We report on the most sensitive water maser survey toward Bok globules to date, performed using NASA's 70m antenna at Robledo de Chavela (Spain). We observed 207 positions within the Clemens and Barvainis catalog with a higher probability of harboring a young star, using as selection criteria the presence of radio continuum emission (from submillimeter to centimeter wavelengths), geometric centers of molecular outflows, peaks in maps of high-density gas tracers (NH3 or CS), and IRAS point sources. We have obtained seven maser detections, six of which (in CB 34, CB 54, CB 65, CB 101, CB 199, and CB 232) are reported for the first time here. Most of the water masers we detected are likely to be associated with young stellar objects (YSOs), except for CB 101 (probably an evolved object) and CB 65 (uncertain nature). The water maser in CB 199 shows a relatively high shift (30km/s) of its velocity centroid with respect to the cloud velocity, which is unusual for low-mass YSOs. We speculate that high-velocity masers in this kind of object could be related to episodes of energetic mass loss in close binaries. Alternatively, the maser in CB 199 could be pumped by a protoplanetary or a young planetary nebula. CB 232 is the smallest Bok globule (0.6pc) known to be associated with water maser emission, although it would be superseded by the cases of CB 65 (0.3pc) and CB 199 (0.5pc) if their association with YSOs is confirmed. All our selection criteria have statistically compatible detection rates, except for IRAS sources, which tend to be somewhat worse predictors for the presence of maser emission.
One of the central goals of the Spitzer Legacy Project "From Cores to Disks" (c2d) is to determine the frequency of circumstellar disks around weak-line T Tauri stars (WTTSs) and to study the properties and evolutionary status of these disks. Here we present a census of disks for a sample of over 230 WTTSs located in the c2d IRAC and MIPS maps of the Ophiuchus, Lupus, and Perseus Molecular Clouds.
We present near-infrared (IR) magnitudes for all white dwarfs (selected from the catalog of McCook & Sion, 1999, See Cat. <III/235>) contained in the Two Micron All-Sky Survey second incremental data release (2MASS 2IDR, Cat. <II/241>). We show that the near-IR color-color diagram is an effective means of identifying candidate binary stars containing a WD and a low-mass, main-sequence star. The loci of single WDs and WD+red dwarf binaries occupy distinct regions of the near-IR color-color diagram. We recovered all known unresolved WD+red dwarf binaries located in the 2IDR sky coverage and also identified as many new candidate binaries (47 new candidates out of 95 total). Using observational near-IR data for WDs and M-L dwarfs, we have compared a sample of simulated WD+red dwarf binaries with our 2MASS data. The colors of the simulated binaries are dominated by the low-mass companion through the late M to early L spectral types. As the spectral type of the companion becomes progressively later, however, the colors of unresolved binaries become progressively bluer. Binaries containing the lowest mass companions will be difficult to distinguish from single WDs solely on the basis of their near-IR colors.
We present the results of a search for white-light flares on ~23000 cool dwarfs in the Kepler Quarter 1 long cadence data. We have identified 373 flaring stars, some of which flare multiple times during the observation period. We calculate relative flare energies, flare rates, and durations and compare these with the quiescent photometric variability of our sample.
High-precision astrometry requires accurate point-spread function modeling and accurate geometric-distortion corrections. This paper demonstrates that it is possible to achieve both requirements with data collected at the High Acuity Wide-field K-band Imager (HAWK-I); a wide-field imager installed at the Nasmyth focus of UT4/VLT ESO 8m telescope. Our final astrometric precision reaches ~3mas per coordinate for a well exposed star in a single image, with a systematic error less than 0.1mas. We constructed calibrated astro-photometric catalogs and atlases of 7 fields: the Baade's window, NGC 6656, NGC 6121, NGC 6822, NGC 6388, NGC 104, and the James Webb Space Telescope calibration field (in the LMC). We make these catalogs and images electronically available to the community. Furthermore, as a demonstration of the efficacy of our approach, combining archival material taken with the optical wide-field imager at the MPI/ESO 2.2m with HAWK-I observations, we are able to achieve an excellent separation between cluster members and field objects for NGC 6656 and NGC 6121 with a time base-line of about 8 years. Using both HST and HAWK-I data, we also study the radial distribution of the SGB populations in NGC 6656 and conclude that the radial trend is flat, within our uncertains. We also provide membership probabilities for most of the stars in NGC 6656 and NGC 6121 catalogs and estimate membership for the published variable stars in these two fields.
