We present a study of cyanoacetylene (HC_3_N) and cyanodiacetylene (HC_5_N) in Orion KL, using observations from two line surveys performed with the IRAM 30-m telescope and the HIFI instrument onboard the Herschel telescope. The frequency ranges covered are 80-280GHz and 480-1906GHz. This study (divided by families of molecules) is part of a global analysis of the physical conditions of Orion KL and the molecular abundances in the different components of this cloud. We modeled the observed lines of HC_3_N, HC_5_N, their isotopologues (including DC_3_N), and vibrational modes using a non-local thermodynamic equilibrium (non-LTE) radiative transfer code. In addition, to investigate the chemical origin of HC_3_N and DC_3_N in Orion KL, we used a time-dependent chemical model.
The recent unexpected detection of terrestrial complex organic molecules in the cold (~10K) gas has cast doubts on the commonly accepted formation mechanisms of these species. Standard gas-phase mechanisms are inefficient and tend to underproduce these molecules, and many of the key reactions involved are unconstrained. Grain-surface mechanisms, which were presented as a viable alternative, suffer from the fact that they rely on grain surface diffusion of heavy radicals, which is not possible thermally at very low temperatures. One of the simplest terrestrial complex organic molecules, methanol is believed to form on cold grain surfaces following from successive H atom additions on CO. Unlike heavier species, H atoms are very mobile on grain surfaces even at 10K. Intermediate species involved in grain surface methanol formation by CO hydrogenation are the radicals HCO and CH_3_O, as well as the stable species formaldehyde H_2_CO. These radicals are thought to be precursors of complex organic molecules on grain surfaces. We present new observations of the HCO and CH_3_O radicals in a sample of prestellar cores and carry out an analysis of the abundances of the species HCO, H_2_CO, CH_3_O, and CH_3_OH, which represent the various stages of grain- surface hydrogenation of CO to CH_3_OH. The abundance ratios between the various intermediate species in the hydrogenation reaction of CO on grains are similar in all sources of our sample, HCO:H_2_CO:CH_3_O:CH_3_OH~10:100:1:100. We argue that these ratios may not be representative of the primordial abundances on the grains but, rather, suggest that the radicals HCO and CH_3_O are gas-phase products of the precursors H_2_CO and CH_3_OH, respectively. Various gas-phase pathways are considered, including neutral-neutral and ion-molecule reactions, and simple estimates of HCO and CH_3_O abundances are compared to the observations. Critical reaction rate constants, branching ratios, and intermediate species are finally identified.
Based on new measurements carried out in the laboratory from 0.77 to 1.2THz and on a line-frequency analysis of these new data, along with previously published data, we build a line list for HCOOCH_2_D that leads to its first detection in the Orion KL nebula. The observed lines, both in space and in the laboratory, involve the cis D-in-plane and trans D-out-of-plane conformations of HCOOCH_2_D and the two tunneling states arising from the large-amplitude motion connecting the two trans configurations. The model used in the line position calculation accounts for both cis and trans conformations, as well as the large-amplitude motion.
We describe the hCOSMOS redshift survey of the COSMOS field conducted with the Hectospec spectrograph on the MMT. In the central 1deg^2^, the hCOS20.6 subset of the survey is >90% complete to a limiting magnitude r=20.6. The hCOSMOS survey includes 1701 new redshifts in the COSMOS field. We also use the total of 4362 new and remeasured objects to derive the age-sensitive D_n_4000 index over the entire redshift interval 0.001<~z<~0.6. For 85% of the quiescent galaxies in hCOS20.6, we measure the central line-of-sight velocity dispersion. To explore potential uses of this survey, we combine previously measured galaxy sizes, profiles, and stellar masses with the spectroscopy. The comparison reveals the known relations among structural, kinematic, and stellar population properties. We also compare redshift and D_n_4000 distributions of hCOS20.6 galaxies with SHELS; a complete spectroscopic survey of 4deg^2^ observed to the same depth. The redshift distributions in the two fields are very different, but the D_n_4000 distribution is remarkably similar. The relation between velocity dispersion and stellar mass for massive hCOS20.6 galaxies is consistent with the local relation from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. Using measured velocity dispersions, we test a photometric proxy calibrated to galaxies in the local universe. The systematic differences between the measured and photometric proxy velocity dispersions are correlated with galaxy dynamical and stellar population properties highlighting the importance of direct spectroscopic measurements.
The existence of hot Jupiters is still not well understood. Two main channels are thought to be responsible for their current location: a smooth planet migration through the proto-planetary disk or the circularization of an initial high eccentric orbit by tidal dissipation leading to a strong decrease of the semimajor axis. Different formation scenarios result in different observable effects, such as orbital parameters (obliquity/eccentricity), or frequency of planets at different stellar ages. In the context of the GAPS Young-Objects project, we are carrying out a radial velocity survey with the aim to search and characterize young hot-Jupiter planets. Our purpose is to put constraints on evolutionary models and establish statistical properties, such as the frequency of these planets from a homogeneous sample. Since young stars are in general magnetically very active, we performed multi-band (visible and near-infrared) spectroscopy with simultaneous GIANO-B + HARPS-N (GIARPS) observing mode at TNG. This helps to deal with stellar activity and distinguish the nature of radial velocity variations: stellar activity will introduce a wavelength-dependent radial velocity amplitude, whereas a Keplerian signal is achromatic. As a pilot study, we present here the cases of two already claimed hot Jupiters orbiting young stars: HD 285507 b and AD Leo b. Our analysis of simultaneous high-precision GIARPS spectroscopic data confirms the Keplerian nature of HD285507's radial velocities variation and refines the orbital parameters of the hot Jupiter, obtaining an eccentricity consistent with a circular orbit. On the other hand, our analysis does not confirm the signal previously attributed to a planet orbiting AD~Leo. This demonstrates the power of the multi-band spectroscopic technique when observing active stars.
