Access to the results of the unsupervised classification of all galaxy spectra in the seventh and final Sloan Digital Sky Survey data release (SDSS/DR7) as described in Sanchez Almeida et al. (2010 ApJ 714,487S). 99% of the galaxies can be assigned to only 17 major classes, with 11 additional minor classes including the remaining 1%.
We present a clean, magnitude-limited (IRAC1 or WISE1<=15.0mag) multiwavelength source catalog for the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC). The catalog was built by crossmatching (1'') and deblending (3'') between the source list of Spitzer Enhanced Imaging Products (SEIP) and Gaia Data Release 2 (DR2), with strict constraints on the Gaia astrometric solution in order to remove the foreground contamination. It is estimated that about 99.5% of the targets in our catalog are most likely genuine members of the LMC. The catalog contains 197004 targets in 52 different bands, including two ultraviolet, 21 optical, and 29 infrared bands. Additional information about radial velocities and spectral and photometric classifications were collected from the literature. We compare our sample with the sample from Gaia DR2 (2018A&A...616A...1G, Cat. I/345), indicating that the bright end of our sample is mostly comprised of blue helium-burning stars (BHeBs) and red HeBs with inevitable contamination of main sequence stars at the blue end. After applying modified magnitude and color cuts based on previous studies, we identified and ranked 2974 red supergiant, 508 yellow supergiant, and 4786 blue supergiant candidates in the LMC in six color-magnitude diagrams (CMDs). The comparison between the CMDs from the two catalogs of the LMC and Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC) indicates that the most distinct difference appears at the bright red end of the optical and near-infrared CMDs, where the cool evolved stars (e.g., red supergiant stars (RSGs), asymptotic giant branch stars, and red giant stars) are located, which is likely due to the effect of metallicity and star formation history. A further quantitative comparison of colors of massive star candidates in equal absolute magnitude bins suggests that there is essentially no difference for the BSG candidates, but a large discrepancy for the RSG candidates since LMC targets are redder than the SMC ones, which may be due to the combined effect of metallicity on both spectral type and mass-loss rate as well as the age effect. The effective temperatures (Teff) of massive star populations are also derived from reddening-free color of (J-K_S_0. The Teff ranges are 3500<Teff<5000K for an RSG population, 5000<Teff<8000K for a YSG population, and Teff>8000K for a BSG population, with larger uncertainties toward the hotter stars.
We present a clean, magnitude-limited (IRAC1 or WISE1 <=15.0mag) multiwavelength source catalog for the Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC) with 45466 targets in total, with the purpose of building an anchor for future studies, especially for the massive star populations at low-metallicity. The catalog contains data in 50 different bands including 21 optical and 29 infrared bands, retrieved from SEIP, VMC, IRSF, AKARI, HERITAGE, Gaia, SkyMapper, NSC, Massey (2002, Cat. II/236), and GALEX, ranging from the ultraviolet to the far-infrared. Additionally, radial velocities and spectral classifications were collected from the literature, and infrared and optical variability statistics were retrieved from WISE, SAGE-Var, VMC, IRSF, Gaia, NSC, and OGLE. The catalog was essentially built upon a 1" crossmatching and a 3" deblending between the Spitzer Enhanced Imaging Products (SEIP) source list and Gaia Data Release 2 (DR2) photometric data. Further constraints on the proper motions and parallaxes from Gaia DR2 allowed us to remove the foreground contamination. We estimate that about 99.5% of the targets in our catalog are most likely genuine members of the SMC. Using the evolutionary tracks and synthetic photometry from MESA Isochrones & Stellar Tracks and the theoretical J-K_S_ color cuts, we identified 1405 red supergiant (RSG), 217 yellow supergiant, and 1,369 blue supergiant candidates in the SMC in five different color-magnitude diagrams (CMDs), where attention should also be paid to the incompleteness of our sample. We ranked the candidates based on the intersection of different CMDs. A comparison between the models and observational data shows that the lower limit of initial mass for the RSG population may be as low as 7 or even 6M_{sun}_ and that the RSG is well separated from the asymptotic giant branch (AGB) population even at faint magnitude, making RSGs a unique population connecting the evolved massive and intermediate stars, since stars with initial mass around 6 to 8$M_{sun}_ are thought to go through a second dredge-up to become AGB stars. We encourage the interested reader to further exploit the potential of our catalog.
