- ID:
- ivo://CDS.VizieR/J/ApJ/725/331
- Title:
- Astrometry in the Galactic Center
- Short Name:
- J/ApJ/725/331
- Date:
- 21 Oct 2021
- Publisher:
- CDS
- Description:
- We present significantly improved proper motion measurements of the Milky Way's central stellar cluster. These improvements are made possible by refining our astrometric reference frame with a new geometric optical distortion model for the W. M. Keck II 10m telescope's adaptive optics camera (NIRC2) in its narrow field mode. For the first time, this distortion model is constructed from on-sky measurements and is made available to the public in the form of FITS files. When applied to widely dithered images, it produces residuals in the separations of stars that are a factor of ~3 smaller compared with the outcome using previous models. By applying this new model, along with corrections for differential atmospheric refraction, to widely dithered images of SiO masers at the Galactic center (GC), we improve our ability to tie into the precisely measured radio Sgr A*-rest frame. The resulting infrared reference frame is ~2-3 times more accurate and stable than earlier published efforts. In this reference frame, Sgr A* is localized to within a position of 0.6mas and a velocity of 0.09mas/yr, or ~3.4km/s at 8kpc (1{sigma}). Also, proper motions for members of the central stellar cluster are more accurate, although less precise, due to the limited number of these wide field measurements. We define a reference frame with SiO masers and this reference frame's stability should improve steadily with future measurements of the SiO masers in this region ({propto}t^-3/2^). This is essential for achieving the necessary reference frame stability required to detect the effects of general relativity and extended mass on short-period stars at the GC.
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- ID:
- ivo://CDS.VizieR/J/ApJ/869/171
- Title:
- Chandra observations of NuSTAR sources
- Short Name:
- J/ApJ/869/171
- Date:
- 21 Oct 2021
- Publisher:
- CDS
- Description:
- The Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array (NuSTAR) serendipitous survey has already uncovered a large number of active galactic nuclei (AGNs), providing new information about the composition of the cosmic X-ray background. For AGNs off the Galactic plane, it has been possible to use existing X-ray archival data to improve source localizations, identify optical counterparts, and classify the AGNs with optical spectroscopy. However, near the Galactic plane, better X-ray positions are necessary to achieve optical or near-IR identifications due to the higher levels of source crowding. Thus, we have used observations with the Chandra X-ray Observatory to obtain the best possible X-ray positions. With eight observations, we have obtained coverage for 19 NuSTAR serendips within 12{deg} of the plane. One or two Chandra sources are detected within the error circle of 15 of the serendips, and we report on these sources and search for optical counterparts. For one source (NuSTAR J202421+3350.9), we obtained a new optical spectrum and detected the presence of hydrogen emission lines. The source is Galactic, and we argue that it is likely a cataclysmic variable. For the other sources, the Chandra positions will enable future classifications in order to place limits on faint Galactic populations, including high-mass X-ray binaries and magnetars.
- ID:
- ivo://CDS.VizieR/J/A+A/645/A84
- Title:
- Coronae of nearby star clusters
- Short Name:
- J/A+A/645/A84
- Date:
- 21 Oct 2021
- Publisher:
- CDS
- Description:
- We present a novel view on the morphology and dynamical state of ten prominent, nearby (<=500pc), and young (~30-300Myr) open star clusters with Gaia DR2: Per, Blanco 1, IC 2602, IC 2391, Messier 39, NGC 2451A, NGC 2516, NGC 2547, Platais 9, and the Pleiades. We introduce a pioneering member-identification method that is informed by cluster bulk velocities and deconvolves the spatial distribution with a mixture of Gaussians. Our approach enables inferring the true spatial distribution of the clusters by effectively filtering field star contaminants while at the same time mitigating the effect of positional errors along the line of sight. This first application of the method reveals vast stellar coronae that extend for >~100pc and surround the cluster cores, which are comparatively tiny and compact. The coronae and cores form intertwined, coeval, and comoving extended cluster populations, each encompassing tens of thousands of cubic parsec and stretching across tens of degrees on the sky. Our analysis shows that the coronae are gravitationally unbound but largely comprise the bulk of the stellar mass of the populations. Most systems are in a highly dynamic state, showing evidence of expansion and sometimes simultaneous contraction along different spatial axes. The velocity field of the extended populations for the cluster cores appears asymmetric but is aligned along a spatial axis unique to each cluster. The overall spatial distribution and the kinematic signature of the populations are largely consistent with the differential rotation pattern of the Milky Way. This finding underlines the important role of global Galactic dynamics in the fate of stellar systems. Our results highlight the complexity of the Milky Way's open cluster population and call for a new perspective on the characterization and dynamical state of open clusters.
