scholarly journals The course of the Orphan Stream in the Northern Galactic hemisphere traced with Gaia DR2

2019 ◽  
Vol 486 (1) ◽  
pp. 936-949 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mark A Fardal ◽  
Roeland P van der Marel ◽  
Sangmo Tony Sohn ◽  
Andres del Pino Molina

Abstract The Orphan Stream is one of the most prominent tidal streams in the Galactic halo. Using data on red giants, RR Lyrae, and horizontal branch stars from Gaia and other surveys, we determine the proper motion of the Orphan Stream over a path of more than 90° on the sky. We also provide updated tracks for the sky position, distance, and radial velocity of the stream. Our tracks in these latter dimensions mostly agree with previous results. However, there are significant corrections to the earlier distance and latitude tracks as the stream approaches the Galactic disc. Stream stars selected with three-dimensional kinematics display a very tight red giant sequence. Concordantly, we find that applying a proper motion cut removes the most metal-rich stars from earlier spectroscopic samples of stream stars, though a significant dispersion remains, indicating a dwarf galaxy origin. The deceleration of the stream towards its leading end suggests a circular velocity of $\sim \!200 \, \mbox{km}\, \mbox{s}^{-1}$ at a galactocentric radius $\sim \!30 \, \mbox{kpc}$, consistent with other independent evidence. However, the track of the stream departs significantly from an orbit; the spatial track does not point along the same direction as the velocity vector, and it exhibits a lateral wiggle that is unlikely to match any reasonable orbit. The low metallicity and small dispersion of the stream in the various coordinates point to a progenitor with a relatively low dynamical mass $\sim \!10^8 \, \mathrm{ M}_{\odot }$.

2019 ◽  
Vol 485 (4) ◽  
pp. 5616-5630 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marc Hon ◽  
Dennis Stello ◽  
Rafael A García ◽  
Savita Mathur ◽  
Sanjib Sharma ◽  
...  

ABSTRACT The recently published Kepler mission Data Release 25 (DR25) reported on ∼197 000 targets observed during the mission. Despite this, no wide search for red giants showing solar-like oscillations have been made across all stars observed in Kepler’s long-cadence mode. In this work, we perform this task using custom apertures on the Kepler pixel files and detect oscillations in 21 914 stars, representing the largest sample of solar-like oscillating stars to date. We measure their frequency at maximum power, νmax, down to $\nu _{\mathrm{max}}\simeq 4\, \mu$Hz and obtain log (g) estimates with a typical uncertainty below 0.05 dex, which is superior to typical measurements from spectroscopy. Additionally, the νmax distribution of our detections show good agreement with results from a simulated model of the Milky Way, with a ratio of observed to predicted stars of 0.992 for stars with $10 \lt \nu _{\mathrm{max}}\lt 270\, \mu$Hz. Among our red giant detections, we find 909 to be dwarf/subgiant stars whose flux signal is polluted by a neighbouring giant as a result of using larger photometric apertures than those used by the NASA Kepler science processing pipeline. We further find that only 293 of the polluting giants are known Kepler targets. The remainder comprises over 600 newly identified oscillating red giants, with many expected to belong to the Galactic halo, serendipitously falling within the Kepler pixel files of targeted stars.


2015 ◽  
Vol 11 (S317) ◽  
pp. 266-271
Author(s):  
Ortwin Gerhard

AbstractThe Milky Way, “our” Galaxy, is currently the subject of intense study with many ground-based surveys, in anticipation of upcoming results from the Gaia mission. From this work we have been learning about the full three-dimensional structure of the Galactic box/peanut bulge, the distribution of stars in the bar and disk, and the many streams and substructures in the Galactic halo. The data indicate that a large fraction of the Galactic halo has been accreted from outside. Similarly, in many external galaxy halos there is now evidence for tidal streams and accretion of satellites. To study these features requires exquisite, deep photometry and spectroscopy. These observations illustrate how galaxy halos are still growing, and sometimes can be used to “time” the accretion events. In comparison with cosmological simulations, the structure of galaxy halos gives us a vivid illustration of the hierarchical nature of our Universe.


2022 ◽  
Vol 21 (12) ◽  
pp. 319
Author(s):  
Ruo-Yi Zhang ◽  
Hai-Bo Yuan ◽  
Xiao-Wei Liu ◽  
Mao-Sheng Xiang ◽  
Yang Huang ◽  
...  

