From a comparison of the different parameters of warped galaxies in the radio, and especially in the visible, we find that: a) No large galaxy (large mass or radius) has been found to have high amplitude in the warp, and there is no correlation of size/mass with the degree of asymmetry of the warp. b) The disc density and the ratio of dark to luminous mass show an opposing trend: smaller values give more asymmetric warps in the inner radii (optical warps) but show no correlation with the amplitude of the warp; however, in the external radii is there no correlation with asymmetry. c) A third anticorrelation appears in a comparison of the amplitude and degree of asymmetry in the warped galaxies. Hence, it seems that very massive dark matter haloes have nothing to do with the formation of warps but only with the degree of symmetry in the inner radii, and are unrelated to the warp shape for the outermost radii. Denser discs show the same dependence.
To investigate the global properties of the globular cluster system (GCS) around NGC 5128, the central giant elliptical galaxy in the nearby Centaurus group, we have obtained deep CCD imaging for an area of almost 2{deg}^2^ centered on the galaxy. Our data, in the CMT_1_ Washington photometric system, reach an approximate limiting magnitude of T_1_~R~22 and contain magnitudes, colors, and coordinates for more than 100,000 objects. Of these, the vast majority (about 99%) are either foreground stars or faint background galaxies; the old-halo globular clusters make up the remaining tiny fraction of the sample. Our database, however, provides the material for understanding the large-scale features of the GCS, including its metallicity distribution (MDF), luminosity distribution, and spatial structure.
Building on the CMT_1_ photometric database presented in Paper I (Cat. <J/AJ/128/712>), in this paper we derive the large-scale properties of the globular cluster system (GCS) in NGC 5128, the nearest giant elliptical and the dominant galaxy in the Centaurus group. Using the metallicity-sensitive C-T_1_ color index, we discuss the metallicity distribution function (MDF) for a subsample of 211 previously identified clusters, all on a homogeneous photometric system. We find the MDF to be strongly bimodal, with metallicity peaks at [Fe/H]=-1.55 and -0.55 and with nearly equal numbers of clusters in each of the metal-poor and metal-rich modes. Finally, we present a list of 327 new cluster candidates not identified in any previous surveys; most of these are in the less well studied bulge region of the galaxy and along the minor axis.
We present Washington CT_1_T_2_ photometry of a field central to the Bootes I dwarf spheroidal galaxy, which was discovered as a stellar overdensity in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (DR5). We show that the Washington filters are much more effective than the Sloan filters in separating the metal-poor turn-off stars in the dwarf galaxy from the foreground stars. We detect 165 objects in the field, and statistically determine that just over 40% of the objects are nonmembers. Our statistical analysis mostly agrees with radial velocity measurements of the brighter stars. We find that there is a distinct main-sequence turn-off and subgiant branch, where there is some evidence of a spread in chemical abundance.
We present a new optical (400-950nm) transmission spectrum of the hot Jupiter WASP-31b (M=0.48M_Jup_; R=1.54R_Jup_; P=3.41days), obtained by combining four transit observations. These transits were observed with IMACS on the Magellan Baade Telescope at Las Campanas Observatory as part of the ACCESS project. We investigate the presence of clouds/hazes in the upper atmosphere of this planet, as well as the contribution of stellar activity on the observed features. In addition, we search for absorption features of the alkali elements NaI and KI, with particular focus on KI, for which there have been two previously published disagreeing results. Observations with Hubble Space Telescope (HST)/STIS detected KI, whereas ground-based low- and high- resolution observations did not. We use equilibrium and nonequilibrium chemistry retrievals to explore the planetary and stellar parameter space of the system with our optical data combined with existing near-IR observations. Our best-fit model is that with a scattering slope consistent with a Rayleigh slope ({alpha}=5.3_-3.1_^+2.9^), high-altitude clouds at a log cloud top pressure of -3.6_-2.1_^+2.7^bars, and possible muted H2O features. We find that our observations support other ground-based claims of no KI. Clouds are likely why signals like H2O are extremely muted and Na or K cannot be detected. We then juxtapose our Magellan/IMACS transmission spectrum with existing VLT/FORS2, HST/WFC3, HST/STIS, and Spitzer observations to further constrain the optical-to-infrared atmospheric features of the planet. We find that a steeper scattering slope ({alpha}=8.3{+/-}1.5) is anchored by STIS wavelengths blueward of 400nm and only the original STIS observations show significant potassium signal.
