A survey for ultraviolet-excess objects has been performed for over about 1000sq.deg of the Galactic plane. Photographic blue and ultraviolet plates were obtained to select ultraviolet-excess candidates, and spectroscopic observations were used to determine the nature of those objects. Over 70 white dwarfs and subdwarfs were identified from the survey plates, and these objects were analyzed statistically to determine scale heights and space densities. The sample was complete to B=15.3mag, with the space density of white dwarfs for Mv<12.25 equal to 0.72+/-0.25 per 1000pc^3^, slightly higher than that from the Palomar-Green survey. The average absolute magnitude determined for both the subdwarf O and the subdwarf B stars was considerably fainter than previous determinations, while the scale height for the subdwarfs was lower than earlier suggested values. The space density for the subdwarf O stars is about 7x10^-7^pc^-3^, while the value for the subdwarf B stars is about 2x10^-6^pc^-3, both values considerably higher than previous estimates. The space densities can be used to place evolutionary constraints on these objects.
We present a catalog of 1143 periodic variables, compiled from our image-subtracted photometric analysis of the K2 Campaign-0 super stamp. This super stamp is centered on the open clusters M35 and NGC2158. Approximately 46% of our periodic variables were previously unreported. Of the catalog variables, we find that 331 are members of M35 and 56 are members of NGC 2158 (P_m_>0.5). Our catalog contains two new transiting exoplanet candidates, both of which orbit field stars. The smaller planet candidate has a radius of 0.35+/-0.04R_J_ and orbits a K dwarf (Kp=15.4mag) with a transit depth of 2.9mmag. The larger planet candidate has a radius of 0.72+/-0.02R_J_ and orbits a late G-type star (Kp=15.7mag) with a transit depth of 2.2mmag. The larger planet candidate may be an unresolved binary or a false alarm. Our catalog includes 44 eclipsing binaries (EBs), including ten new detections. Of the EBs, one is an M35 member and five are NGC 2158 members. Our catalog contains a total of 1097 nontransiting variable stars, including a field {delta} Cepheid exhibiting double mode pulsations, 561 rotational variables, and 251 pulsating variables (primarily {gamma} Doradus and {delta} Scuti types). The periods of our catalog sources range between 43 minutes to 24 days. The known ages of our reported cluster variables will facilitate investigations of a variety of stellar evolutionary processes.
We recently used near-infrared spectroscopy to improve the characterization of 76 low-mass stars around which K2 had detected 79 candidate transiting planets. 29 of these worlds were new discoveries that had not previously been published. We calculate the false positive probabilities that the transit-like signals are actually caused by non-planetary astrophysical phenomena and reject five new transit-like events and three previously reported events as false positives. We also statistically validate 17 planets (7 of which were previously unpublished), confirm the earlier validation of 22 planets, and announce 17 newly discovered planet candidates. Revising the properties of the associated planet candidates based on the updated host star characteristics and refitting the transit photometry, we find that our sample contains 21 planets or planet candidates with radii smaller than 1.25 R_{Earth}_, 18 super-Earths (1.25-2 R_{Earth}_), 21 small Neptunes (2-4 R_{Earth}_), three large Neptunes (4-6 R_{Earth}_), and eight giant planets (>6 R_{Earth}_). Most of these planets are highly irradiated, but EPIC 206209135.04 (K2-72e, 1.29_-0.13_^+0.14^ R_{Earth}_), EPIC 211988320.01 (R_p_=2.86_-0.15_^+0.16^ R_{Earth}_), and EPIC 212690867.01 (2.20_-0.18_^+0.19^ R_{Earth}_) orbit within optimistic habitable zone boundaries set by the "recent Venus" inner limit and the "early Mars" outer limit. In total, our planet sample includes eight moderately irradiated 1.5-3 R_{Earth}_ planet candidates (F_p_~<20 F_{Earth}_) orbiting brighter stars (Ks<11) that are well-suited for atmospheric investigations with the Hubble, Spitzer, and/or James Webb Space Telescopes. Five validated planets orbit relatively bright stars (Kp<12.5) and are expected to yield radial velocity semi-amplitudes of at least 2 m/s. Accordingly, they are possible targets for radial velocity mass measurement with current facilities or the upcoming generation of red optical and near-infrared high-precision RV spectrographs.