Abstract In the fourth paper of this series, we present the metallicity-dependent Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) stellar color loci of red giant stars, using a spectroscopic sample of red giants in the SDSS Stripe 82 region. The stars span a range of 0.55 – 1.2 mag in color g – i, –0.3 – –2.5 in metallicity [Fe/H], and have values of surface gravity log g smaller than 3.5 dex. As in the case of main-sequence (MS) stars, the intrinsic widths of loci of red giants are also found to be quite narrow, a few mmag at maximum. There are however systematic differences between the metallicity-dependent stellar loci of red giants and MS stars. The colors of red giants are less sensitive to metallicity than those of MS stars. With good photometry, photometric metallicities of red giants can be reliably determined by fitting the u – g, g – r, r – i, and i – z colors simultaneously to an accuracy of 0.2 – 0.25 dex, comparable to the precision achievable with low-resolution spectroscopy for a signal-to-noise ratio of 10. By comparing fitting results to the stellar loci of red giants and MS stars, we propose a new technique to discriminate between red giants and MS stars based on the SDSS photometry. The technique achieves completeness of ∼70 per cent and efficiency of ∼80 per cent in selecting metal-poor red giant stars of [Fe/H] ≤ –1.2. It thus provides an important tool to probe the structure and assemblage history of the Galactic halo using red giant stars.


2004 ◽  
Vol 215 ◽  
pp. 144-153
Author(s):  
J. R. de Medeiros

Rotation is one of the most important observable in stellar astrophysics driving strongly the evolution of stars. This review presents the main observational results on the rotation of Red Giant and Horizontal-Branch stars carried out along the past 50 years. The review brings, in particular, the most recent results based on very accurate measurements of rotational velocity obtained mostly along the last decade.


2001 ◽  
Vol 549 (2) ◽  
pp. L199-L202 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Martínez-Delgado ◽  
Antonio Aparicio ◽  
M. Ángeles Gómez-Flechoso ◽  
Ricardo Carrera

Author(s):  
Jorge Peñarrubia

Abstract This paper uses statistical and N-body methods to explore a new mechanism to form binary stars with extremely large separations (≳ 0.1 pc), whose origin is poorly understood. Here, ultra-wide binaries arise via chance entrapment of unrelated stars in tidal streams of disrupting clusters. It is shown that (i) the formation of ultra-wide binaries is not limited to the lifetime of a cluster, but continues after the progenitor is fully disrupted, (ii) the formation rate is proportional to the local phase-space density of the tidal tails, (iii) the semimajor axis distribution scales as p(a)da ∼ a1/2da at a ≪ D, where D is the mean interstellar distance, and (vi) the eccentricity distribution is close to thermal, p(e)de = 2ede. Owing to their low binding energies, ultra-wide binaries can be disrupted by both the smooth tidal field and passing substructures. The time-scale on which tidal fluctuations dominate over the mean field is inversely proportional to the local density of compact substructures. Monte-Carlo experiments show that binaries subject to tidal evaporation follow p(a)da ∼ a−1da at a ≳ apeak, known as Öpik’s law, with a peak semi-major axis that contracts with time as apeak ∼ t−3/4. In contrast, a smooth Galactic potential introduces a sharp truncation at the tidal radius, p(a) ∼ 0 at a ≳ rt. The scaling relations of young clusters suggest that most ultra-wide binaries arise from the disruption of low-mass systems. Streams of globular clusters may be the birthplace of hundreds of ultra-wide binaries, making them ideal laboratories to probe clumpiness in the Galactic halo.


Author(s):  
Jie Yu ◽  
Saskia Hekker ◽  
Timothy R Bedding ◽  
Dennis Stello ◽  
Daniel Huber ◽  
...  

Abstract Mass loss by red giants is an important process to understand the final stages of stellar evolution and the chemical enrichment of the interstellar medium. Mass-loss rates are thought to be controlled by pulsation-enhanced dust-driven outflows. Here we investigate the relationships between mass loss, pulsations, and radiation, using 3213 luminous Kepler red giants and 135000 ASAS–SN semiregulars and Miras. Mass-loss rates are traced by infrared colours using 2MASS and WISE and by observed-to-model WISE fluxes, and are also estimated using dust mass-loss rates from literature assuming a typical gas-to-dust mass ratio of 400. To specify the pulsations, we extract the period and height of the highest peak in the power spectrum of oscillation. Absolute magnitudes are obtained from the 2MASS Ks band and the Gaia DR2 parallaxes. Our results follow. (i) Substantial mass loss sets in at pulsation periods above ∼60 and ∼100 days, corresponding to Asymptotic-Giant-Branch stars at the base of the period-luminosity sequences C′ and C. (ii) The mass-loss rate starts to rapidly increase in semiregulars for which the luminosity is just above the red-giant-branch tip and gradually plateaus to a level similar to that of Miras. (iii) The mass-loss rates in Miras do not depend on luminosity, consistent with pulsation-enhanced dust-driven winds. (iv) The accumulated mass loss on the Red Giant Branch consistent with asteroseismic predictions reduces the masses of red-clump stars by 6.3%, less than the typical uncertainty on their asteroseismic masses. Thus mass loss is currently not a limitation of stellar age estimates for galactic archaeology studies.


