This catalog contains BVrI photometry of galaxies in a 5.62arcmin^2^ field 80arcsec south of the high redshift (z=4.7) quasar BR 1202-0725, derived from observations with the direct CCD camera SUSI at the ESO NTT. The formal 5{sigma}magnitude limits (in 2xFWHM apertures) are 26.9, 26.5, 25.9 and 25.3 in B, V, r and I respectively. Reliable colors have been measured for galaxies selected down to r=26. The choice of the optical filters has been optimized to define a robust multicolor selection of galaxies at 3.8<=z<=4.4. The catalogue has been processed with the SExtractor algorithm (Bertin, 1996A&AS..117..393B) and contains 608 objects detected on the image resulting from the sum of the four weighted frames (B, V, r, I) by convolving the reference frame by the PSF and then thresholding it at 1.1 {sigma} of the background r.m.s. For quantitative analysis, border areas with larger noise due to the combination of dithered exposures with shorter integration times should be used with caution.
We study the metal-rich bulge globular cluster Terzan 5 by means of VI colour-magnitude diagrams, with images obtained under exceptional seeing conditions (0.34"-0.50"). Differential reddening is important across the cluster. We derive a reddening of E(B-V)=2.49 and a distance from the Sun d_{sun}_=5.6kpc, closer than previous estimates. Based on the red giant branch curvature, we derive a metallicity somewhat higher than that of NGC 6553, probably solar.
UBVRI observations of the nucleus of the Seyfert galaxy NGC 5548 from 1990 until 2000 at four astronomical observatories are given in Table2. All data have been reduced to a single system and are given for an A=14.3" aperture.
Broadband UBVRI observations of the nucleus of the Seyfert galaxy NGC 4151 from 1989 until 2000 at three astronomical observatories: the Crimean Station of the Sternberg astronomical institute, The Special Astronomical observatory in the Caucasus and the Maidanac observatory of the Ulugbek Astronomical institute in Uzbekistan. All data have been reduced to a single system and are given for an A=27.5" aperture.
We present a catalogue of photometric and structural properties of 228 nuclear star clusters (NSCs) in nearby late-type disc galaxies. These new measurements are derived from a homogeneous analysis of all suitable Wide Field Planetary Camera 2 (WFPC2) images in the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) archive. The luminosity and size of each NSC are derived from an iterative point spread function (PSF) fitting technique, which adapts the fitting area to the effective radius (r_eff_) of the NSC and uses a WFPC2-specific PSF model tailored to the position of each NSC on the detector. The luminosities of NSCs are <=10^8^L_V,{sun}_, and their integrated optical colours suggest a wide spread in age. We confirm that most NSCs have sizes similar to globular clusters (GCs), but find that the largest and brightest NSCs occupy the regime between ultra-compact dwarf (UCD) and the nuclei of early-type galaxies in the size-luminosity plane. The overlap in size, mass, and colour between the different incarnations of compact stellar systems provides a support for the notion that at least some UCDs and the most massive Galactic GCs may be remnant nuclei of disrupted disc galaxies. We find tentative evidence for the NSCs' r_eff_ to be smaller when measured in bluer filters and discuss possible implications of this result. We also highlight a few examples of complex nuclear morphologies, including double nuclei, extended stellar structures, and nuclear F606W excess from either recent (circum-)nuclear star formation and/or a weak active galactic nucleus. Such examples may serve as case studies for ongoing NSC evolution via the two main suggested mechanisms, namely cluster merging and in situ star formation.
Using images from a charge-coupled device survey with the Wide Field Camera on the Isaac Newton Telescope, we performed B- and I-band photometry on 156 Virgo cluster dwarf elliptical (dE) galaxies, 25 candidate new cluster dwarfs, and nine candidate field dwarfs.
We combine several HST investigations on the central structure of early-type galaxies to generate a large sample of surface photometry. The studies selected were those that used the "Nuker law" to characterize the inner light distributions of the galaxies. The sample comprises WFPC1 and WFPC2 V-band observations published earlier by our group, R-band WFPC2 photometry of Rest et al. (2001AJ....121.2431R), NICMOS H-band photometry by Ravindranath et al. (2001AJ....122..653R) and Quillen et al. (2000ApJS..128...85Q), and the brightest cluster galaxy WFPC2 I-band photometry of Laine et al. (2003, Cat. J/AJ/125/478).