The high planetary multiplicity revealed by Kepler implies that transit timing variations (TTVs) are intrinsically common. The usual procedure for detecting these TTVs is biased to long-period, deep transit planets, whereas most transiting planets have short periods and shallow transits. Here we introduce the Spectral Approach technique to TTVs that allows expanding the TTV catalog toward lower TTV amplitude, shorter orbital period, and shallower transit depth. In the spectral approach, we assume that a sinusoidal TTV exists in the data and then calculate the improvement to {chi}^2^ that this model allows over that of the linear-ephemeris model. This enables detection of TTVs even in cases where the transits are too shallow, so that individual transits cannot be timed. The spectral approach is more sensitive because it has fewer free parameters in its model. Using the spectral approach, we (a) detect 129 new periodic TTVs in Kepler data (an increase of ~2/3 over a previous TTV catalog); (b) constrain the TTV periods of 34 long-period TTVs and reduce amplitude errors of known TTVs; and (c) identify cases of multi-periodic TTVs, for which absolute planetary mass determination may be possible. We further extend our analysis by using perturbation theory assuming a small TTV amplitude at the detection stage, which greatly speeds up our detection (to a level of few seconds per star). Our extended TTV sample shows no deficit of short-period or low-amplitude transits, in contrast to previous surveys, in which the detection schemes were significantly biased against such systems.
A rich spectroscopic census of members of the local massive cluster A2029 includes 1215 members of A2029 and its two infalling groups, A2033 and the Southern Infalling Group. The two infalling groups are identified in spectroscopic, X-ray, and weak-lensing maps. We identify active galactic nuclei (AGNs), star-forming galaxies, E+A galaxies, and quiescent galaxies based on the spectroscopy. The fractions of AGN and post-starburst E+A galaxies in A2029 are similar to those of other clusters. We derive the stellar mass (M_*_)-metallicity relation of A2029 based on 227 star-forming members; A2029 members within 10^9^M_{sun}_<M_*_<10^9.5^M_{sun}_ are more metal-rich than Sloan Digital Sky Survey galaxies within the same mass range. We utilize the spectroscopic index D_n_4000, a strong age indicator, to trace past and future evolution of the A2029 system. The median D_n_4000 of the members decreases as the projected clustercentric distance increases for all three subsystems. The D_n_4000-M_*_ relations of the members in A2029 and its two infalling groups differ significantly, indicating the importance of stochastic effects for understanding the evolution of cluster galaxy populations.
A metallicity, chemical composition, and kinematic survey has been conducted for a sample of 340 candidate field red horizontal-branch (RHB) stars. Spectra with high resolution and high signal-to-noise ratio were gathered with the McDonald Observatory 2.7 m Tull and the Hobby-Eberly Telescope echelle spectrographs, and were used to determine effective temperatures, surface gravities, microturbulent velocities, [Fe/H] metallicities, and abundance ratios [X/Fe] for seven {alpha} and Fe-group species. The derived temperatures and gravities confirm that at least half of the candidates are true RHB stars, with (average) parameters T_eff_~5000 K and log g~2.5. From the {alpha} abundances alone, the thin and thick Galactic populations are apparent in our sample. Space motions for 90% of the program stars were computed from Hipparcos and Gaia parallaxes and proper motions. Correlations between chemical compositions and Galactic kinematics clearly indicate the existence of both thin-disk and thick-disk RHB stars.
The ESA PLAnetary Transits and Oscillations of stars (PLATO) mission will search for terrestrial planets in the habitable zone of solar-like stars. Because of telemetry limitations PLATO targets need to be pre-selected. In this paper we present an all sky catalog that will be fundamental to select the best PLATO fields and the most promising target stars, derive their fundamental parameters, analyze the instrumental performances and then plan and optimize follow-up observations. This catalog also represents a valuable resource for the general definition of stellar samples optimized for the search of transiting planets. We used Gaia Data Release 2 (DR2) astrometry and photometry and 3D maps of the local interstellar medium to isolate FGK (V<=13) and M(V<=16) dwarfs and subgiant stars. We present the first public release of the all sky PLATO Input Catalog (asPIC1.1) containing a total of 2675539 stars among which 2378177 FGK dwarfs and subgiants and 297362 M dwarfs. The median distance in our sample is 428pc for FGK stars and 146 pc for M dwarfs, respectively. We derived the reddening of our targets and developed an algorithm to estimate stellar fundamental parameters (Teff, radius, mass) from astrometric and photometric measurements. We show that our overall (internal+external) uncertainties on the stellar parameters determination is ~230K (4%) for the effective temperatures, ~0.1R_{sun}_ (9%) for the stellar radii and ~0.1M_{sun}_ (11%) for the stellar mass. We release a special target list containing all known planet hosts cross-matched with our catalog.