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.
We studied a sample of 415 associated (z_abs_~z_em_; relative velocity with respect to QSO in units of c, {beta}<0.01) MgII absorption systems with 1.0<=z_abs_<=1.86, in the spectra of SDSS DR3 QSOs, to determine the dust content and ionization state in the absorbers. We also compared these properties to those of a similarly selected sample of 809 intervening systems ({beta}>0.01), so as to understand their origin. Normalized, composite spectra were derived for absorption line measurements, for the full sample and for several subsamples, chosen on the basis of the line strengths and other absorber and QSO properties. From these, and from the equivalent widths in individual spectra, we conclude that the associated MgII absorbers have higher ionization (higher ratios of the strengths of CIV and MgII lines), than the intervening absorbers. The ionization decreases with increasing {beta}. Average extinction curves were obtained for the subsamples by comparing their geometric mean QSO spectra with those of matching (in z_em_ and i magnitude) samples of QSOs without absorption lines. There is clear evidence for SMC-like dust attenuation in these systems; the 2175{AA} absorption feature is absent. The extinction is almost twice that observed in intervening systems. We reconfirm that QSOs with nonzero FIRST radio flux are intrinsically redder than the QSOs with no detection in the FIRST survey.
A standard library of theoretical stellar spectra intended for multiple synthetic photometry applications including spectral evolutionary synthesis is presented. The grid includes M dwarf model spectra, hence complementing the first library version established in Paper I (Lejeune et al., 1997, Cat. <J/A+AS/125/229>). It covers the following wide ranges of fundamental parameters: Teff: 50,000 to 2000K, logg: 5.5 to -1.02, and [Fe/H]: +1.0 to -5.0. A correction procedure is also applied to the theoretical spectra in order to provide color-calibrated flux distributions over a large domain of effective temperatures. Empirical Teff-color calibrations are constructed between 11500K and 2000K, and semi-empirical calibrations for non-solar abundances ([Fe/H]=-3.5 to +1.0) are established. Model colors and bolometric corrections for both the original and the corrected spectra, synthesized in the UBV(RI)c(JHKLL'M) system, are given for the full range of stellar parameters. Synthetic colors: ---------------- Synthetic UBV(RI)c(JHKLM) colors have been computed from both the original and the corrected model flux distributions presented in Paper I (1997A&AS..125..229L; see catalog <J/A+AS/125/229>), as the files lcb98ori.dat and lcb98cor.dat respectively; the results are also presented in individual files lcb98xxx.ori and lcb98xxx.cor, where xxx designates the metallicity (ex: 'm15' --> [Fe/H]=-1.5). For each file, we give synthetic colors computed from energy-weighted and photon-weighted stellar fluxes. Semi-empirical calibrations: --------------------------- Empirical ([Fe/H]=0.0) and semi-empirical (-3.5<=[Fe/H]<=+1.0) Teff-colors (UBVRIJHKLM) calibrations are given in Tables 1 to 10.
We present new BVRI broadband photometry for the old open cluster NGC 188, based on an analysis of 299 CCD images either obtained by us, donated by colleagues, or retrieved from public archives.
We used the large photometric database of the ASTEP program, whose primary goal was to detect exoplanets in the southern hemisphere from Antarctica, to search for eclipsing binaries (EcBs) and variable stars. 673 EcBs and 1166 variable stars were detected, including 31 previously known stars. The resulting online catalogs give the identification, the classification, the period, and the depth or semi-amplitude of each star. Data and light curves for each object are available at http://astep-vo.oca.eu/.
Large photometric surveys are producing, and will continue doing it, massive amounts of data on small bodies. Usually,these data will be sparsely obtained at arbitrary (and unknown) rotational phases. Therefore, new methods to process such data need to be developed to make the most of those large catalogs. We aim to produce a method to create phase curves of small bodies considering the uncertainties introduced not only by the nominal errors in the magnitudes, but also the effect introduced by rotational variations.We use as a benchmark the data from the SLOAN Moving Objects Catalog with the objective to construct phase curves of all small bodies in there, in the u, g, r, i, and z, filters. We will obtain from the phase curves the absolute magnitudes and set up with them the absolute colors, which are the colors of the asteroids not affected by changes in phase angle. We select objects with >3 observations taken in, at least, one filter and spanned over a minimum of 5 degrees in phase angle. We developed a method that combines Monte Carlo simulations and Bayesian inference to estimate the absolute magnitudes using the HG12 photometric system. We obtained almost 15000 phase curves, about 12000 including all five filters. The absolute magnitudes and absolute colors are compatible with previously published data, supporting our method.Conclusions. The method we developed is fully automatic and well suited to be run on large amounts of data. Moreover, it includes the nominal uncertainties in the magnitudes and the whole distribution of possible rotational states of the objects producing, possibly,less precise values, i.e., larger uncertainties, but more accurate, i.e., closer to the real value. To the best of our knowledge, this work is the first to include the effect of rotational variations in such a way.
