Magellanic Clouds Proper Motion and Rotation with Gaia DR1

2017 ◽  
Vol 12 (S330) ◽  
pp. 249-250
Author(s):  
J. Sahlmann ◽  
R. van der Marel

AbstractWe used the Gaia data release 1 to study the proper motion fields of the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds (LMC, SMC) on the basis of the Tycho-Gaia Astrometric Solution (van der Marel & Sahlmann 2016). The Gaia LMC and SMC proper motions have similar accuracy and agree to within the uncertainties with existing HST proper motion measurements. Since Gaia probes the young stellar population and uses different methods with different systematics, this provides an external validation of both data sets and their underlying approaches.

1970 ◽  
Vol 7 ◽  
pp. 5-25
Author(s):  
James Newcomb

The discovery and measurement of stellar proper motions has always been associated with machines: for proper motion measurements involve four activities: observation, recording, comparison and measurement. Participation by the astronomer in these activities has step by step been replaced partically or wholly by machines. First the observation and recording functions changed from visual to photographic – with the fine guiding done by the astronomer; then the comparison by the blink microscope and the measurement by visually operated measuring machines. On a comparative time scale, the next step – automation of the comparison and measurement function – has been much money, time, and effort away from the previous steps, but as this presentation and other presentations at this conference will show, machines of varying degrees of automation and astronomer participation are now in operation.


2018 ◽  
Vol 620 ◽  
pp. A175 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. Klüter ◽  
U. Bastian ◽  
M. Demleitner ◽  
J. Wambsganss

Context. Astrometric gravitational microlensing is an excellent tool to determine the mass of stellar objects. Using precise astrometric measurements of the lensed position of a background source in combination with accurate predictions of the positions of the lens and the unlensed source it is possible to determine the mass of the lens with an accuracy of a few percent. Aims. Making use of the recently published Gaia Data Release 2 (DR2) catalogue, we want to predict astrometric microlensing events caused by foreground stars with high proper motion passing a background source in the coming decades. Results. We selected roughly 148 000 high-proper-motion stars from Gaia DR2 with μtot > 150 mas yr−1 as potential lenses. We then searched for background sources close to their paths. Using the astrometric parameters of Gaia DR2, we calculated the future positions of source and lens. With a nested-intervals algorithm we determined the date and separation of the closest approach. Using Gaia DR2 photometry we determined an approximate mass of the lens, which we used to calculate the expected microlensing effects. Conclusions. We predict 3914 microlensing events caused by 2875 different lenses between 2010 and 2065, with expected shifts larger than 0.1 mas between the lensed and unlensed positions of the source. Of those, 513 events are expected to happen between 2014.5 and 2026.5 and might be measured by Gaia. For 127 events we also expect a magnification between 1 mmag and 3 mag.


2020 ◽  
Vol 641 ◽  
pp. A134
Author(s):  
Thomas Schmidt ◽  
Maria-Rosa L. Cioni ◽  
Florian Niederhofer ◽  
Kenji Bekki ◽  
Cameron P. M. Bell ◽  
...  

Context. The Magellanic Clouds are a nearby pair of interacting dwarf galaxies and satellites of the Milky Way. Studying their kinematic properties is essential to understanding their origin and dynamical evolution. They have prominent tidal features and the kinematics of these features can give hints about the formation of tidal dwarfs, galaxy merging and the stripping of gas. In addition they are an example of dwarf galaxies that are in the process of merging with a massive galaxy. Aims. The goal of this study is to investigate the kinematics of the Magellanic Bridge, a tidal feature connecting the Magellanic Clouds, using stellar proper motions to understand their most recent interaction. Methods. We calculated proper motions based on multi-epoch Ks-band aperture photometry, which were obtained with the Visible and Infrared Survey Telescope for Astronomy (VISTA), spanning a time of 1−3 yr, and we compared them with Gaia Data Release 2 (DR2) proper motions. We tested two methods for removing Milky Way foreground stars using Gaia DR2 parallaxes in combination with VISTA photometry or using distances based on Bayesian inference. Results. We obtained proper motions for a total of 576 411 unique sources over an area of 23 deg2 covering the Magellanic Bridge including mainly Milky Way foreground stars, background galaxies, and a small population of possible Magellanic Bridge stars (< 15 000), which mostly consist of giant stars with 11.0 <  Ks <  19.5 mag. The first proper motion measurement of the Magellanic Bridge centre is 1.80 ± 0.25 mas yr−1 in right ascension and −0.72 ± 0.13 mas yr−1 in declination. The proper motion measurements of stars along the Magellanic Bridge from the VISTA survey of the Magellanic Cloud system (VMC) and Gaia DR2 data confirm a flow motion from the Small to the Large Magellanic Cloud. This flow can now be measured all across the entire length of the Magellanic Bridge. Conclusions. Our measurements indicate that the Magellanic Bridge is stretching. By converting the proper motions to tangential velocities, we obtain ∼110 km s−1 in the plane of the sky. Therefore it would take a star roughly 177 Myr to cross the Magellanic Bridge.


