We present the most precise light curve ever obtained of a detached eclipsing binary star and use it investigate the inclusion of non-linear limb darkening laws in light curve models of eclipsing binaries. This light curve, of the bright eclipsing system beta Aurigae, was obtained using the star tracker aboard the WIRE satellite and contains 30000 datapoints with a point-to-point scatter of 0.3mmag. We analyse the WIRE light curve using a version of the EBOP code modified to include non-linear limb darkening laws and to directly incorporate observed times of minimum light and spectroscopic light ratios into the photometric solution as individual observations. We also analyse the dataset with the Wilson-Devinney code to ensure that the two models give consistent results. EBOP is able to provide an excellent fit to the high-precision WIRE data. Whilst the fractional radii of the stars are only defined to a precision of 5% by this light curve, including an accurate published spectroscopic light ratio improves this dramatically to 0.5%. Using non-linear limb darkening improves the quality of the fit significantly compared to the linear law and causes the measured radii to increase by 0.4%. It is possible to derive all of the limb darkening coefficients from the light curve, although they are strongly correlated with each other. The fitted coefficients agree with theoretical predictions to within their fairly large error estimates. We were able to obtain a reasonably good fit to the data using the Wilson- Devinney code, but only using the highest available integration accuracy and by iterating for a long time. Bolometric albedos of 0.6 were found, which are appropriate to convective rather than radiative envelopes. The radii and masses of the components of beta Aurigae are R_A_=2.762+/-0.017R_{sun}_, R_B_=2.568+/-0.017R_{sun}_, M_A_=2.376+/-0.027M_{sun}_ and M_B_=2.291+/-0.027M_{sun}_, where A and B denote the primary and secondary star, respectively. Theoretical stellar evolutionary models can match these parameters for a solar metal abundance and an age of 450 to 500Myr. The Hipparcos trigonometric parallax and an interferometrically-derived orbital parallax give distances to beta Aurigae which are in excellent agreement with each other and with distances derived using surface brightness relations and several sets of empirical and theoretical bolometric corrections.
Red supergiants represent the most common final stage of the evolution of stars with initial masses between 8 and 30-35 times the mass of the Sun. During this phase of lifetime ~10^5 yrs, they experience substantial mass loss of unknown mechanism (Arroyo-Torres et al., 2015A&A...575A..50A). This mass loss can affect their evolutionary path, collapse, future supernova light curve, and ultimate fate as a neutron star or a black hole. From November 2019 to March 2020, the second closest red supergiant (RSG, 222^+48^_-34_pc) Betelgeuse experienced a historic dimming of its visible brightness, witnessed worldwide. Usually between 0.1 and 1.0mag, it went down to 1.614+/-0.008mag around 7-13 February 2020. Here we report high angular resolution observations showing that the southern hemisphere of the star was ten times darker than usual in the visible. Observations and modeling support the scenario of a dust clump recently formed in the vicinity of the star due to a local temperature decrease in a cool patch appearing on the photosphere. The directly imaged brightness variations of Betelgeuse evolved on a timescale of weeks. This event suggests that an inhomogeneous component of red supergiant mass loss is linked to a very contrasted and rapidly changing photosphere.
The spectral distributions of Be/X-ray binaries in the Large Magellanic Cloud and Galaxy have been shown to differ significantly from the distribution of isolated Be stars in the Galaxy. Population synthesis models can explain this difference in spectral distributions through substantial angular momentum loss from the binary system. In this work, we explore the spectral distribution of Be/X-ray binaries in the Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC) using high signal-to-noise ratio spectroscopy of a sample of 37 optical counterparts to known X-ray pulsars. Our results show that the spectral distribution of Be/X-ray binaries in the SMC is consistent with that of the Galaxy, despite the lower metallicity environment of the SMC. This may indicate that, although the metallicity of the SMC is conducive to the formation of a large number of high-mass X-ray binaries, the spectral distribution of these systems is likely to be most strongly influenced by angular momentum losses during binary evolution, which are not particularly dependent on the local metallicity.
The mass and radius are two fundamental properties to characterize exoplanets but only for a relatively small fraction of exoplanets are they both available. The mass is often derived from radial velocity measurements while the radius is almost always measured with the transit method. For a large number of exoplanets, either the radius or the mass is unknown, while the host star has been characterized. Several mass-radius relations dependent on the planet's type have been published which often allow to predict the radius, as well as a bayesian code which forecasts the radius of an exoplanet given the mass or vice versa. Our goal is to derive the radius of exoplanets using only observables extracted from spectra used primarily to determine radial velocities and spectral parameters. Our objective is to obtain a mass-radius relation that is independent of the planet's type. We work with a database of confirmed exoplanets with known radii and masses as well as the planets from our Solar System. Using random forests, a machine learning algorithm, we compute the radius of exoplanets and compare the results to the published radii. Our code, BEM, is available online. On top of this, we also explore how the radius estimates compare to previously published mass-radius relations. The estimated radii reproduces the spread in radius found for high mass planets better than previous mass-radius relations. The average error on the radius is 1.8R_Earth_ across the whole range of radii from 1 to 22R_Earth_. We found that a random forest algorithm is able to derive reliable radii especially for planets between 4 and 20R_Earth_, for which the error is smaller than 25%. The algorithm has a low bias but still a high variance, which could be reduced by limiting the growth of the forest or adding more data. The random forest algorithm is a promising method to derive exoplanet properties. We show that the exoplanet's mass and equilibrium temperature are the relevant properties which constrain the radius, and do it with higher accuracy than the previous methods.
