USNO-B1.0 (Cat. I/284) and 2MASS (Cat. II/246) are the most widely used full-sky surveys. However, 2MASS has no proper motions at all, and USNO-B1.0 published only relative, not absolute (i.e. on ICRS) proper motions. We performed a new determination of mean positions and proper motions on the ICRS system by combining USNO-B1.0 and 2MASS astrometry. This catalog is called PPMXL, and it aims to be complete from the brightest stars down to about V=20 full-sky. PPMXL contains about 900 million objects, some 410 million with 2MASS photometry, and is the largest collection of ICRS proper motions at present. As representative for the ICRS we chose PPMX. The recently released UCAC3 (Cat. I/315) could not be used because we found plate-dependent distortions in its proper motion system north of -20{deg} declination. UCAC3 served as an intermediate system for {demta}<-20{deg}. The resulting typical individual mean errors of the proper motions range from 4mas/yr to more than 10mas/yr depending on observational history. The mean errors of positions at epoch 2000.0 are 80 to 120 mas, if 2MASS astrometry could be used, 150 to 300 mas else. We also give correction tables to convert USNO-B1.0 observations of e.g. minor planets to the ICRS system.
The catalog (RAFGL) contains the results of extensive verification and photometric studies of AFGL sources performed since the publication of "The AFGL Four Color Infrared Sky Survey: Catalog of Observations at 4.2, 11.0, 19.8, and 27.4 micrometers" (AFGL, Price and Walker 1976) as well as recent survey measurements with larger instruments. Improved positions and more extensive photometry have been provided by ground-based searches for the RAFGL objects and questions about unconfirmed sources from early investigations of the AFCRL Infrared Sky Survey (Walker and Price 1975) have, for the most part, been resolved. Many of the spurious sources were eliminated from the AFGL catalog in the reanalysis by including a rescan confirmation criterion in addition to the signal-to-noise gate used for the AFCRL catalog. The RAFGL is a revision of AFGL to include more accurate information and to provide identifications and improved positions for unidentified AFGL sources.
Thermal model fits for short-arc NEOs with NEOWISE
Short Name:
J/AJ/156/60
Date:
21 Oct 2021
Publisher:
CDS
Description:
Automated asteroid detection routines set requirements on the number of detections, signal-to-noise ratio, and the linearity of the expected motion in order to balance completeness, reliability, and time delay after data acquisition when identifying moving object tracklets. However, when the full-frame data from a survey are archived, they can be searched later for asteroids that were below the initial detection thresholds. We have conducted such a search of the first three years of the reactivated Near-Earth Object Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer data, looking for near-Earth objects discovered by ground-based surveys that have previously unreported thermal infrared data. Using these measurements, we can then perform thermal modeling to measure the diameters and albedos of these objects. We present new physical properties for 116 Near-Earth Objects found in this search.
The Two Micron All-Sky Survey (2MASS) Redshift Survey was started two decades ago with the goal of mapping the three-dimensional distribution of an all-sky flux-limited (Ks<11.75mag) sample of ~45000 galaxies. Our first data release presented an unprecedented uniform coverage for most of the celestial sphere, with redshifts for ~98% of our sample. However, we were missing redshifts for ~18% of the catalog entries that were located within the "Zone of Avoidance" (|b|<10{deg})-an important region of the sky for studies of the large-scale structure and cosmic flows. In this second and final data release, we present redshifts for all 1041 2MRS galaxies that previously lacked this information, as well as updated measurements for 27 others.
A robust and extended characterization of the Point Spread Function (PSF) is crucial to extract the photometric information produced by deep imaging surveys. Here we present the extended PSFs of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS), one of the most productive astronomical surveys of all time. By stacking ~1000 images of individual stars with different brightness, we obtain the bidimensional SDSS PSFs extending over 8 arcmin in radius for all the SDSS filters (u, g, r, i, z). This new characterization of the SDSS PSFs is near a factor of 10 larger in extension than previous PSFs characterizations of the same survey. We found asymmetries in the shape of the PSFs caused by the drift scanning observing mode. The flux of the PSFs is larger along the drift scanning direction. Following a reproducible science philosophy, we make all the PSF models and the used tools publicly available. Finally, we illustrate with an example how the PSF models can be used to remove the scattered light field produced by the brightest stars in the Coma Cluster central region. This particular example shows the huge importance of PSFs in the study of the low surface brightness Universe, especially with the upcoming of ultra-deep surveys such as the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST).
We present a detailed characterization of the 849 broad-line quasars from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey Reverberation Mapping (SDSS-RM) project. Our quasar sample covers a redshift range of 0.1<z<4.5 and is flux-limited to i_PSF_<21.7 without any other cuts on quasar properties. The main sample characterization includes: (1) spectral measurements of the continuum and broad emission lines for individual objects from the coadded first-season spectroscopy in 2014, (2) identification of broad and narrow absorption lines in the spectra, and (3) optical variability properties for continuum and broad lines from multi-epoch spectroscopy. We provide improved systemic redshift estimates for all quasars and demonstrate the effects of the signal-to-noise ratio on the spectral measurements. We compile measured properties for all 849 quasars along with supplemental multi-wavelength data for subsets of our sample from other surveys. The SDSS-RM sample probes a diverse range in quasar properties and shows well-detected continuum and broad-line variability for many objects from first-season monitoring data. The compiled properties serve as the benchmark for follow-up work based on SDSS-RM data.
