1. |
- Brown, A. G. A., et al.
(author)
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Gaia Data Release 1 Summary of the astrometric, photometric, and survey properties
- 2016
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In: Astronomy and Astrophysics. - : EDP Sciences. - 0004-6361 .- 1432-0746. ; 595
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Context. At about 1000 days after the launch of Gaia we present the first Gaia data release, Gaia DR1, consisting of astrometry and photometry for over 1 billion sources brighter than magnitude 20.7. Aims. A summary of Gaia DR1 is presented along with illustrations of the scientific quality of the data, followed by a discussion of the limitations due to the preliminary nature of this release. Methods. The raw data collected by Gaia during the first 14 months of the mission have been processed by the Gaia Data Processing and Analysis Consortium (DPAC) and turned into an astrometric and photometric catalogue. Results. Gaia DR1 consists of three components: a primary astrometric data set which contains the positions, parallaxes, and mean proper motions for about 2 million of the brightest stars in common with the HIPPARCOS and Tycho-2 catalogues - a realisation of the Tycho-Gaia Astrometric Solution (TGAS) - and a secondary astrometric data set containing the positions for an additional 1.1 billion sources. The second component is the photometric data set, consisting of mean G-band magnitudes for all sources. The G-band light curves and the characteristics of similar to 3000 Cepheid and RR Lyrae stars, observed at high cadence around the south ecliptic pole, form the third component. For the primary astrometric data set the typical uncertainty is about 0.3 mas for the positions and parallaxes, and about 1 mas yr(-1) for the proper motions. A systematic component of similar to 0.3 mas should be added to the parallax uncertainties. For the subset of similar to 94 000 HIPPARCOS stars in the primary data set, the proper motions are much more precise at about 0.06 mas yr(-1). For the secondary astrometric data set, the typical uncertainty of the positions is similar to 10 mas. The median uncertainties on the mean G-band magnitudes range from the mmag level to similar to 0.03 mag over the magnitude range 5 to 20.7. Conclusions. Gaia DR1 is an important milestone ahead of the next Gaia data release, which will feature five-parameter astrometry for all sources. Extensive validation shows that Gaia DR1 represents a major advance in the mapping of the heavens and the availability of basic stellar data that underpin observational astrophysics. Nevertheless, the very preliminary nature of this first Gaia data release does lead to a number of important limitations to the data quality which should be carefully considered before drawing conclusions from the data.
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2. |
- Clementini, G., et al.
(author)
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Testing parallaxes with local Cepheids and RR Lyrae stars
- 2017
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In: Astronomy and Astrophysics. - : EDP Sciences. - 0004-6361 .- 1432-0746. ; 605
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Context. Parallaxes for 331 classical Cepheids, 31 Type II Cepheids, and 364 RR Lyrae stars in common between Gaia and the HIPPARCOS and Tycho-2 catalogues are published in Gaia Data Release 1 (DR1) as part of the Tycho-Gaia Astrometric Solution (TGAS). Aims. In order to test these first parallax measurements of the primary standard candles of the cosmological distance ladder, which involve astrometry collected by Gaia during the initial 14 months of science operation, we compared them with literature estimates and derived new period-luminosity (PL), period-Wesenheit (PW) relations for classical and Type II Cepheids and infrared PL, PL-metallicity (PLZ), and optical luminosity-metallicity (MV-[Fe/H]) relations for the RR Lyrae stars, with zero points based on TGAS.Methods. Classical Cepheids were carefully selected in order to discard known or suspected binary systems. The final sample comprises 102 fundamental mode pulsators with periods ranging from 1.68 to 51.66 days (of which 33 with sigma(omega)/omega < 0 : 5). The Type II Cepheids include a total of 26 W Virginis and BL Herculis stars spanning the period range from 1.16 to 30.00 days (of which only 7 with sigma(omega)/omega 0 : 5). The RR Lyrae stars include 200 sources with pulsation period ranging from 0.27 to 0.80 days (of which 112 with sigma(omega)/omega < 0 : 5). The new relations were computed using multi- band (V; I; J; K-s) photometry and spectroscopic metal abundances available in the literature, and by applying three alternative approaches: (i) linear least-squares fitting of the absolute magnitudes inferred from direct transformation of the TGAS parallaxes; (ii) adopting astrometry-based luminosities; and (iii) using a Bayesian fitting approach. The last two methods work in parallax space where parallaxes are used directly, thus maintaining symmetrical errors and allowing negative parallaxes to be used. The TGAS-based PL; PW; PLZ, and MV [Fe/H] relations are discussed by comparing the distance to the Large Magellanic Cloud provided by different types of pulsating stars and alternative fitting methods.Results. Good agreement is found from direct comparison of the parallaxes of RR Lyrae stars for which both TGAS and HST measurements are available. Similarly, very good agreement is found between the TGAS values and the parallaxes inferred from the absolute magnitudes of Cepheids and RR Lyrae stars analysed with the Baade-Wesselink method. TGAS values also compare favourably with the parallaxes inferred by theoretical model fitting of the multi-band light curves for two of the three classical Cepheids and one RR Lyrae star, which were analysed with this technique in our samples. The K-band PL relations show the significant improvement of the TGAS parallaxes for Cepheids and RR Lyrae stars with respect to the HIPPARCOS measurements. This is particularly true for the RR Lyrae stars for which improvement in quality and statistics is impressive.Conclusions. TGAS parallaxes bring a significant added value to the previous HIPPARCOS estimates. The relations presented in this paper represent the first Gaia-calibrated relations and form a work-in-progress milestone report in the wait for Gaia-only parallaxes of which a first solution will become available with Gaia Data Release 2 (DR2) in 2018.