- ID:
- ivo://CDS.VizieR/V/137D
- Title:
- Extended Hipparcos Compilation (XHIP)
- Short Name:
- V/137D
- Date:
- 21 Oct 2021
- Publisher:
- CDS
- Description:
- The Extended Hipparcos Compilation (XHIP) cross-references the New Hipparcos Reduction (HIP2, Cat. I/311) with relatable data from a broad survey of presently available sources. The resulting collection uniquely assigns 116,096 spectral classifications, 46,392 radial velocities, and 19,097 iron abundances [Fe/H] to Hipparcos stars. Stellar classifications from SIMBAD and indications of multiplicity from either CCDM (Cat. I/274) or WDS (Cat. B/wds) are provided. Parameters for solar encounters and Galactic orbits are calculated for a subset of stars that can be made kinematically complete. Memberships in open clusters and stellar associations are assigned. We also provide stellar ages from The Geneva-Copenhagen survey of the Solar neighbourhood III (Cat. V/130), identifications of exoplanet host stars, and supplemental photometry from 2MASS (Cat. II/246) and SIMBAD.
- ID:
- ivo://vopdc.obspm/gepi/gaia
- Title:
- Gaia catalog release 2
- Short Name:
- Gaia
- Date:
- 14 Nov 2018 00:30:00
- Publisher:
- Paris Astronomical Data Centre - GEPI
- Description:
- The second Gaia data release, Gaia DR2, encompasses astrometry, photometry, radial velocities, astrophysical parameters (stellar effective temperature, extinction, reddening, radius, and luminosity), and variability information for up to 1.6 billion stars. Gaia DR2 is based on the first 22 months of the nominal, five-year mission, processed by the Gaia Data Processing and Analysis Consortium (DPAC).
- ID:
- ivo://CDS.VizieR/IV/35
- Title:
- Gaia DR2-WISE Galactic Plane Matches
- Short Name:
- IV/35
- Date:
- 21 Oct 2021
- Publisher:
- CDS
- Description:
- Faint, hidden contaminants in the point-spread functions (PSFs) of stars cause shifts to their measured positions. Wilson & Naylor (2017MNRAS.468.2517W) showed failing to account for these shifts can lead to a drastic decrease in the number of returned catalogue matches in crowded fields. Here we highlight the effect these perturbations have on cross-matching, for matches between Gaia DR2 and WISE stars in a crowded Galactic plane region. Applying the uncertainties as quoted to Gaussian-based astrometric uncertainty functions (AUFs) can lead, in dense Galactic fields, to only matching 55% of the counterparts. We describe the construction of empirical descriptions for AUFs, building on the cross-matching method of Wilson & Naylor (2018MNRAS.473.5570W), utilising the magnitudes of both catalogues to discriminate between true and false counterparts. We apply the improved cross-matching method to the Galactic plane |b|<10. We provide the most likely counterpart matches and their respective probabilities. We also analyse several cases to verify the robustness of the results, highlighting some important caveats and considerations. Finally, we discuss the effect PSF resolution has by comparing the intra- catalogue nearest neighbour separation distributions of a sample of likely contaminated WISE objects and their corresponding Spitzer counterpart. We show that some WISE contaminants are resolved in Spitzer, with smaller intra-catalogue separations. We have highlighted the effect contaminant stars have on WISE, but it is important for all photometric catalogues, playing an important role in the next generation of surveys, such as LSST.
- ID:
- ivo://CDS.VizieR/IV/36
- Title:
- Gaia-IPHAS/KIS Value-Added Catalogues
- Short Name:
- IV/36
- Date:
- 21 Oct 2021
- Publisher:
- CDS
- Description:
- We present a sub-arcsecond cross-match of Gaia DR2 (Cat. I/345) against the INT Photometric H-alpha Survey of the Northern Galactic Plane Data Release 2 (IPHAS DR2, Cat. II/321) and the Kepler-INT Survey (KIS, Cat. J/AJ/144/24). The resulting value-added catalogues (VACs) provide additional precise photometry to the Gaia photometry (r, i and H-alpha for IPHAS, with additional U and g for KIS). In building the catalogue, proper motions given in Gaia DR2 are wound back to match the epochs of IPHAS DR2, thus ensuring high proper motion objects are appropriately cross-matched. The catalogues contain 7927224 and 791071 sources for IPHAS and KIS, respectively. The requirement of >5 sigma parallax detection for every included source means that distances out to 1-1.5kpc are well covered. We define two additional parameters for each catalogued object: (i) fc, a magnitude-dependent tracer of the quality of the Gaia astrometric fit; (ii) fFP, the false-positive rate for parallax measurements determined from astrometric fits of a given quality at a given magnitude. Selection cuts based on these parameters can be used to clean colour-magnitude and colour-colour diagrams in a controlled and justified manner. We provide both full and light versions of the VAC, with VAC-light containing only objects that represent our recommended trade-off between purity and completeness. Uses of the catalogues include the identification of new variable stars in the matched data sets, and more complete identification of H-alpha-excess emission objects thanks to separation of high-luminosity stars from the main sequence.