1998 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 570-570
Author(s):  
Johan Holmberg ◽  
Lennart Lindegren ◽  
Chris Flynn

We use the Hipparcos survey to derive an improved model of the local galactic structure. The availability of parallaxes for all the stars permits direct determination of stellar distributions, eliminating the basic indeterminacy of classical methods based on star counts. Hipparcos gives for the first time a truly three-dimensional view of the solar vicinity, and a complete, homogeneous and highly accurate set of magnitudes and colours. This means that new techniques can be applied in the treatment of the data which place strong constraints on a model that tries to describe the local Galactic structure. Here we investigate how well a static model of low complexitycan describe the Hipparcos observations. The interpretation of the Hipparcos data is complicated by various observational errors and selection effects that are hard to treat correctly. We do not try to correct the data, but instead use a model and subject this model to the same observational errors and selection effects. A model catalogue is created that can be compared with the observed catalogue directly in the observational domain, thereby eliminating the effects from various biases. Many features in the HR diagram are for the first time seen in field stars thanks to Hipparcos, such as the slanted red giant clump, previously seen in rich old open clusters such as Berkeley 18. This and other features ofthe observed HR diagram are well reproduced by the model thanks to the rather detailed modelling of the joint Mv/B — V distribution. Actually, separate distributions were derived for the three different components, disk, thick disk and halo, using the kinematic characteristics of the components to discriminate between them.


2007 ◽  
Vol 44 (3) ◽  
pp. 278-285 ◽  
Author(s):  
Virgilio F. Ferrario ◽  
Fabrizio Mian ◽  
Redento Peretta ◽  
Riccardo Rosati ◽  
Chiarella Sforza

Objective: To compare three-dimensional nasal measurements directly made on subjects to those made on plaster casts, and nasal dimensions obtained with a surface-based approach to values obtained with a landmark representation. Methods: Soft-tissue nasal landmarks were directly digitized on 20 healthy adults. Stone casts of their noses were digitized and mathematically reconstructed using nonuniform rational B-splines (NURBS) curves. Linear distances, angles, volumes and surface areas were computed using facial landmarks and NURBS-reconstructed models (surface-based approach). Results: Measurements on the stone casts were somewhat smaller than values obtained directly from subjects (differences between −0.05 and −1.58 mm). Dahlberg's statistic ranged between 0.73 and 1.47 mm. Significant (p < .05) t values were found for 4 of 15 measurements. The surface-based approach gave values 3.5 (volumes) and 2.1 (surface area) times larger than those computed with the landmark-based method. The two values were significantly related (volume, r = 0.881; surface, r = 0.924; p < .001), the resulting equations estimated actual values well (mean difference, volume −0.01 mm3, SD 1.47, area 0.05 cm2, SD 1.44); limits of agreement between −2.89 and 2.87 mm3 (volume); −2.88 and 2.78 cm2 (area). Conclusions: Considering the characteristics of the two methods, and for practical purposes, nasal distances and angles obtained on plaster models were comparable to digital data obtained directly from subjects. Surface areas and volumes were best obtained using a surface-based approach, but could be estimated using data provided by the landmark representation.


2016 ◽  
Vol 11 (S321) ◽  
pp. 22-24
Author(s):  
Sakurako Okamoto ◽  
Nobuo Arimoto ◽  
Annette M.N. Ferguson ◽  
Edouard J. Bernard ◽  
Mike J. Irwin ◽  
...  

AbstractWe present the results from the state-of-the-art wide-field survey of the M81 galaxy group that we are conducting with Hyper Suprime-Cam on Subaru Telescope. Our photometry reaches about 2 mag below the tip of the red giant branch (RGB) and reveals the spatial distribution of both old and young stars over an area of 5°2around the M81. The young main-sequence (MS) stars closely follow the HI distribution and can be found in a stellar stream between M81 and NGC 3077 and in numerous outlying stellar associations. Our survey also reveals for the first time the very extended (>2 × R25) halos of RGB stars around M81, M82, and NGC 3077, as well as faint tidal streams that link these systems. The gravitational interactions between M81, M82 and NGC 3077 galaxies induced star formation in tidally stripped gas, and also significantly perturbed the older stellar components leading to disturbed halo morphologies.


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