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3. |
- Prusti, T., et al.
(author)
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The Gaia mission
- 2016
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In: Astronomy and Astrophysics. - : EDP Sciences. - 0004-6361 .- 1432-0746. ; 595
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Gaia is a cornerstone mission in the science programme of the European Space Agency (ESA). The spacecraft construction was approved in 2006, following a study in which the original interferometric concept was changed to a direct-imaging approach. Both the spacecraft and the payload were built by European industry. The involvement of the scientific community focusses on data processing for which the international Gaia Data Processing and Analysis Consortium (DPAC) was selected in 2007. Gaia was launched on 19 December 2013 and arrived at its operating point, the second Lagrange point of the Sun-Earth-Moon system, a few weeks later. The commissioning of the spacecraft and payload was completed on 19 July 2014. The nominal five-year mission started with four weeks of special, ecliptic-pole scanning and subsequently transferred into full-sky scanning mode. We recall the scientific goals of Gaia and give a description of the as-built spacecraft that is currently (mid-2016) being operated to achieve these goals. We pay special attention to the payload module, the performance of which is closely related to the scientific performance of the mission. We provide a summary of the commissioning activities and findings, followed by a description of the routine operational mode. We summarise scientific performance estimates on the basis of in-orbit operations. Several intermediate Gaia data releases are planned and the data can be retrieved from the Gaia Archive, which is available through the Gaia home page.
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4. |
- van Leeuwen, F., et al.
(author)
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Gaia Data Release 1 : Open cluster astrometry: Performance, limitations, and future prospects
- 2017
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In: Astronomy and Astrophysics. - : EDP Sciences. - 0004-6361 .- 1432-0746. ; 601
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Context. The first Gaia Data Release contains the Tycho-Gaia Astrometric Solution (TGAS). This is a subset of about 2 million stars for which, besides the position and photometry, the proper motion and parallax are calculated using Hipparcos and Tycho-2 positions in 1991.25 as prior information. Aims. We investigate the scientific potential and limitations of the TGAS component by means of the astrometric data for open clusters. Methods. Mean cluster parallax and proper motion values are derived taking into account the error correlations within the astrometric solutions for individual stars, an estimate of the internal velocity dispersion in the cluster, and, where relevant, the effects of the depth of the cluster along the line of sight. Internal consistency of the TGAS data is assessed. Results. Values given for standard uncertainties are still inaccurate and may lead to unrealistic unit-weight standard deviations of least squares solutions for cluster parameters. Reconstructed mean cluster parallax and proper motion values are generally in very good agreement with earlier Hipparcos-based determination, although the Gaia mean parallax for the Pleiades is a significant exception. We have no current explanation for that discrepancy. Most clusters are observed to extend to nearly 15 pc from the cluster centre, and it will be up to future Gaia releases to establish whether those potential cluster-member stars are still dynamically bound to the clusters. Conclusions. The Gaia DR1 provides the means to examine open clusters far beyond their more easily visible cores, and can provide membership assessments based on proper motions and parallaxes. A combined HR diagram shows the same features as observed before using the Hipparcos data, with clearly increased luminosities for older A and F dwarfs.
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5. |
- Alvarado-Gomez, J. D., et al.