We compare limb darkening laws derived from 3D hydrodynamical model atmospheres and 1D hydrostatic MARCS models for the host stars of two well-studied transiting exoplanet systems, the late-type dwarfs HD 209458 and HD 189733. The surface brightness distribution of the stellar disks is calculated for a wide spectral range using 3D LTE spectrum formation and opacity sampling. We test our theoretical predictions using least-squares fits of model light curves to wavelength-integrated primary eclipses that were observed with the Hubble Space Telescope (HST).
We report the identification of 3 Li-rich giants discovered in an ongoing survey based on IRAS colours. A detailed analysis of one of these, HD 146850, is presented here. High resolution spectra were obtained for this star, using CASPEC at the 3.6m telescope of ESO.
We report near-infrared spectroscopy of the gas giant planet HD 189733b in transit. We used the Hubble Space Telescope Wide Field Camera 3 (HST WFC3) with its G141 grism covering 1.1 {mu}m to 1.7 {mu}m and spatially scanned the image across the detector at 2''/s. When smoothed to 75 nm bins, the local maxima of the transit depths in the 1.15 {mu}m and 1.4 {mu}m water vapor features are, respectively, 83+/-53 ppm and 200+/-47 ppm greater than the local minimum at 1.3 {mu}m. We compare the WFC3 spectrum with the composite transit spectrum of HD 189733b assembled by Pont et al., extending from 0.3 {mu}m to 24 {mu}m. Although the water vapor features in the WFC3 spectrum are compatible with the model of non-absorbing, Rayleigh-scattering dust in the planetary atmosphere, we also re-interpret the available data with a clear planetary atmosphere. In the latter interpretation, the slope of increasing transit depth with shorter wavelengths from the near infrared, through the visible, and into the ultraviolet is caused by unocculted star spots, with a smaller contribution of Rayleigh scattering by molecular hydrogen in the planet's atmosphere. At relevant pressures along the terminator, our model planetary atmosphere's temperature is ~700 K, which is below the condensation temperatures of sodium- and potassium-bearing molecules, causing the broad wings of the spectral lines of Na I and K I at 0.589 {mu}m and 0.769 {mu}m to be weak.
Observations of exoplanetary systems show that a wide variety of architectures are possible. Determining the rate of occurrence of Solar System analogs - with inner terrestrial planets and outer gas giants - is still an open question. In the framework of the Global Architecture of Planetary Systems (GAPS) project we collected more than 300 spectra with HARPS-N at the Telescopio Nazionale Galileo for the bright G9V star HD164922. This target is known to host one gas giant planet in a wide orbit (Pb~1200-days, semi-major axis ~2au) and a Neptune-mass planet with a period Pc~76-days. Our aim was to investigate the presence of additional low-mass companions in the inner region of the system. We compared the radial velocities (RV) and the activity indices derived from the HARPS-N time series to measure the rotation period of the star and used a Gaussian process regression to describe the behaviour of the stellar activity.We exploited this information in a combined model of planetary and stellar activity signals in an RV time-series composed of almost 700 high-precision RVs, both from HARPS-N and literature data. We performed a dynamical analysis to evaluate the stability of the system and the allowed regions for additional potential companions. We performed experiments of injection and recovery of additional planetary signals to gauge the sensitivity thresholds in minimum mass and orbital separation imposed by our data. Thanks to the high sensitivity of the HARPS-N dataset, we detect an additional inner super-Earth with an RV semi-amplitude of 1.3+/-0.2m/s and a minimum mass of m_d_sini=4+/-/1M_{Earth}_. It orbits HD164922 with a period of 12.4580.003 days. We disentangle the planetary signal from activity and measure a stellar rotation period of ~42 days. The dynamical analysis shows the long term stability of the orbits of the three-planet system and allows us to identify the permitted regions for additional planets in the semi-major axis ranges 0.18-0.21au and 0.6-1.4au. The latter partially includes the habitable zone of the system. We did not detect any planet in these regions, down to minimum detectable masses of 5 and 18M_{Earth}_, respectively. A larger region of allowed planets is expected beyond the orbit of planet b, where our sampling rules-out bodies with minimum mass >50MM_{Earth}. The planetary orbital parameters and the location of the snow line suggest that this system has been shaped by a gas disk migration process that halted after its dissipation.
We present a cautionary study exploring the reliability of the H{delta} line in the integrated spectra of galaxies for determining galaxy ages. Our database consists of the observed integrated spectra of ~120 early-type galaxies, 7 metal-rich globular clusters in M31 and the Galactic globular cluster 47 Tuc, and the open cluster M67. We have measured H{delta} using index definitions designed to assess contamination from the CN molecule in and around H{delta} by choosing combinations of bandpasses that both avoid and include a region of CN molecular lines redward of H{delta}. We find systematic differences in the ages derived from H{delta} measurements among the various definitions when extracting ages from H{delta} in old stellar populations with enhanced CN bands due to nonsolar abundance ratios. We propose that neighboring CN lines have a strong effect on pseudocontinuum and central bandpass levels. For stellar populations that have nonsolar abundance ratios in C and/or N, population synthesis models that do not account for abundance ratio variations cannot accurately reproduce the CN 4216{AA} band, which leads to a corresponding inaccuracy in reproducing the various H{delta} indices. Hence, caution must be used when extracting galaxy ages from the H{delta} line in old stellar populations with significant nonsolar abundance ratios.