The tension between the Hipparcos parallax of the Pleiades and other independent distance estimates continues even after the new reduction of the Hipparcos astrometric data and the development of a new geometric distance measurement for the cluster. A short Pleiades distance from the Hipparcos parallax predicts a number of stars in the solar neighborhood that are sub-luminous at a given photospheric abundance. We test this hypothesis using the spectroscopic abundances for a subset of stars in the Hipparcos catalog, which occupy the same region as the Pleiades in the color-magnitude diagram. We derive stellar parameters for 170 nearby G- and K-type field dwarfs in the Hipparcos catalog based on high-resolution spectra obtained using KPNO 4m echelle spectrograph. Our analysis shows that, when the Hipparcos parallaxes are adopted, most of our sample stars follow empirical color-magnitude relations. A small fraction of stars are too faint compared to main-sequence fitting relations by {Delta}M_V_>~0.3mag, but the differences are marginal at a 2{sigma} level, partly due to relatively large parallax errors. On the other hand, we find that the photometric distances of stars showing signatures of youth as determined from lithium absorption line strengths and R'_HK_ chromospheric activity indices are consistent with the Hipparcos parallaxes. Our result is contradictory to a suggestion that the Pleiades distance from main-sequence fitting is significantly altered by stellar activity and/or the young age of its stars, and provides an additional supporting evidence for the long-distance scale of the Pleiades.
Photoelectric data on the Johnson-Kron-Cousins UBVRI broadband photometric system are provided for a set of stars that have been used as spectrophotometric standard stars for the Hubble Space Telescope.
We previously reported a significant clustering of red galaxies (R-K=3.56) around the radio-loud quasar B2 1335+28 at z=1.086. In this paper, we establish the existence of a rich cluster at the quasar redshift and study the properties of the cluster galaxies through further detailed analysis of the photometric data. We also list the positions, K-band magnitudes, and colors of all K<19 objects. The near-infrared (NIR) K-band imaging data presented in earlier paper, together with some additional K-band data, is newly analyzed to study the extent of the clustering of the red galaxies. We also constrain the cluster redshift by applying a robust photometric redshift estimator and find a strong peak around z=1.1. The color distribution of the galaxies in the cluster is quite broad, and the fraction of blue galaxies (70%) is much larger than in intermediate-redshift clusters.
We analyze K2 light curves for 132 low-mass (1M_{sun}_>~M*>~0.1M_{sun}_) members of the 600-800Myr old Hyades cluster and measure rotation periods (P_rot_) for 116 of these stars. These include 93 stars with no prior P_rot_ measurements; the total number of Hyads with a known P_rot_ is now 232. We then combine literature binary data with Gaia DR2 photometry and astrometry to select single-star sequences in the Hyades and its roughly coeval Praesepe open cluster and derive a new reddening value of A_V_=0.035+/-0.011 for Praesepe. Comparing the effective temperature-P_rot_ distributions for the Hyades and Praesepe, we find that solar-type Hyads rotate, on average, 0.4d slower than their Praesepe counterparts. This P_rot_ difference indicates that the Hyades is slightly older than Praesepe: we apply a new gyrochronology model tuned with Praesepe and the Sun and find an age difference between the two clusters of 57Myr. However, this P_rot_ difference decreases and eventually disappears for lower-mass stars. This provides further evidence for stalling in the rotational evolution of these stars and highlights the need for more detailed analysis of angular momentum evolution for stars of different masses and ages.