We describe the astrometric reduction of images obtained with the FORS2/VLT camera in the framework of an astrometric planet search around 20 M/L-transition dwarfs. We present the correction of systematic errors, the achieved astrometric performance, and a new astrometric catalogue containing the faint reference stars in 20 fields located close to the galactic plane. Remote reference stars are used both to determine the astrometric trajectories of the nearby planet search targets and to identify and correct systematic errors. We detected three types of systematic errors in the FORS2 astrometry: the relative motion of the camera's two CCD chips, errors that are correlated in space, and an error contribution of yet unexplained origin. The relative CCD motion has probably a thermal origin and usually is 0.001-0.010px (0.1-1mas), but sometimes amounts to 0.02-0.05px (3-6mas). This instability and space- correlated errors are detected and mitigated using reference stars. The third component of unknown origin has an amplitude of 0.03-0.14mas and is independent of the observing conditions. We find that a consecutive sequence of 32 images of a well-exposed star over 40min at 0.6arcsec seeing results in a median r.m.s. of the epoch residuals of 0.126mas. Overall, the epoch residuals are distributed according to a normal law with a {chi}^2^ value near unity. We compiled a catalogue of 12000 stars with I-band magnitudes of 16-22 located in 20 fields, each covering 2x2'. It contains I-band magnitudes, ICRF positions with 40-70mas precision, and relative proper motions and absolute trigonometric parallaxes with a precision of 0.1mas/yr and 0.1mas at the bright end, respectively. This work shows that an astrometric accuracy of ~100 micro-arcseconds over two years can be achieved with a large optical telescope in a survey covering several targets and varying observing conditions.
Little is known about the existence of extrasolar planets around ultracool dwarfs. Furthermore, binary stars with Sun-like primaries and very low-mass binaries composed of ultracool dwarfs show differences in the distributions of mass ratio and orbital separation that can be indicative of distinct formation mechanisms. Using FORS2/VLT optical imaging for high precision astrometry we are searching for planets and substellar objects around ultracool dwarfs to investigate their multiplicity properties for very low companion masses. Here we report astrometric measurements with an accuracy of one tenth of a milli-arcsecond over two years that reveal orbital motion of the L1.5 dwarf DENIS-P J082303.1-491201 (having 7.5+/-1% of the Sun's mass) caused by a companion with a mass of 28+/-2 Jupiter masses that revolves about its host on an eccentric orbit in 246.4+/-1.4days. This new system is nearby at 20.77+/-0.08pc and has the smallest mass ratio (0.36+/-0.02) of known very low-mass binaries with a characterised orbit. With this discovery we demonstrate 100 micro-arcsecond astrometry over an arc-minute field and over several years that is sufficient to discover sub-Jupiter mass planets around ultracool dwarfs. We also show that the achieved parallax accuracy of <0.4% makes it possible to remove distance as a dominant source of uncertainty in the modelling of ultracool dwarfs.
Our goal is to better understand the origin and the star-formation history of regions NGC 6334 and NGC 6357. We focus our study on the young stars (young stellar objects and OB stars) kinematics in both regions using mainly Gaia-DR2 data. For both regions we compiled OB stars and young stellar objects catalogues from literature and we complemented them using VPHAS+ DR2 and Spitzer IRAC/GLIMPSE photometry catalogues. A cross-match is performed with the Gaia-DR2 catalogue in order to obtain the parallax and transverse motion information. We confirm that NGC 6334 and NGC 6357 are in the far side of the Saggitarius-Carina arm at a distance of 1.76kpc. For NGC 6357, OB stars show strong clustering and ordered star motion with Vlon~-10.7km/s and Vlat ~3.7km/s while for NGC 6334, no significant systemic motion is observed. The OB stars motions and distribution in NGC 6334 suggest to classify it as an association. Ten and two runaway candidates can be related to NGC 6357 and NGC 6334, respectively. The spatial distributions of the runaway candidates in and around NGC 6357 favor a dynamical (and early) ejection during the cluster(s) formation. Because such stars are likely to be ejected during cluster's formation the fact of not observing as many of such stars towards NGC 6334 suggest different formation conditions than for NGC 6357.
The results of astrometric studies in the regions of Groombridge 34A, the Hyades, Aldebaran, Ross 47, BD+5 1668, 81 Cancri, BD+15 2620, Arcturus, Vega, and Ross 248 are presented. Estimates of the absolute parallax of each star are presented and a mass estimate is present for 81 Cancri. Comments include the discussion of the apparent motions of a few previously suggested planetary systems.