(author)
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Activity and magnetic field structure of the Sun-like planet-hosting star HD 1237
- 2015
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In: Astronomy and Astrophysics. - : EDP Sciences. - 0004-6361 .- 1432-0746. ; 582
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- We analyse the magnetic activity characteristics of the planet-hosting Sun-like star, HD 1237, using HARPS spectro-polarimetric time-series data. We find evidence of rotational modulation of the magnetic longitudinal field measurements that is consistent with our ZDI analysis with a period of 7 days. We investigate the effect of customising the LSD mask to the line depths of the observed spectrum and find that it has a minimal effect on the shape of the extracted Stokes V profile but does result in a small increase in the S/N (similar to 7%). We find that using a Milne-Eddington solution to describe the local line profile provides a better fit to the LSD profiles in this slowly rotating star, which also affects the recovered ZDI field distribution. We also introduce a fit-stopping criterion based on the information content (entropy) of the ZDI map solution set. The recovered magnetic field maps show a strong (+90 G) ring-like azimuthal field distribution and a complex radial field dominating at mid latitudes (similar to 45 degrees). Similar magnetic field maps are recovered from data acquired five months apart. Future work will investigate how this surface magnetic field distribution affeccts the coronal magnetic field and extended environment around this planet-hosting star.
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6. |
- David-Uraz, A., et al.
(author)
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Magnetic OB[A] Stars with TESS : probing their Evolutionary and Rotational properties (MOBSTER) - I. First-light observations of known magnetic B and A stars
- 2019
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In: Monthly notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. - : Oxford University Press (OUP). - 0035-8711 .- 1365-2966. ; 487:1, s. 304-317
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- In this paper we introduce the MOBSTER collaboration and lay out its scientific goals. We present first results based on the analysis of 19 previously known magnetic O, B, and A stars observed in 2-min cadence in sectors 1 and 2 of the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) mission. We derive precise rotational periods from the newly obtained light curves and compare them to previously published values. We also discuss the overall photometric phenomenology of the known magnetic massive and intermediate-mass stars and propose an observational strategy to augment this population by taking advantage of the high-quality observations produced by TESS.
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7. |
- Khalack, V., et al.
(author)
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Rotational and pulsational variability in the TESS light curve of HD 27463
- 2019
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In: Monthly notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. - : Oxford University Press. - 0035-8711 .- 1365-2966. ; 490:2, s. 2102-2111
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- The new photometric data on pulsating Ap star HD 27463 obtained recently with the Transiting Lroplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) are analysed to search for variability. Our analysis shows that HD 27463 exhibits two types of photometric variability. The low -frequency variability with the period P = 2.834 274 +/- 0.000 008 d can be explained in terms of axial stellar rotation assuming the oblique magnetic rotator model and presence of surface abundance/brightness spots, while the detected high -frequency variations are characteristics of fi Scud pulsations. From the analysis of Balmer line profiles visible in Iwo FEROS spectra of HI) 27463 we have derived its effective temperature and surface gravity, finding values that are close to those published for this star in the TESS Input Catalogue (TIC). Knowing the rotation period and the v sin i value estimated from the fitting of Balmer line profiles we found that the rotational axis is inclined to the line of sight with an angle of i = 33 +/- 8 deg. Our best -fitting model of the observed pulsation modes results in an overshoot parameter value = 0.014 and values of global stellar parameters that are in good agreement with the data reported in the TIC and with the data derived from fitting Balmer line profiles. This model indicates an age of 5.0 +/- 0.4 x 10(8) yr, which corresponds to a core hydrogen fraction of 0.33.
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8. |
- Landstreet, J. D., et al.