Because the question of the mass ratio of the early-type system BF Aur has not yet fully been clarified, we present and analyse new UBV photometry and nearly contemporaneous radial velocity observations. From a simultaneous least squares analysis of the photometric light curves and the new radial velocity curves we derive a mass ratio of q=1.048+/-0.02. With even much more accurate photometric and spectroscopic data the mass ratio remains weakly defined. The resulting stellar parameters are consistent with the line ratios derived from old and our new spectra and available Stroemgren indices. We confirm earlier conclusions that BF Aur is detached and that the more massive component is almost filling its Roche lobe. New data indicating a period change support the interpretation that mass exchange has already started or is about to start.
BF Cygni (hereafter BF Cyg) is a symbiotic star that in 2006 July started into an optical outburst that has lasted for several years. Between 2006 August and 2007 January we obtained high-dispersion spectra (r~35,000) over the wavelength range of 3800-10000{AA} of BF Cyg with the 3.5m echelle spectrograph at Apache Point Observatory. The emission lines in the optical spectrum of BF Cyg changed dramatically during the interval of observations. The species found were mostly low-ionization emission lines of H, He, C, N, O, Mg, Si, Ca, Sc, Ti, V, Cr, Mn, Fe, and Ni. Both permitted and forbidden lines were seen. In particular, Fe I was observed in emission, which is not a common phenomenon.
We present evidence for a significant overdensity of red galaxies, as much as a factor of 14 over comparable field samples, in the field of the z=1.47 radio galaxy B3 0003+387. The colors and luminosities of the brightest red galaxies are consistent with their being at z>0.8. The radio galaxy and one of the red galaxies are separated by 5" and show some evidence of a possible interaction. However, the red galaxies do not show any strong clustering around the radio galaxy or around any of the brighter red galaxies. The data suggest that we are looking at a wall or sheet of galaxies, possibly associated with the radio galaxy at z=1.47. Spectroscopic redshifts of these red galaxies will be necessary to confirm this large-scale structure.
The characterization of dust properties in the interstellar medium (ISM) is key for understanding the physics and chemistry of star formation. Mass estimates are crucial to determine gravitational collapse conditions for the birth of new stellar objects in molecular clouds. However, most of these estimates rely on dust models that need further observational constraints to capture the relevant parameters variations depending on the local environment: from clouds to prestellar and protostellar cores. We present results of a new study of dust emissivity changes based on millimeter (mm) continuum data obtained with the NIKA camera at the IRAM-30m telescope. Observing dust emission at 1.15mm and 2mm allows us to constrain the dust emissivity index, {beta}, in the Rayleigh-Jeans tail of the dust spectral energy distribution (SED) far from its peak emission, where the contribution of other parameters (i.e. dust temperature) is more important. Focusing on the Taurus molecular cloud, one of the most famous low-mass star-forming regions in the Gould Belt, we analyze the emission properties of several distinct objects in the B213 filament. This sub-parsec size region is of particular interest since it is characterized by the presence of a collection of evolutionary stages of early star formation: three prestellar cores, two Class-0/I protostellar cores and one Class-II object. We are therefore able to compare dust properties among a sequence of sources that likely derive from the same parent filament. By means of the ratio of the two NIKA channel-maps, we show that in the Rayleigh-Jeans approximation, {beta}_RJ_ varies among the objects: it decreases from prestellar cores ({beta}_RJ_~2) to protostellar cores ({beta}_RJ_~1) and the Class-II object ({beta}_RJ_~0). For one prestellar and two protostellar cores, we produce a robust study using available Herschel data to constrain the dust temperature of the sources. By using the Abel transform inversion technique we get accurate radial temperature profiles that allow us to obtain radial {beta} profiles. We find systematic spatial variations of {beta} in the protostellar cores that is not observed in the prestellar core. While in the former case {beta} decreases toward the center (with {beta} varying between 1 and 2), in the latter it remains constant ({beta}=2.4+/-0.3). Moreover, the dust emissivity index appears anticorrelated with the dust temperature. We discuss the implication of these results in terms of dust grain evolution between pre- and protostellar cores.
Extracted sources from the Bochum Galactic Disk Survey. We provide
mean photometry in U, B, V, z, r, and i bands. Note that sources in
different bands are not matched. Also, sources sitting in the regions
imaged in multiple fields have not been matched even within one band.
In i and r, BGDS light curves are available. See related services for
details.
We present a re-reduction and expansion of the Bolocam Galactic Plane Survey (BGPS), first presented by Aguirre+ (2011ApJS..192....4A) and Rosolowsky+ (2011, J/ApJS/188/123). The BGPS is a 1.1mm survey of dust emission in the Northern galactic plane, covering longitudes -10{deg}<{ell}<90{deg} and latitudes |b|<0.5{deg} with a typical 1{sigma} rms sensitivity of 30-100mJy in a ~33" beam. Version 2 of the survey includes an additional ~20deg^2^ of coverage in the third and fourth quadrants and ~2deg^2^ in the first quadrant. The new data release has improved angular recovery, with complete recovery out to ~80" and partial recovery to ~300", and reduced negative bowls around bright sources resulting from the atmospheric subtraction process. We resolve the factor of 1.5 flux calibration offset between the v1.0 data release and other data sets and determine that there is no offset between v2.0 and other data sets. The v2.0 pointing accuracy is tested against other surveys and is demonstrated to be accurate and an improvement over v1.0. We present simulations and tests of the pipeline and its properties, including measurements of the pipeline's angular transfer function. The Bolocat cataloging tool was used to extract a new catalog, which includes 8594 sources, with 591 in the expanded regions. We have demonstrated that the Bolocat 40" and 80" apertures are accurate even in the presence of strong extended background emission. The number of sources is lower than in v1.0, but the amount of flux and area included in identified sources is larger.
