellar constituency within 8pc of the Sun, and we show that the current census has hydrogen-burning stars outnumbering brown dwarfs by roughly a factor of six. This factor will decrease with time as more brown dwarfs are identified within this volume, but unless there is a vast reservoir of cold brown dwarfs invisible to WISE, the final space density of brown dwarfs is still expected to fall well below that of stars. We also use these new Y dwarf discoveries, along with newly discovered T dwarfs from WISE, to investigate the field substellar mass function. We find that the overall space density of late-T and early-Y dwarfs matches that from simulations describing the mass function as a power law with slope -0.5<{alpha}<0.0; however, a power law may provide a poor fit to the observed object counts as a function of spectral type because there are tantalizing hints that the number of brown dwarfs continues to rise from late-T to early-Y. More detailed monitoring and characterization of these Y dwarfs, along with dedicated searches aimed at identifying more examples, are certainly required.
We report the discovery of 13251 visual double stars, mostly with separations between 0.3 and 1 arcsec, from a dedicated re-reduction of the Tycho data from the star mapper of the ESA Hipparcos satellite. The new doubles are combined with 18160 WDS systems identified in the Tycho-2 Catalogue, and 1220 new Tycho-2 doubles, to form the Tycho Double Star Catalogue, TDSC, a catalogue of absolute astrometry and BT, VT photometry for 66219 components of 32631 double and multiple star systems. We also include results for 32263 single components for systems unresolved in TDSC, and a supplement gives Hipparcos and Tycho-1 data for 4777 additional components. The TDS thus contains a total of 103259 entries. Cross identifications are given to WDS, HD, Hipparcos and Tycho-2
A Tycho Input Catalogue of three million stars brighter than V=12.1 has been prepared, for the needs of the Tycho mission (Hipparcos satellite). This catalogue results from the cross-matching of a subset of the Hubble Space Telescope Guide Star Catalog with the Hipparcos INCA database. References to these major catalogues, and details about the cross-matching procedures are to be found in the paper published in Astron. Astrophys. 258, 217-222 (May 1992). Among the 3,154,204 stars of the Tycho Input Catalogue, only a bit more than 1 million will appear in the final Tycho catalogue. A preliminary selection was done in the Recognition process, that was based on the first year of the satellite scientific mission (Halbwachs et al., =1994A&A...281L..25H). 1,049,971 stars were thus selected, and are flagged in this version of the Tycho Input Catalogue. The main file contains 3 154 204 records of 80 characters (total size: 256 Mbytes). It is split into four files tic1 to tic4 for easier manipulations. An annex file contains the following additional data for a subset of the stars: (a) the cross-identification with the Hipparcos Input Catalogue (117 778 records, flag 26) (b) the cross-matching with the INCA database (217 625 records, flag 20). The annex file contains 217 625 records (64 char., 14 Mbytes).
Based on multicolor photometry from the 2MASS and Tycho-2 catalogues, we have produced a sample of 38368 branch red giants that has less than 1% of admixtures and is complete within 500 pc of the Sun. The sample includes 30671 K giants, 7544 M giants,49 C giants, and 104 suspected supergiants or S stars. The photometric distances have been calculated for K, M, and C stars with an accuracy of 40% together with reddening and extinction estimates. Tycho-2 proper motions and PCRV radial velocities are used to analyze the stellar kinematics. The majority of the selected K and M giants are disk stars with ages of more than 3Gyr. A small number of K and M giants are extremely young or, conversely, thick-disk ones. The spatial distribution and kinematics of the selected C stars force us to consider them as asymptotic branch giants with masses of more than 2 solar masses and ages of less than 2Gyr probably associated with the Gould Belt. The offset of the Sun above the Galactic equator has been found from the distribution of stars to be 13+/-2pc, which coincides with the previously obtained value for the clump red giants.
We identify 69 X-ray sources discovered by the Galactic Bulge Survey (GBS) that are coincident with or very close to bright stars in the Tycho-2 catalog. Additionally, two other GBS sources are resolved binary companions to Tycho-2 stars where both components are separately detected in X-rays. Most of these are likely to be real matches, but we identify nine objects with large and significant X-ray-to-optical offsets as either detections of resolved binary companions or chance alignments. We collate known spectral types for these objects, and also examine Two Micron All Sky Survey colors, variability information from the All-Sky Automated Survey, and X-ray hardness ratios for the brightest objects. Nearly a third of the stars are found to be optically variable, divided roughly evenly between irregular variations and periodic modulations. All fall among the softest objects identified by the GBS. The sample forms a very mixed selection, ranging in spectral class from O9 to M3. In some cases, the X-ray emission appears consistent with normal coronal emission from late-type stars, or wind emission from early-types, but the sample also includes one known Algol, one W UMa system, two Be stars, and several X-ray bright objects likely to be coronally active stars or binaries. Surprisingly, a substantial fraction of the spectroscopically classified, non-coincidental sample (12 out of 38 objects) have late B or A type counterparts. Many of these exhibit redder near-IR colors than expected for their spectral type and/or variability, and it is likely that the X-rays originate from a late-type companion star in most or all of these objects.
Stars of all evolutionary phases have been found to have excess infrared emission due to the presence of circumstellar material. To identify such stars, we have positionally correlated the infrared Mid-Course Space Experiment (MSX) Point Source Catalogue (<V/114>) and the Tycho-2 optical catalogue (<I/259>). Near-mid-infrared colour criteria have been developed to select infrared excess stars. The search yielded 1938 excess stars; over half (979) have never previously been detected by IRAS. The excess stars were found to be young objects such as Herbig Ae/Be and Be stars, and evolved objects such as OH/IR (infrared) and carbon stars. A number of B-type excess stars were also discovered whose infrared colours could not be readily explained by known catalogued objects.
We present the results of the classification procedure described in Piquard's PhD thesis applied to the 1091 stars presented in Piquard et al. (2001. Cat. <J/A+A/373/576>). In those six tables we give indication of variability type for all the stars detected as variables in Piquard et al. (2001, Cat. <J/A+A/373/576>). First of all, we looked for periodic signals in the light curves using adapted Renson's (Renson, 1978A&A....63..125R) and Stellingwerf's (Stellingwerf, 1978ApJ...224..953S) methods applied to the tree different photometric bands from Tycho (Cat. <I/239>): T, B_T_, V_T_ (the T band is defined from the added count-rates in the B_T_ and V_T_ channels, Grossmann et al.. 1995A&A...304..110G). Then we developed a semi-automatic method using 5 parameters (Period, color index, reduced proper motion from Tycho-2 catalogue (Cat. <I/259>), 2 indicators of the shape of the light curve) and a maximum likelihood method, combined with a careful look on the light curves. Finaly, the identification of the variability type is kept only if the resulting light curve is convincing (periodic the star has the P status, if not periodic the star has the U status); else we need more information about the star and is has the A status. All this identifications are indications since the quality of the light curves are often poor, particularly when the star is fainter than T=10.
We explore the relative strength of the narrow emission lines in a Sloan Digital Sky Survey based sample of broad H{alpha} selected active galactic nuclei (AGN), defined in Paper I (Stern & Laor, 2010, Cat. J/MNRAS/423/600).