We conducted wide and deep simultaneous JHK_s_-band imaging polarimetry of the {rho} Ophiuchi cloud complex. Aperture polarimetry in the JHK_s_ band was conducted for 2136 sources in all three bands, of which 322 sources have significant polarizations in all the JHK_s_ bands and have been used for a discussion of the core magnetic fields. There is a positive correlation between degrees of polarization and H-K_s_ color up to H-K_s_~3.5. The magnetic field structures in the core region are revealed up to at least A_V_~47mag and are unambiguously defined in each sub-region (core) of Oph-A, Oph-B, Oph-C, Oph-E, Oph-F, and Oph-AC. Their directions, degrees of polarization, and polarization efficiencies differ but their changes are gradual; thus, the magnetic fields appear to be connected from core to core, rather than as a simple overlap of the different cloud core components. Comparing our results with the large-scale field structures obtained from previous optical polarimetric studies, we suggest that the magnetic field structures in the core were distorted by the cluster formation in this region, which may have been induced by shock compression due to wind/radiation from the Scorpius-Centaurus association.
We present a multi-wavelength analysis of the galaxies in nine clusters selected from the WINGS dataset, examining how galaxy structure varies as a function of wavelength and environment using the state of the art software galapagos-2. We simultaneously fit single-Sersic functions on three optical (u, B and V) and two near-infrared (J and K) bands thus creating a wavelength-dependent model of each galaxy. We measure the magnitudes, effective radius (Re), the Sersic index (n), axis ratio, and position angle in each band. The sample contains 790 cluster members (located close to the cluster centre <0.64xR200) and 254 non-member galaxies that we further separate based on their morphology into ellipticals, lenticulars, and spirals. We find that the Sersic index of all galaxies inside clusters remains nearly constant with wavelength while Re decreases as wavelength increases for all morphological types. We do not observe a significant variation on n and Re as a function of projected local density and distance from the clusters centre. Comparing the n and Re of bright cluster galaxies with a subsample of non-member galaxies we find that bright cluster galaxies are more concentrated (display high n values) and are more compact (low Re). Moreover, the light profile (N) and size (R) of bright cluster galaxies does not change as a function of wavelength in the same manner as non-member galaxies.
The Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE; see Wright et al. 2010AJ....140.1868W) is a NASA Medium Class Explorer mission that conducted a digital imaging survey of the entire sky in the 3.4, 4.6, 12 and 22um mid-infrared bandpasses (hereafter W1, W2, W3 and W4). WISE will produce and release to the world astronomical and educational communities and general public a digital Image Atlas covering the sky in the four survey bands, and a reliable Source Catalog containing accurate photometry and astrometry for over 300 million objects. The WISE Catalog and Atlas will enable a broad variety of research efforts ranging from the search for the closest stars and brown dwarfs to the most luminous galaxies in the Universe. WISE science data products will serve as an important reference data set for planning observations and interpreting data obtained with future ground and space-borne observatories, such as JWST. WISE was launched on 2009-12-14 from Vandenberg SLC2W.
We present results from a systematic study of star formation in local galaxy clusters using 22um data from the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE). The 69 systems in our sample are drawn from the Cluster Infall Regions Survey, and all have robust mass determinations. The all-sky WISE data enable us to quantify the amount of star formation, as traced by 22um, as a function of radius well beyond R_200_, and investigate the dependence of total star formation rate upon cluster mass. We find that the fraction of star-forming galaxies increases with cluster radius but remains below the field value even at 3R_200_. We also find that there is no strong correlation between the mass-normalized total specific star formation rate and cluster mass, indicating that the mass of the host cluster does not strongly influence the total star formation rate of cluster members.
We present 20 Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE)-selected galaxies with bolometric luminosities L_bol_>10^14^L_{sun}_, including five with infrared luminosities L_IR_{equiv}L_(rest8-1000{mu}m)_>10^14^L_{sun}_. These "extremely luminous infrared galaxies", or ELIRGs, were discovered using the "W1W2-dropout" selection criteria which requires marginal or non-detections at 3.4 and 4.6{mu}m (W1 and W2, respectively) but strong detections at 12 and 22{mu}m in the WISE survey. Their spectral energy distributions are dominated by emission at rest-frame 4-10{mu}m, suggesting that hot dust with T_d_~450K is responsible for the high luminosities. These galaxies are likely powered by highly obscured active galactic nuclei (AGNs), and there is no evidence suggesting these systems are beamed or lensed. We compare this WISE-selected sample with 116 optically selected quasars that reach the same L_bol_ level, corresponding to the most luminous unobscured quasars in the literature. We find that the rest-frame 5.8 and 7.8{mu}m luminosities of the WISE-selected ELIRGs can be 30%-80% higher than that of the unobscured quasars. The existence of AGNs with L_bol_>10^14^L_{sun}_ at z>3 suggests that these supermassive black holes are born with large mass, or have very rapid mass assembly. For black hole seed masses ~10^3^M_{sun}_, either sustained super-Eddington accretion is needed, or the radiative efficiency must be <15%, implying a black hole with slow spin, possibly due to chaotic accretion.