- ID:
- ivo://CDS.VizieR/I/339
- Title:
- Hot Stuff for One Year (HSOY)
- Short Name:
- I/339
- Date:
- 21 Oct 2021
- Publisher:
- CDS
- Description:
- Recently, the first installment of data from ESA's Gaia astrometric satellite mission (Gaia DR1) was released, containing positions of more than 1 billion stars with unprecedented precision, as well as proper motions and parallaxes, however only for a subset of 2 million objects. The second release will include those quantities for most objects. In order to provide a dataset that bridges the time gap between the Gaia DR1 and Gaia DR2 releases and partly remedies the lack of proper motions in the former, HSOY ("Hot Stuff for One Year") was created as a hybrid catalog between Gaia and ground-based astrometry, featuring proper motions (but no parallaxes) for a large fraction of the DR1 objects. While not attempting to compete with future Gaia releases in terms of data quality or number of objects, the aim of HSOY is to provide improved proper motions partly based on Gaia data, allowing studies to be carried out just now or as pilot studies for later projects requiring higher-precision data. The HSOY catalog was compiled using the positions taken from Gaia DR1 combined with the input data from the PPMXL catalog, employing the same weighted least-squares technique that was used to assemble the PPMXL catalog itself. This effect resulted in a four-parameter astrometric catalog containing 583 million stars, with Gaia DR1 quality positions and proper motions with precisions from far less than 1 mas/yr to 5 mas/yr, depending on object brightness and location on the sky.
- ID:
- ivo://CDS.VizieR/J/A+A/646/A104
- Title:
- Improving the open cluster census. I.
- Short Name:
- J/A+A/646/A104
- Date:
- 21 Oct 2021
- Publisher:
- CDS
- Description:
- The census of open clusters in the Milky Way is in a never-before seen state of flux. Recent works have reported hundreds of new open clusters thanks to the incredible astrometric quality of the Gaia satellite, but other works have also reported that many open clusters discovered in the pre Gaia era may be associations. We aim to conduct a comparison of clustering algorithms used to detect open clusters, attempting to statistically quantify their strengths and weaknesses by deriving the sensitivity, specificity, and precision of each as well as their true positive rate against a larger sample. We selected DBSCAN, HDBSCAN, and Gaussian mixture models for further study, owing to their speed and appropriateness for use with Gaia data. We developed a preprocessing pipeline for Gaia data and developed the algorithms further for the specific application to open clusters. We derived detection rates for all 1385 open clusters in the fields in our study as well as more detailed performance statistics for 100 of these open clusters. DBSCAN was sensitive to 50%-62% of the true positive open clusters in our sample, with generally very good specificity and precision. HDBSCAN traded precision for a higher sensitivity of up to 82%, especially across different distances and scales of open clusters. Gaussian mixture models were slow and only sensitive to 33% of open clusters in our sample, which tended to be larger objects. Additionally, we report on 41 new open cluster candidates detected by HDBSCAN, three of which are closer than 500pc. When used with additional post-processing to mitigate its false positives, we have found that HDBSCAN is the most sensitive and effective algorithm for recovering open clusters in Gaia data. Our results suggest that many more new and already reported open clusters have yet to be detected in Gaia data.
- ID:
- ivo://CDS.VizieR/J/ApJ/783/131
- Title:
- Kinematic of stars in Galactic center
- Short Name:
- J/ApJ/783/131
- Date:
- 21 Oct 2021
- Publisher:
- CDS
- Description:
- We present new kinematic measurements and modeling of a sample of 116 young stars in the central parsec of the Galaxy in order to investigate the properties of the young stellar disk. The measurements were derived from a combination of speckle and laser guide star adaptive optics imaging and integral field spectroscopy from the Keck telescopes. Compared to earlier disk studies, the most important kinematic measurement improvement is in the precision of the accelerations in the plane of the sky, which have a factor of six smaller uncertainties ({sigma}~10{mu}as/yr2). We have also added the first radial velocity measurements for eight young stars, increasing the sample at the largest radii (6''-12'') by 25%. We derive the ensemble properties of the observed stars using Monte Carlo simulations of mock data. There is one highly significant kinematic feature (~20{sigma}), corresponding to the well-known clockwise disk, and no significant feature is detected at the location of the previously claimed counterclockwise disk. The true disk fraction is estimated to be ~20%, a factor of ~2.5 lower than previous claims, suggesting that we may be observing the remnant of what used to be a more densely populated stellar disk. The similarity in the kinematic properties of the B stars and the O/WR stars suggests a common star formation event. The intrinsic eccentricity distribution of the disk stars is unimodal, with an average value of <e> =0.27+/-0.07, which we show can be achieved through dynamical relaxation in an initially circular disk with a moderately top-heavy mass function.