We present a data-driven method to estimate absolute magnitudes for O- and B-type stars from the LAMOST spectra, which we combine with Gaia DR2 parallaxes to infer distance and binarity. The method applies a neural network model trained on stars with precise Gaia parallax to the spectra and predicts K_s_-band absolute magnitudes M_Ks_ with a precision of 0.25mag, which corresponds to a precision of 12% in spectroscopic distance. For distant stars (e.g., >5kpc), the inclusion of constraints from spectroscopic M_Ks_ significantly improves the distance estimates compared to inferences from Gaia parallax alone. Our method accommodates for emission-line stars by first identifying them via principal component analysis reconstructions and then treating them separately for the M_Ks_ estimation. We also take into account unresolved binary/multiple stars, which we identify through deviations in the spectroscopic M_Ks_ from the geometric M_Ks_ inferred from Gaia parallax. This method of binary identification is particularly efficient for unresolved binaries with near equal-mass components and thus provides a useful supplementary way to identify unresolved binary or multiple-star systems. We present a catalog of spectroscopic M_Ks_, extinction, distance, flags for emission lines, and binary classification for 16002 OB stars from LAMOST DR5. As an illustration, we investigate the M_Ks_ of the enigmatic LB-1 system, which Liu et al. 2019Natur.575..618L had argued consists of a B star and a massive stellar-mass black hole. Our results suggest that LB-1 is a binary system that contains two luminous stars with comparable brightness, and the result is further supported by parallax from the Gaia eDR3.
We report the detection in Ks-band of the secondary eclipse of the hot Jupiter CoRoT-1b from time series photometry with the ARC 3.5m telescope at Apache Point Observatory. The eclipse shows a depth of 0.336+/-0.042% and is centered at phase 0.5022^+0.0023^_-0.0027_, consistent with a zero eccentricity orbit (e*cos{omega}=0.0035^+0.0036^_-0.0042_). We perform the first optical to near-infrared multi-band photometric analysis of an exoplanet's atmosphere and constrain the reflected and thermal emissions by combining our result with the recent 0.6, 0.71, and 2.09um secondary eclipse detections by Snellen et al. (2009Natur.459..543S), Gillon et al. (2009, J/A+A/506/359), and Alonso et al. (2009A&A...501L..23A). Comparing the multi-wavelength detections to state-of-the-art radiative-convective chemical-equilibrium atmosphere models, we find the near-infrared fluxes difficult to reproduce. The closest blackbody-based and physical models provide the following atmosphere parameters: a temperature T=2460^+80^_-160_K; a very low Bond albedo A_B_=0.000^+0.081^_-0.000_; and an energy redistribution parameter P_n_=0.1, indicating a small but nonzero amount of heat transfer from the day to nightside. The best physical model suggests a thermal inversion layer with an extra optical absorber of opacity {kappa}_e_=0.05cm^2^/g, placed near the 0.1 bar atmospheric pressure level. This inversion layer is located 10 times deeper in the atmosphere than the absorbers used in models to fit mid-infrared Spitzer detections of other irradiated hot Jupiters.
The K20 survey is an ESO VLT optical and near-infrared spectroscopic survey aimed at obtaining spectral information and redshifts of a complete sample of about 550 objects to K_s_<=20.0 over two independent fields with a total area of 52arcmin^2^. In this paper we discuss the scientific motivation of such a survey, we describe the photometric and spectroscopic properties of the sample, and we release the K_s_-band photometric catalog. Extensive simulations showed that the sample is photometrically highly complete to K_s_=20. The observed galaxy counts and the R-K_s_ color distribution are consistent with literature results. We observed spectroscopically 94% of the sample, reaching a spectroscopic redshift identification completeness of 92% to K_s_<=20.0 for the observed targets, and of 87% for the whole sample (i.e. counting also the unobserved targets). Deep spectroscopy was complemented with multi-band deep imaging in order to derive tested and reliable photometric redshifts for the galaxies lacking of spectroscopic redshifts. The results show a very good agreement between the spectroscopic and the photometric redshifts with <z_(spe)_-z_(phot)_>=0.01 and with a dispersion of {sigma}_({Delta}z)_=0.09. Using both the spectroscopic and the photometric redshifts, we reached an overall redshift completeness of about 98%. The size of the sample, the redshift completeness, the availability of high quality photometric redshifts and multicolor spectral energy distributions make the K20 survey database one of the most complete samples available to date for constraining the currently competing scenarios of galaxy formation and for a variety of other galaxy evolution studies.