The DANCe survey provides photometric and astrometric (position and proper motion) measurements for approximately 2 millions unique sources in a region encompassing approximately 80deg^2^ centered around the Pleiades cluster. We aim at deriving a complete census of the Pleiades, and measure the mass and luminosity function of the cluster. Using the probabilistic selection method described in Sarro et al. (2014A&A...563A..45S, Cat. J/A+A/563/A45), we identify high probability members in the DANCe (i>14mag) and Tycho-2 (V<12mag) catalogues, and study the properties of the cluster over the corresponding luminosity range. We find a total of 2109 high probability members, of which 812 are new, making it the most extensive and complete census of the cluster to date. The luminosity and mass functions of the cluster are computed from the most massive members down to 0.025M_{sun}_. The size, sensitivity and quality of the sample result in the most precise luminosity and mass functions observed to date for a cluster. Our census supersedes previous studies of the Pleiades cluster populations, both in terms of sensitivity and accuracy.
We have conducted a novel search of most of the southern sky for nearby red dwarfs having low proper motions, with specific emphasis on those with {mu}<0.18"/yr, the lower cutoff of Luyten's classic proper-motion catalog. We used a tightly constrained search of the SuperCOSMOS database and a suite of photometric distance relations for photographic BRI and 2MASS JHK_s_ magnitudes to estimate distances to more than 14 million red dwarf candidates. Here we discuss 29 stars in 26 systems estimated to be within 25 pc, all of which have {mu}<0.18"/yr, that we have investigated using milliarcsecond astrometry, VRI photometry, and low-resolution spectroscopy. In total, we present the first parallaxes of 20 star systems, 9 of which are within 25 pc. We have additionally identified 14 young M dwarfs, of which 3 are new members of the nearby young moving groups, and 72 new giants, including two new carbon stars. We also present the entire catalog of 1215 sources we have identified by this means.
The solar neighborhood. XLII. New nearby subdwarfs
Short Name:
J/AJ/154/191
Date:
21 Oct 2021
Publisher:
CDS
Description:
Parallaxes, proper motions, and optical photometry are presented for 51 systems consisting of 37 cool subdwarf and 14 additional high proper motion systems. Thirty-seven systems have parallaxes reported for the first time, 15 of which have proper motions of at least 1"/yr. The sample includes 22 newly identified cool subdwarfs within 100 pc, of which three are within 25 pc, and an additional five subdwarfs from 100 to 160 pc. Two systems-LSR 1610-0040 AB and LHS 440 AB-are close binaries exhibiting clear astrometric perturbations that will ultimately provide important masses for cool subdwarfs. We use the accurate parallaxes and proper motions provided here, combined with additional data from our program and others, to determine that effectively all nearby stars with tangential velocities greater than 200 km/s are subdwarfs. We compare a sample of 167 confirmed cool subdwarfs to nearby main sequence dwarfs and Pleiades members on an observational Hertzsprung-Russell diagram using M_V_ versus (V-K_s_) to map trends of age and metallicity. We find that subdwarfs are clearly separated for spectral types K5-M5, indicating that the low metallicities of subdwarfs set them apart in the H-R diagram for (V-K_s_)=3-6. We then apply the tangential velocity cutoff and the subdwarf region of the H-R diagram to stars with parallaxes from Gaia Data Release 1 and the MEarth Project to identify a total of 29 new nearby subdwarf candidates that fall clearly below the main sequence.
We describe the 44 systems discovered to be within 10 pc of the Sun by the RECONS team, primarily via the long-term astrometry program at the CTIO/SMARTS 0.9 m that began in 1999. The systems-including 41 with red dwarf primaries, 2 white dwarfs, and 1 brown dwarf-have trigonometric parallaxes greater than 100 mas, with errors of 0.4-2.4 mas in all but one case. We provide updated astrometric, photometric (VRIJHK magnitudes), spectral type, and multiplicity information here. Among these are 14 systems that are new entries to the 10 pc sample, including the first parallaxes for 9 systems and new values for 5 systems that had previous parallaxes with errors greater than 10 mas or values placing them beyond 10 pc. We also provide new data for 22 systems known to lie within 10 pc and 9 systems reported to be closer than that horizon but for which new parallaxes place them further away, bringing the total to 75 systems. The 44 systems added by RECONS comprise one of every 7 systems known within 10 pc. We illustrate the evolution of the 10 pc sample from the 191 systems known when the final Yale Parallax Catalog was published in 1995 to the 317 systems known today. Even so close to the Sun, additional discoveries of white, red, and brown dwarfs are possible, both as primaries and secondaries, although we estimate that at least 90% of the stellar systems closer than 10 pc have now been identified.