Author(s):  
Tian Qiu ◽  
Wenting Wang ◽  
Masahiro Takada ◽  
Naoki Yasuda ◽  
Željko Ivezić ◽  
...  

Abstract We present proper motion measurements for more than 0.55 million main-sequence stars, by comparing astrometric positions of matched stars between the multi-band imaging datasets from the Hyper Suprime-Cam (HSC) Survey and the SDSS Stripe 82. In doing this we use 3 million galaxies to recalibrate the astrometry and set up a common reference frame between the two catalogues. The exquisite depth and the nearly 12 years of time baseline between HSC and SDSS enable high-precision measurements of statistical proper motions for stars down to i ≃ 24. A validation of our method is demonstrated by the agreement with the Gaia proper motions, to the precision better than 0.1 mas yr−1. To retain the precision, we make a correction of the subtle effects due to the differential chromatic refraction in the SDSS images based on the comparison with the Gaia proper motions against colour of stars, which is validated using the SDSS spectroscopic quasars. Combining with the photometric distance estimates for individual stars based on the precise HSC photometry, we show a significant detection of the net proper motions for stars in each bin of distance out to 100 kpc. The two-component tangential velocities after subtracting the apparent motions due to our own motion display rich phase-space structures including a clear signature of the Sagittarius stream in the halo region of distance range [10,35] kpc. We also measure the tangential velocity dispersion in the distance range 5–20 kpc and find that the data are consistent with a constant isotropic dispersion of 80 ± 10 km/s. More distant stars appear to have random motions with respect to the Galactic centre on average.


2019 ◽  
Vol 14 (S351) ◽  
pp. 412-415
Author(s):  
Paolo Bianchini

Abstracthe study of the kinematics of globular clusters (GCs) offers the possibility of unveiling their long term evolution and uncovering their yet unknown formation mechanism. Gaia DR2 has strongly revitalized this field and enabled the exploration of the 6D phase-space properties of Milky Way GCs, thanks to precision astrometry. However, to fully leverage on the power of precision astrometry, a thorough investigations of the data is required. In this contribution, we show that the study of the mean radial proper motion profiles of GCs offers an ideal benchmark to assess the presence of systematics in crowded fields. Our work demonstrates that systematics in Gaia DR2 for the closest 14 GCs are below the random measurement errors, reaching a precision of ∼0.015 mas yr−1 for mean proper motion measurements. Finally, through the analysis of the tangential component of proper motions, we report the detection of internal rotation in a sample of ∼50 GCs, and outline the implications of the presence of angular momentum for the formation mechanism of proto-GC. This result gives the first taste of the unparalleled power of Gaia DR2 for GCs science, in preparation for the subsequent data releases.


2018 ◽  
Vol 616 ◽  
pp. A149 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. Maíz Apellániz ◽  
M. Pantaleoni González ◽  
R. H. Barbá ◽  
S. Simón-Díaz ◽  
I. Negueruela ◽  
...  

Context. The first Gaia Data Release (DR1) significantly improved the previously available proper motions for the majority of the Tycho-2 stars. Aims. We wish to detect runaway stars using Gaia DR1 proper motions and compare our results with previous searches. Methods. Runaway O stars and BA supergiants were detected using a 2D proper motion method. The sample was selected using Simbad, spectra from our GOSSS project, literature spectral types, and photometry processed using the code CHORIZOS. Results. We detect 76 runaway stars, 17 (possibly 19) of them with no prior identification as such, with an estimated detection rate of approximately one half of the real runaway fraction. An age effect appears to be present, with objects of spectral subtype B1 and later having traveled for longer distances than runaways of earlier subtypes. We also tentatively propose that the fraction of runaways is lower among BA supergiants that among O stars, but further studies using future Gaia data releases are needed to confirm this. The frequency of fast rotators is high among runaway O stars, which indicates that a significant fraction of them (and possibly the majority) is produced in supernova explosions.


2020 ◽  
Vol 493 (4) ◽  
pp. 5825-5837 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alexandres Lazar ◽  
James S Bullock