Exoplanets transiting bright nearby stars are key objects for advancing our knowledge of planetary formation and evolution. The wealth of photons from the host star gives detailed access to the atmospheric, interior and orbital properties of the planetary companions. nu^2^ Lupi (HD 136352) is a naked-eye (V=5.78) Sun-like star that was discovered to host three low-mass planets with orbital periods of 11.6, 27.6 and 107.6d via radial-velocity monitoring. The two inner planets (b and c) were recently found to transit2, prompting a photometric follow-up by the brand new Characterising Exoplanets Satellite (CHEOPS). Here, we report that the outer planet d is also transiting, and measure its radius and mass to be 2.56+/-0.09R_{Earth}_ and 8.82+/-0.94M_{Earth}_, respectively. With its bright Sun-like star, long period and mild irradiation (~5.7 times the irradiation of Earth), nu^2^ Lupi d unlocks a completely new region in the parameter space of exoplanets amenable to detailed characterization. We refine the properties of all three planets: planet b probably has a rocky mostly dry composition, while planets c and d seem to have retained small hydrogen-helium envelopes and a possibly large water fraction. This diversity of planetary compositions makes the nu^2^ Lupi system an excellent laboratory for testing formation and evolution models of low-mass planets.
We estimate the number counts of line emitters at high redshift and their evolution with cosmic time based on a combination of photometry and spectroscopy. We predict the H{alpha}, H{beta}, [OII], and [OIII] line fluxes for more than 35000 galaxies down to stellar masses of ~10^9^M_{sun}_ in the COSMOS and GOODS-S fields, applying standard conversions and exploiting the spectroscopic coverage of the FMOS-COSMOS survey at z~1.55 to calibrate the predictions. We calculate the number counts of H{alpha}, [OII], and [OIII] emitters down to fluxes of 1x10^-17^erg/cm^2^/s in the range 1.4<z<1.8 covered by the FMOS-COSMOS survey. We model the time evolution of the differential and cumulative H{alpha} counts, steeply declining at the brightest fluxes. We expect ~9300-9700 and ~2300-2900-galaxies/deg^2^ for fluxes >=1x10^-16^ and >=2x10^-16^erg/cm^2^/s over the range of 0.9<z<1.8. We show that the observed evolution of the main sequence of galaxies with redshift is enough to reproduce the observed counts variation at 0.2<z<2.5. We characterize the physical properties of the H{alpha} emitters with fluxes >=2x10^-16^erg/cm^2^/s including their stellar masses, UV sizes, [NII]/H{alpha} ratios and H{alpha} equivalent widths. An aperture of R~R_e_~0.5arcsec maximizes the signal-to-noise ratio for a detection, whilst causing a factor of ~2x flux losses, influencing the recoverable number counts, if neglected. Our approach, based on deep and large photometric data sets, reduces the uncertainties on the number counts due to the selection and spectroscopic samplings whilst exploring low fluxes. We publicly release the line flux predictions for the explored photometric samples.
This paper introduces egg, the Empirical Galaxy Generator, a tool designed within the ASTRODEEP collaboration to generate mock galaxy catalogs for deep fields with realistic fluxes and simple morphologies. The simulation procedure is based exclusively on empirical prescriptions - rather than first principles - to provide the most accurate match with current observations at 0<z<7. We considered that galaxies can be either quiescent or star-forming, and used their stellar mass (M*) and redshift (z) as the fundamental properties from which all the other observables can be statistically derived. Drawing z and M* from the observed galaxy stellar mass functions, a star-formation rate (SFR) is attributed to each galaxy from the tight SFR-M* main sequence, while dust attenuation, optical colors and simple disk plus bulge morphologies are obtained from empirical relations that we established from the high quality Hubble and Herschel observations from the CANDELS fields. Random scatter was introduced in each step to reproduce the observed distributions of each parameter. Based on these observables, an adequate panchromatic spectral energy distribution (SED) is selected for each galaxy and synthetic photometry is produced by integrating the redshifted SED in common broad-band filters. Finally, the mock galaxies are placed on the sky at random positions with a fixed angular two-point correlation function to implement basic clustering. The resulting flux catalogs reproduce accurately the observed number counts in all broad bands from the ultraviolet up to the sub-millimeter, and can be directly fed to image simulators such as SkyMaker. The images can then be used to test source extraction softwares and image-based techniques such as stacking. egg is open-source, and is made available to the community on behalf of the ASTRODEEP collaboration, together with a set of pre-generated catalogs and images.