The TESS and PLATO missions are expected to find vast numbers of new transiting planet candidates. However, only a fraction of these candidates will be legitimate planets, and the candidate validation will require a significant amount of follow-up resources. Radial velocity (RV) follow-up study can be carried out only for the most promising candidates around bright, slowly rotating, stars. Thus, before devoting RV resources to candidates, they need to be vetted using cheaper methods, and, in the cases for which an RV confirmation is not feasible, the candidate's true nature needs to be determined based on these alternative methods alone. We study the applicability of multicolour transit photometry in the validation of transiting planet candidates when the candidate signal arises from a real astrophysical source (transiting planet, eclipsing binary, etc.), and not from an instrumental artefact. Particularly, we aim to answer how securely we can estimate the true uncontaminated star-planet radius ratio when the light curve may contain contamination from unresolved light sources inside the photometry aperture when combining multicolour transit observations with a physics-based contamination model in a Bayesian parameter estimation setting. More generally, we study how the contamination level, colour differences between the planet host and contaminant stars, transit signal-to-noise ratio, and available prior information affect the contamination and true radius ratio estimates. The study is based on simulations and ground-based multicolour transit observations. The contamination analyses were carried out with a contamination model integrated into the PYTRANSIT V2 transit modelling package, and the observations were carried out with the MuSCAT2 multicolour imager installed in the 1.5m Telescopio Carlos Sanchez in the Teide Observatory, in Tenerife. We show that multicolour transit photometry can be used to estimate the amount of flux contamination and the true radius ratio. Combining the true radius ratio with an estimate for the stellar radius yields the true absolute radius of the transiting object, which is a valuable quantity in statistical candidate validation, and enough in itself to validate a candidate whose radius falls below the theoretical lower limit for a brown dwarf.
We present the optical transmission spectrum of the highly inflated Saturn- mass exoplanet WASP-21b, using three transits obtained with the ACAM instrument on the William Herschel Telescope through the LRG-BEASTS survey (Low Resolution Ground-Based Exoplanet Atmosphere Survey using Transmission Spectroscopy). Our transmission spectrum covers a wavelength range of 4635-9000{AA}, achieving an average transit depth precision of 197ppm compared to one atmospheric scale height at 246ppm. We detect NaI absorption in a bin width of 30{AA}, at >4{sigma} confidence, which extends over 100{AA}. We see no evidence of absorption from KI. Atmospheric retrieval analysis of the scattering slope indicates it is too steep for Rayleigh scattering from H_2, but is very similar to that of HD 189733b. The features observed in our transmission spectrum cannot be caused by stellar activity alone, with photometric monitoring of WASP-21 showing it to be an inactive star. We therefore conclude that aerosols in the atmosphere of WASP-21b are giving rise to the steep slope that we observe, and that WASP-21b is an excellent target for infra-red observations to constrain its atmospheric metallicity.
Ground-based simultaneous multiband transit observations allow an accurate system parameter determination and may lead to the detection and characterization of additional bodies via the transit timing variations (TTVs) method. We aim to (i) characterize the heavily bloated WASP-4b hot Jupiter and its star by measuring system parameters and the dependence of the planetary radius as a function of four (Sloan g', r', i', z') wavelengths and (ii) search for TTVs.
We present ground-based broad-band photometry of two transits in the WASP-44 planetary system obtained simultaneously through four optical (Sloan g', r', i', z') and three near-infrared (NIR; J, H, K) filters. We achieved low scatters of 1-2mmag per observation in the optical bands with a cadence of roughly 48s, but the NIR-band light curves present much greater scatter. We also observed another transit of WASP-44 b by using a Gunn r filter and telescope defocussing, with a scatter of 0.37 mmag per point and an observing cadence around 135 s. We used these data to improve measurements of the time of mid- transit and the physical properties of the system. In particular, we improved the radius measurements of the star and planet by factors of 3 and 4, respectively. We find that the radius of WASP-44 b is 1.002+/-0.033+/-0.018RJup (statistical and systematic errors, respectively), which is slightly smaller than previously thought and differs from that expected for a core-free planet. In addition, with the help of a synthetic spectrum, we investigated the theoretically predicted variation of the planetary radius as a function of wavelength, covering the range 370-2440nm. We can rule out extreme variations at optical wavelengths, but unfortunately our data are not precise enough (especially in the NIR bands) to differentiate between the theoretical spectrum and a radius which does not change with wavelength. The resulting measurements of transit mid-points were fitted with a straight line to obtain a new orbital ephemeris: T0=BJD(TDB)2455434.37642(37)+2.4238133(23)xE, where E is the number of orbital cycles after the reference epoch [the mid-point of the first transit observed by Anderson et al. (2012, Cat. J/MNRAS/422/1988)] and quantities in parentheses denote the uncertainty in the final digit of the preceding number.
We present new transit observations of the hot Jupiter WASP-74 b (Teq~1860K) using the high-resolution spectrograph HARPS-N and the multi-colour simultaneous imager MuSCAT2. We refined the orbital properties of the planet and its host star and measured its obliquity for the first time. The measured sky-projected angle between the stellar spin-axis and the orbital axis of the planet is compatible with an orbit that is well-aligned with the equator of the host star ({lambda}=0.77+/-0.99{deg}). We are not able to detect any absorption feature of H{alpha} or any other atomic spectral features in the high-resolution transmission spectra of this source owing to low S/N at the line cores. Despite previous claims regarding the presence of strong optical absorbers such as TiO and VO gases in the atmosphere of WASP-74 b, new ground-based photometry combined with a reanalysis of previously reported observations from the literature show a slope in the low-resolution transmission spectrum that is steeper than expected from Rayleigh scattering alone.