ABSTRACT We derive a new mass estimator that relies on internal proper motion measurements of dispersion-supported stellar systems, one that is distinct and complementary to existing estimators for line-of-sight velocities. Starting with the spherical Jeans equation, we show that there exists a radius where the mass enclosed depends only on the projected tangential velocity dispersion, assuming that the anisotropy profile slowly varies. This is well-approximated at the radius where the log-slope of the stellar tracer profile is −2: r−2. The associated mass is $M(r_{-2}) = 2 G^{-1} \langle \sigma _{\mathcal {T}}^{2}\rangle ^{*} r_{-2}$ and the circular velocity is $V^{2}({r_{-2}}) = 2\langle \sigma _{\mathcal {T}}^{2}\rangle ^{*}$. For a Plummer profile r−2 ≃ 4Re/5. Importantly, r−2 is smaller than the characteristic radius for line-of-sight velocities derived by Wolf et al. Together, the two estimators can constrain the mass profiles of dispersion-supported galaxies. We illustrate its applicability using published proper motion measurements of dwarf galaxies Draco and Sculptor, and find that they are consistent with inhabiting cuspy NFW subhaloes of the kind predicted in CDM but we cannot rule out a core. We test our combined mass estimators against previously published, non-spherical cosmological dwarf galaxy simulations done in both cold dark matter (CDM; naturally cuspy profile) and self-interacting dark matter (SIDM; cored profile). For CDM, the estimates for the dynamic rotation curves are found to be accurate to $10\rm { per\, cent}$ while SIDM are accurate to $15\rm { per\, cent}$. Unfortunately, this level of accuracy is not good enough to measure slopes at the level required to distinguish between cusps and cores of the type predicted in viable SIDM models without stronger priors. However, we find that this provides good enough accuracy to distinguish between the normalization differences predicted at small radii (r ≃ r−2 &lt; rcore) for interesting SIDM models. As the number of galaxies with internal proper motions increases, mass estimators of this kind will enable valuable constraints on SIDM and CDM models.


2007 ◽  
Vol 3 (S242) ◽  
pp. 170-171
Author(s):  
Mayumi Sato ◽  
Tomoya Hirota ◽  
Mareki Honma ◽  
Hideyuki Kobayashi ◽  

AbstractWe report on absolute proper-motion measurements of H2O maser features in the NGC 281 West molecular cloud, located ~320 pc above the Galactic plane and associated with an HI loop extending from the Galactic plane. We conducted six-epoch phase-referencing observations of the maser source with VERA (VLBI Exploration of Radio Astrometry) over six months since May 2006. The H2O maser features are found to be systematically moving toward the southwest and further away from the Galactic plane with a vertical velocity of ~20–30 km s−1 at its estimated distance of 2.2–3.5 kpc. Our new results provide the most direct evidence that the gas in the NGC 281 region was blown out from the Galactic plane, most likely in a superbubble driven by multiple or sequential supernova explosions in the Galactic plane.


2007 ◽  
Vol 3 (S248) ◽  
pp. 474-480
Author(s):  
A. Brunthaler ◽  
M. J. Reid ◽  
H. Falcke ◽  
C. Henkel ◽  
K. M. Menten

AbstractMeasuring the proper motions and geometric distances of galaxies within the Local Group is very important for our understanding of its history, present state and future. Currently, proper motion measurements using optical methods are limited only to the closest companions of the Milky Way. However, given that VLBI provides the best angular resolution in astronomy and phase-referencing techniques yield astrometric accuracies of ≈ 10 micro-arcseconds, measurements of proper motions and angular rotation rates of galaxies out to a distance of ~ 1 Mpc are feasible. This paper presents results of VLBI observations in regions of H2O maser activity of the Local Group galaxies M33 and IC 10. Two masing regions in M33 are on opposite sides of the galaxy. This allows a comparison of the angular rotation rate (as measured by the VLBI observations) with the known inclination and rotation speed of the Hi gas disk leading to a determination of a geometric distance of 730 ± 100 ± 135 kpc. The first error indicates the statistical error of the proper-motion measurements, while the second error is the systematic error of the rotation model. Within the errors, this distance is consistent with the most recent Cepheid distance to M33. Since all position measurements were made relative to an extragalactic background source, the proper motion of M33 has also been measured. This provides a three dimensional velocity vector of M33, showing that this galaxy is moving with a velocity of 190 ± 59 km s−1 relative to the Milky Way. For IC 10, we obtain a motion of 215 ± 42 km s−1 relative to the Milky Way. These measurements promise a new handle on dynamical models for the Local Group and the mass and dark matter halo of Andromeda and the Milky Way.


2002 ◽  
Vol 206 ◽  
pp. 88-91 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hiroshi Imai ◽  
Tetsuo Sasao ◽  
Osamu Kameya ◽  
Teruhiko Watanabe ◽  
Toshihiro Omodaka ◽  
...  

We describe the proper motion measurements of water masers in the massive-star forming region W 51A and the analysis of the 3-D kinematics in three maser clusters of W 51A. We found a systematic expanding motion in one of the clusters named W 51 North, while no systematic motion was detected in other two clusters named W 51 Main and South. The 3-D motions of the clusters relative to the position reference feature in W 51 North indicate a separating motion between the W 51 North and the W 51 Main/South clusters. We estimated the distance to W 51 North as to be 6.7±2.1 kpc on basis of the statistical parallax and the model fitting methods.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document