(author)
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BD-19 5044L : discovery of a short-period SB2 system with a magnetic Bp primary in the open cluster IC 4725
- 2017
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In: Astronomy and Astrophysics. - : EDP Sciences. - 0004-6361 .- 1432-0746. ; 601
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Context. Until recently almost nothing was known about the evolution of magnetic fields found in upper main sequence Ap/Bp stars during their long main sequence lifetime. We are thus studying magnetic Ap/Bp stars in open clusters in order to obtain observational evidence of how the properties of Ap/Bp magnetic stars, such as field strength and structure, evolve with age during the main sequence. One important aspect of this study is to search for the very rare examples of hot magnetic stars in short-period binary systems among magnetic cluster members. Aims. In this paper we characterise the object BD-19 5044L, which is both a member of the open cluster IC 4725 = M 25, and a short-period SB2 system containing a magnetic primary star. Methods. We have obtained a series of intensity and circular polarisation spectra distributed through the orbital and rotation cycles of BD-19 5044L with the ESPaDOnS spectropolarimeter at CFHT. From these data we determine the orbital and stellar properties of each component. Results. We find that the orbit of BD-19 5044L AB is quite eccentric (e = 0.477), with a period of 17.63 d. The primary is a magnetic Bp star with a variable longitudinal magnetic field, a polar field strength of similar to 1400 G and a low obliquity, while the secondary is probably a hot Am star and does not appear to be magnetic. The rotation period of the primary (5.04 d) is not synchronised with the orbit, but the rotation angular velocity is close to being synchronised with the orbital angular velocity of the secondary at periastron, perhaps as a result of tidal interactions. Because this system is a member of IC 4725, the two stars have a common age of log t = 8.02 +/- 0.05 dex. Conclusions. The periastron separation is small enough (about 12 times the radius of the primary star) that BD-19 5044L may be one of the very rare known cases of a tidally interacting SB2 binary system containing a magnetic Ap/Bp star.
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9. |
- Shultz, Matthew, et al.
(author)
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NU Ori : a hierarchical triple system with a strongly magnetic B-type star
- 2019
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In: Monthly notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. - : OXFORD UNIV PRESS. - 0035-8711 .- 1365-2966. ; 482:3, s. 3950-3965
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- NU Ori is a massive spectroscopic and visual binary in the Orion Nebula Cluster, with four components: Aa, Ab, B, and C. The B0.5 primary (Aa) is one of the most massive B-type stars reported to host a magnetic field. We report the detection of a spectroscopic contribution from the C component in high-resolution ESPaDOnS spectra, which is also detected in a Very Large Telescope Interferometer data set. Radial velocity (RV) measurements of the inner binary (designated Aab) yield an orbital period of 14.3027(7) d. The orbit of the third component (designated C) was constrained using both RVs and interferometry. We find C to be on a mildly eccentric 476(1) d orbit. Thanks to spectral disentangling of mean line profiles obtained via least-squares deconvolution, we show that the Zeeman Stokes V signature is clearly associated with C, rather than Aa as previously assumed. The physical parameters of the stars were constrained using both orbital and evolutionary models, yielding M-Aa = 14.9 +/- 0.5 M-circle dot, M-Ab = 3.9 +/- 0.7 M-circle dot, and M-C = 7.8 +/- 0.7 M-circle dot. The rotational period obtained from longitudinal magnetic field (B-z) measurements is P-rot = 1.09468(7)d, consistent with previous results. Modelling of (B-z) indicates a surface dipole magnetic field strength of similar to 8 kG. NU Ori C has a magnetic field strength, rotational velocity, and luminosity similar to many other stars exhibiting magnetospheric Ha emission, and we find marginal evidence of emission at the expected level (similar to 1 per cent of the continuum).
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10. |
- Sikora, J., et al.
(author)
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MOBSTER - II. Identification of rotationally variable A stars observed with TESS in sectors 1-4
- 2019
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In: Monthly notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. - : OXFORD UNIV PRESS. - 0035-8711 .- 1365-2966. ; 487:4, s. 4695-4710
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Recently, high-precision optical 2-min cadence light curves obtained with TESS for targets located in the mission's defined first four sectors have been released. The majority of these high-cadence and high-precision measurements currently span , thereby allowing periodic variability occurring on time-scales to potentially be detected. Magnetic chemically peculiar (mCP) A-type stars are well known to exhibit rotationally modulated photometric variability that is produced by inhomogeneous chemical abundance distributions in their atmospheres. While mCP stars typically exhibit rotation periods that are significantly longer than those of non-mCP stars, both populations exhibit typical periods ; therefore, the early TESS releases are suitable for searching for rotational modulation of the light curves of both mCP and non-mCP stars. We present the results of our search for A-type stars that exhibit variability in their TESS light curves that is consistent with rotational modulation based on the first two data releases obtained from sectors 1 to 4. Our search yielded 134 high-probability candidate rotational variables - 60 of which have not been previously reported. Approximately half of these stars are identified in the literature as Ap (mCP) stars. Comparisons between the subsample of high-probability candidate rotationally variable Ap stars and the subsample of stars that are not identified as Ap reveal that the latter subsample exhibits statistically (i) shorter rotation periods and (ii) significantly lower photometric amplitudes.
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