Chemically inhomogeneous populations are observed in most globular clusters, but not in open clusters. Cluster mass seems to play a key role in the existence of multiple populations. Studying the chemical homogeneity of the most massive open clusters is needed to better understand the mechanism of their formation and determine the mass limit under which clusters cannot host multiple populations. Here we studied NGC 6705, which is a young and massive open cluster located towards the inner region of the Milky Way. This cluster is located inside the solar circle. This makes it an important tracer of the inner disk abundance gradient. This study makes use of BVI and ri photometry and comparisons with theoretical isochrones to derive the age of NGC 6705. We study the density profile of the cluster and the mass function to infer the cluster mass. Based on abundances of the chemical elements distributed in the first internal data release of the Gaia-ESO Survey, we study elemental ratios and the chemical homogeneity of the red clump stars. Radial velocities enable us to study the rotation and internal kinematics of the cluster.
We present a catalogue of point-like H{alpha}-excess sources in the Northern Galactic Plane. Our catalogue is created using a new technique that leverages astrometric and photometric information from Gaia to select H{alpha}-bright outliers in the INT Photometric H{alpha} Survey of the Northern Galactic Plane (IPHAS), across the colour-absolute magnitude diagram. To mitigate the selection biases due to stellar population mixing and to extinction, the investigated objects are first partitioned with respect to their positions in the Gaia colour-absolute magnitude space, and in the Galactic coordinates space, respectively. The selection is then performed on both partition types independently. Two significance parameters are assigned to each target, one for each partition type. These represent a quantitative degree of confidence that the given source is a reliable H{alpha}-excess candidate, with reference to the other objects in the corresponding partition. Our catalogue provides two flags for each source, both indicating the significance level of the H{alpha}-excess. By analysing their intensity in the H{alpha} narrow band, 28496 objects out of 7474835 are identified as H{alpha}-excess candidates with a significance higher than 3. The completeness fraction of the H{alpha} outliers selection is between 3% and 5%. The suggested 5sigma conservative cut yields a purity fraction of 81.9%.
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.
The scientific community needs to be prepared to analyse the data from Gaia, one of the most ambitious ESA space missions, which is to be launched in 2012. The purpose of this paper is to provide data and tools to predict how Gaia photometry is expected to be. To do so, we provide relationships among colours involving Gaia magnitudes (white light G, blue GBP, red GRP and GRVS bands) and colours from other commonly used photometric systems (Johnson-Cousins, SDSS, Hipparcos and Tycho). The most up-to-date information from industrial partners has been used to define the nominal passbands, and based on the BaSeL3.1 stellar spectral energy distribution library, relationships were obtained for stars with different reddening values, ranges of temperatures, surface gravities and metallicities. The transformations involving Gaia and Johnson-Cousins V-I_C_ and SDSS g-z colours have the lowest residuals. A polynomial expression for the relation between the effective temperature and the colour G_BP_-G_RP_ was derived for stars with Teff higher than 4500K. For stars with Teff smaller than 4500K, dispersions exist in gravity and metallicity for each absorption value in g-r and r-i. Transformations involving two Johnson or two SDSS colours yield lower residuals than using only one colour. We also computed several ratios of total-to-selective absorption including absorption A_G_ in the G band and colour excess E(G_BP_-G_RP_) for our sample stars. A relationship involving A_G_/A_V_ and the intrinsic (V-I_C_) colour is provided. The derived Gaia passbands have been used to compute tracks and isochrones using the Padova and BASTI models, and the passbands have been included in both web sites. Finally, the performances of the predicted Gaia magnitudes have been estimated according to the magnitude and the celestial coordinates of the star. The provided dependencies among colours can be used for planning scientific exploitation of Gaia data, performing simulations of the Gaia-like sky, planning ground-based complementary observations and for building catalogues with auxiliary data for the Gaia data processing and validation.
The Gaia space mission, through its 5-6 years survey of the whole sky up to magnitude V=20-25, will drastically increase the sample of known white dwarfs allowing to address new science questions. In this paper we provide a characterisation of Gaia photometry for the case of white dwarfs to better prepare for the analysis of the scientific output of the mission including relationships among colours involving Gaia magnitudes (white light G, blue GBP, red GRP and GRVS passbands) and colours from other commonly used photometric systems (Johnson-Cousins, SDSS and 2MASS). We also present numbers of white dwarfs predicted by the Gaia Universe Model Snapshot and compare them with an alternative simulation calibrated with the local white dwarfs sample. In these online tables we provide the values used to fit the relationships in the paper, especially useful for those cases where the deviation from the established relationships is large. The most recent Gaia transmission curves and three different compositions for white dwarfs were considered here (pure hydrogen, pure helium and mixed composition with H/He=0.1).
