scholarly journals Chasing down variable stars from a decade-long dataset

2020 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Nikki Giti Noughani ◽  
Ralf Kotulla

Finding and characterizing variable stars is at the heart of a relatively modern branch of astronomy named time-domain astrophysics. Variable Stars are ordinary stars that change in brightness on widely varying degrees. Characterizing the details of how this brightness fluctuates and on what timescales, as well as the star's average properties (mean brightness, temperature, etc.), is greatly important to understanding the process of stellar evolution. For this project, we use data over ten years from the 0.5 meter Sloan Digital Sky Survey telescope. We will develop tools that can identify several variable stars, estimate their variability periods and timescales, and determine the shape of their brightness variations over this time.

2015 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 55-59 ◽  
Author(s):  
P. Szkody

The past and current projects of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey are reviewed in the context of applicability and results for cataclysmic variables. Ongoing and future time domain surveys that will have impact on the field are also briefly discussed.


2005 ◽  
Vol 625 (2) ◽  
pp. 966-972 ◽  
Author(s):  
F. Mullally ◽  
S. E. Thompson ◽  
B. G. Castanheira ◽  
D. E. Winget ◽  
S. O. Kepler ◽  
...  

Author(s):  
K. S. Gigoyan ◽  
A. M. Mickaelian ◽  
G. R. Kostandyan

Eighteen lists of late-type stars (LTSs) have been published between 1990 and 2016. These LTSs have been found in the low-dispersion spectroscopic plates of the First Byurakan Survey (FBS). The systematic search and selection was carried out on a surface _16000 deg2 on almost the whole area of the FBS. As a result, \Revised And Updated Catalogue Of The First Byurakan Survey Of Late-Type Stars" was generated (LTSs, _rst version). Since 2007, all FBS low-resolution spectral plates are digitized, and Digitized First Byurakan Survey (DFBS) database and second catalog of objects has been assembled. All DFBS spectral plates are analysed with the help of standard image analysis softwares (FITSView and SAO Image ds9) and numerous of comparatively faint LTSs were discovered. We present the 2nd version of the FBS catalogue of LTSs with new data. We have made cross-correlation with the Digitized First Byurakan Survey (DFBS), the United State Naval Observatory-B1.0 Catalogue, the Two Micron All-Sky Survey (2MASS), the Wide-Field Infrared Survey Explorer (new version-ALLWISE) catalogue, the Infrared Astronomical Satellite Point Source Catalogue/Faint Source Catalogue, the AKARI catalogue, the ROSAT Bright Source Catalogue/Faint Source Catalogue, the General Catalogue of Variable Stars, Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) photometric catalogue. We have added updated IMBAD data for the objects. For numerous of the new detected objects we present accurate Digitized Sky Survey 2 positions, approximate spectral subtypes refined from the DFBS low-dispersion spectra, luminosity classes estimated from 2MASS colours, and available proper motions for 1471 FBS LTSs. 2nd Version of the Revised and Updated Catalogue lists a large number of completely new objects, which promise to extend very significantly the census of M giants, faint N-type Asymptotic Giant Branch (AGB) carbon stars, CH {type carbon giants at high Galactic latitudes, also M dwarfs in the vicinity of the Sun up to 16.0-17.0 mag. in visual. We present also some important data from the Gaia DR2 data base for FBS LTSs. Some supplementary spectra obtained with the Byurakan Observatory 2.6 m telescope and LAMOST telescope are shown.


2014 ◽  
Vol 4 (3) ◽  
pp. 655-661
Author(s):  
Waleed Elsanhoury

Using Sloan Digital Sky Survey SDSS catalog, some intrinsic characteristics of Quasars (10,000 points) are developed of these are the strong correlations between redshifts and other parameters, e.g. combined magnitude, luminosity, and absolute magnitude .Moreover ,the Karlsson peak of our sample is also computed.


2021 ◽  
Vol 502 (1) ◽  
pp. 1299-1311
Author(s):  
Heidi B Thiemann ◽  
Andrew J Norton ◽  
Hugh J Dickinson ◽  
Adam McMaster ◽  
Ulrich C Kolb

ABSTRACT We present the first analysis of results from the SuperWASP variable stars Zooniverse project, which is aiming to classify 1.6 million phase-folded light curves of candidate stellar variables observed by the SuperWASP all sky survey with periods detected in the SuperWASP periodicity catalogue. The resultant data set currently contains >1 million classifications corresponding to >500 000 object–period combinations, provided by citizen–scientist volunteers. Volunteer-classified light curves have ∼89 per cent accuracy for detached and semidetached eclipsing binaries, but only ∼9 per cent accuracy for rotationally modulated variables, based on known objects. We demonstrate that this Zooniverse project will be valuable for both population studies of individual variable types and the identification of stellar variables for follow-up. We present preliminary findings on various unique and extreme variables in this analysis, including long-period contact binaries and binaries near the short-period cut-off, and we identify 301 previously unknown binaries and pulsators. We are now in the process of developing a web portal to enable other researchers to access the outputs of the SuperWASP variable stars project.