We combine Gaia DR1, PS1, Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS), and 2MASS astrometry to measure proper motions for 350 million sources across three-fourths of the sky down to a magnitude of m_r_~20. Using positions of galaxies from PS1, we build a common reference frame for the multi-epoch PS1, single-epoch SDSS and 2MASS data, and calibrate the data in small angular patches to this frame. As the Gaia DR1 excludes resolved galaxy images, we choose a different approach to calibrate its positions to this reference frame: we exploit the fact that the proper motions of stars in these patches are linear. By simultaneously fitting the positions of stars at different epochs of-Gaia DR1, PS1, SDSS, and 2MASS-we construct an extensive catalog of proper motions dubbed GPS1. GPS1 has a characteristic systematic error of less than 0.3mas/yr and a typical precision of 1.5-2.0mas/yr. The proper motions have been validated using galaxies, open clusters, distant giant stars, and QSOs. In comparison with other published faint proper motion catalogs, GPS1's systematic error (<0.3mas/yr) should be nearly an order of magnitude better than that of PPMXL and UCAC4 (>2.0mas/yr). Similarly, its precision (~1.5mas/yr) is a four-fold improvement relative to PPMXL and UCAC4 (~6.0mas/yr). For QSOs, the precision of GPS1 is found to be worse (~2.0-3.0mas/yr), possibly due to their particular differential chromatic refraction.
We use 612 single stars with previously published trigonometric parallaxes placing them within 25pc to evaluate parallaxes released in Gaia's first data release (DR1). We find that the Gaia parallaxes are, on average, 0.24+/-0.02mas smaller than the weighted mean trigonometric parallax values for these stars in the solar neighborhood. We also find that the offset changes with distance out to 100pc, in the sense that the closer the star, the larger the offset. We find no systematic trends in the parallax offsets with stellar V magnitude, V-K color, or proper motion. We do find that the offset is roughly twice as large for stars south of the ecliptic compared to those that are north.
We present the results of the short-term constancy monitoring of candidate Gaia Spectrophotometric Standard Stars (SPSS). We obtained time series of typically 1.24 hour - with sampling periods from 1-3 min to a few hours, depending on the case - to monitor the constancy of our candidate SPSS down to 10mmag, as required for the calibration of Gaia photometric data. We monitored 162 out of a total of 212 SPSS candidates. The observing campaign started in 2006 and finished in 2015, using 143 observing nights on nine different instruments covering both hemispheres. Using differential photometry techniques, we built light curves with a typical precision of 4 mmag, depending on the data quality. As a result of our constancy assessment, 150 SPSS candidates were validated against short term variability, and only 12 were rejected because of variability including some widely used flux standards such as BD+174708, SA 105-448, 1740346, and HD 37725.
I have used high-precision photometry and astrometry from the second data release of the Gaia mission to perform a survey for young stars associated with the Lupus clouds, which have distances of ~160pc and reside within the Scorpius-Centaurus (Sco-Cen) OB association. The Gaia data have made it possible to distinguish Lupus members from most of the stars in other groups in Sco-Cen that overlap with the Lupus clouds, which have contaminated previous surveys. The new catalog of candidate Lupus members should be complete for spectral types earlier than M7 at AK<0.2 within fields encompassing clouds 1-4. I have used that catalog to characterize various aspects of the Lupus stellar population. For instance, the sequence of low- mass stars in Lupus is ~0.4mag brighter than the sequence for Upper Sco, which implies an age of ~6Myr based an adopted age of 10-12Myr for Upper Sco and the change in luminosity with age predicted by evolutionary models. I also find that the initial mass function in Lupus is similar to that in other nearby star-forming regions based on a comparison of their distributions of spectral types.
Tidally stripped galaxy nuclei and luminous globular clusters (GCs) are important tracers of the halos and assembly histories of nearby galaxies, but are difficult to reliably identify with typical ground-based imaging data. In this paper we present a new method to find these massive star clusters using Gaia DR2, focusing on the massive elliptical galaxy Centaurus A (Cen A). We show that stripped nuclei and GCs are partially resolved by Gaia at the distance of Cen A, showing characteristic astrometric and photometric signatures. We use this selection method to produce a list of 632 new candidate luminous clusters in the halo of Cen A out to a projected radius of 150kpc. Adding in broadband photometry and visual examination improves the accuracy of our classification. In a spectroscopic pilot program we have confirmed five new luminous clusters, which includes the 7th and 10th most luminous GC in Cen A. Three of the newly discovered GCs are further away from Cen A than all previously known GCs. Several of these are compelling candidates for stripped nuclei. We show that our novel Gaia selection method retains at least partial utility out to distances of ~25Mpc and hence is a powerful tool for finding and studying star clusters in the sparse outskirts of galaxies in the local universe.