2021 ◽  
Vol 504 (1) ◽  
pp. 65-88
Author(s):  
Abhijeet Anand ◽  
Dylan Nelson ◽  
Guinevere Kauffmann

ABSTRACT In order to study the circumgalactic medium (CGM) of galaxies we develop an automated pipeline to estimate the optical continuum of quasars and detect intervening metal absorption line systems with a matched kernel convolution technique and adaptive S/N criteria. We process ∼ one million quasars in the latest Data Release 16 (DR16) of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) and compile a large sample of ∼ 160 000 Mg ii absorbers, together with ∼ 70 000 Fe ii systems, in the redshift range 0.35 < zabs < 2.3. Combining these with the SDSS DR16 spectroscopy of ∼1.1 million luminous red galaxies (LRGs) and ∼200 000 emission line galaxies (ELGs), we investigate the nature of cold gas absorption at 0.5 < z < 1. These large samples allow us to characterize the scale dependence of Mg ii with greater accuracy than in previous work. We find that there is a strong enhancement of Mg ii absorption within ∼50 kpc of ELGs, and the covering fraction within 0.5rvir of ELGs is 2–5 times higher than for LRGs. Beyond 50 kpc, there is a sharp decline in Mg ii for both kinds of galaxies, indicating a transition to the regime where the CGM is tightly linked with the dark matter halo. The Mg ii-covering fraction correlates strongly with stellar mass for LRGs, but weakly for ELGs, where covering fractions increase with star formation rate. Our analysis implies that cool circumgalactic gas has a different physical origin for star-forming versus quiescent galaxies.


2019 ◽  
Vol 15 (S359) ◽  
pp. 441-443
Author(s):  
F. S. Lohmann ◽  
A. Schnorr-Müller ◽  
M. Trevisan ◽  
R. Riffel ◽  
N. Mallmann ◽  
...  

AbstractObservations at high redshift reveal that a population of massive, quiescent galaxies (called red nuggets) already existed 10 Gyr ago. These objects undergo a significant size evolution over time, likely due to minor mergers. In this work we present an analysis of local massive compact galaxies to assess if their properties are consistent with what is expected for unevolved red nuggets (relic galaxies). Using integral field spectroscopy (IFS) data from the MaNGA survey from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS), we characterized the kinematics and properties of stellar populations of massive compact galaxies, and find that these objects exhibit, on average, a higher rotational support than a control sample of average sized early-type galaxies. This is in agreement with a scenario in which these objects have a quiet accretion history, rendering them candidates for relic galaxies.


2020 ◽  
Vol 500 (4) ◽  
pp. 4469-4490 ◽  
Author(s):  
James Trussler ◽  
Roberto Maiolino ◽  
Claudia Maraston ◽  
Yingjie Peng ◽  
Daniel Thomas ◽  
...  

ABSTRACT We investigate the environmental dependence of the stellar populations of galaxies in Sloan Digital Sky Survey Data Release 7 (SDSS DR7). Echoing earlier works, we find that satellites are both more metal-rich (<0.1 dex) and older (<2 Gyr) than centrals of the same stellar mass. However, after separating star-forming, green valley, and passive galaxies, we find that the true environmental dependence of both stellar metallicity (<0.03 dex) and age (<0.5 Gyr) is in fact much weaker. We show that the strong environmental effects found when galaxies are not differentiated result from a combination of selection effects brought about by the environmental dependence of the quenched fraction of galaxies, and thus we strongly advocate for the separation of star-forming, green valley, and passive galaxies when the environmental dependence of galaxy properties are investigated. We also study further environmental trends separately for both central and satellite galaxies. We find that star-forming galaxies show no environmental effects, neither for centrals nor for satellites. In contrast, the stellar metallicities of passive and green valley satellites increase weakly (<0.05 and <0.08 dex, respectively) with increasing halo mass, increasing local overdensity and decreasing projected distance from their central; this effect is interpreted in terms of moderate environmental starvation (‘strangulation’) contributing to the quenching of satellite galaxies. Finally, we find a unique feature in the stellar mass–stellar metallicity relation for passive centrals, where galaxies in more massive haloes have larger stellar mass (∼0.1 dex) at constant stellar metallicity; this effect is interpreted in terms of dry merging of passive central galaxies and/or progenitor bias.


2012 ◽  
Vol 758 (1) ◽  
pp. L23 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sarah R. Loebman ◽  
Željko Ivezić ◽  
Thomas R. Quinn ◽  
Fabio Governato ◽  
Alyson M. Brooks ◽  
...  

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