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Ejection velocities of high Galactic latitude runaway stars
We estimate the distribution of ejection velocities for the knownpopulation of high Galactic latitude runaway stars. The initial sampleis a collection of 174 early-type stars selected from the literature.The stars are first classified according to their evolutionary status inorder to obtain a homogeneous sample of 96 genuine main-sequence stars.Their present velocities and flight times are then estimated usingproper motion data from various astrometric catalogues (includingTycho-2, UCAC2 and USNO-B) and the ejection velocities are computed bytracing their orbits back in time, based on a Galactic potential. Thepotential used is constructed from a mass density model chosen to fitthe most recent observational constraints.We find evidence for two different populations of runaway stars: a'high' velocity population, with a maximum ejection velocity of about400-500 km s-1, and a 'low' velocity population, with amaximum ejection velocity of about 300 km s-1. We argue thatthe observed limit of 500 km s-1 and the bimodality of theobserved ejection velocity distribution are natural consequences of theso-called Binary Ejection Mechanism. We discuss the connection betweenthe 'high' velocity population and the so-called hypervelocity stars,showing how previously studied hypervelocity stars are consistent withthe results obtained.We also find that some stars that were once thought to be best explainedas being formed in the halo are compatible with a runaway hypothesisonce proper motions are included in the analysis. However, three starsin the selected sample appear to be inconsistent with ejection from theGalactic disc. Possible scenarios are discussed, including a possibleformation in the Galactic halo.
| StarCAT: A Catalog of Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph Ultraviolet Echelle Spectra of Stars
StarCAT is a catalog of high resolution ultraviolet spectra of objectsclassified as "stars," recorded by Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph(STIS) during its initial seven years of operations (1997-2004). StarCATis based on 3184 echelle observations of 545 distinct targets, with atotal exposure duration of 5.2 Ms. For many of the objects, broadultraviolet coverage has been achieved by splicing echellegrams taken intwo or more FUV (1150-1700 Å) and/or NUV (1600-3100 Å)settings. In cases of multiple pointings on conspicuously variablesources, spectra were separated into independent epochs. Otherwise,different epochs were combined to enhance the signal-to-noise ratio(S/N). A post-facto correction to the {\sf calstis} pipeline data setscompensated for subtle wavelength distortions identified in a previousstudy of the STIS calibration lamps. An internal "fluxing" procedureyielded coherent spectral energy distributions (SEDs) for objects withbroadly overlapping wavelength coverage. The best StarCAT materialachieves 300 m s-1 internal velocity precision;absolute accuracy at the 1 km s-1 level; photometricaccuracy of order 4%; and relative flux precision several times better(limited mainly by knowledge of SEDs of UV standard stars). WhileStarCAT represents a milestone in the large-scale post-processing ofSTIS echellegrams, a number of potential improvements in the underlying"final" pipeline are identified.
| The Extension of the Transition Temperature Plasma into the Lower Galactic Halo
Column densities for H I, Al III, Si IV, C IV, and O VI toward 109 starsand 30 extragalactic objects have been assembled to study the extensionsof these species away from the Galactic plane into the Galactic halo. HI and Al III mostly trace the warm neutral and warm ionized medium,respectively, while Si IV, C IV, and O VI trace a combination of warmphotoionized and collisionally ionized plasmas. The much larger objectsample compared to previous studies allows us to consider and correctfor the effects of the sample bias that has affected earlier but smallersurveys of the gas distributions. We find that Si IV and C IV havesimilar exponential scale heights of 3.2(+1.0, -0.6) and 3.6(+1.0,-0.8) kpc. The scale height of O VI is marginally smaller with h =2.6 ± 0.6 kpc. The transition temperature gas is ~3 times moreextended than the warm ionized medium traced by Al III with h =0.90(+0.62, -0.33) kpc and ~12 times more extended than the warmneutral medium traced by H I with h = 0.24 ± 0.06 kpc. There is afactor of 2 decrease in the dispersion of the log of the column densityratios for transition temperature gas for lines of sight in the Galacticdisk compared to extragalactic lines of sight through the entire halo.The observations are compared to the predictions of the various modelsfor the production of the transition temperature gas in the halo. Theappendix presents a revision to the electron scale height of Gaensler etal.'s 2008 study based on electron dispersion measures.
| The Far Ultraviolet Spectroscopic Explorer Survey of O VI Absorption in the Disk of the Milky Way
To probe the distribution and physical characteristics of interstellargas at temperatures T~3×105 K in the disk of the MilkyWay, we have used the Far Ultraviolet Spectroscopic Explorer (FUSE) toobserve absorption lines of O VI λ1032 toward 148 early-typestars situated at distances >1 kpc. After subtracting off a mildexcess of O VI arising from the Local Bubble, combining our new resultswith earlier surveys of O VI, and eliminating stars that showconspicuous localized X-ray emission, we find an average O VI midplanedensity n0=1.3×10-8 cm-3. Thedensity decreases away from the plane of the Galaxy in a way that isconsistent with an exponential scale height of 3.2 kpc at negativelatitudes or 4.6 kpc at positive latitudes. Average volume densities ofO VI along different sight lines exhibit a dispersion of about 0.26 dex,irrespective of the distances to the target stars. This indicates that OVI does not arise in randomly situated clouds of a fixed size anddensity, but instead is distributed in regions that have a very broadrange of column densities, with the more strongly absorbing cloudshaving a lower space density. Line widths and centroid velocities aremuch larger than those expected from differential Galactic rotation, butthey are nevertheless correlated with distance and N(O VI), whichreinforces our picture of a diverse population of hot plasma regionsthat are ubiquitous over the entire Galactic disk. The velocity extremesof the O VI profiles show a loose correlation with those of very stronglines of less ionized species, supporting a picture of a turbulent,multiphase medium churned by shock-heated gas from multiple supernovaexplosions.
| Bright Metal-poor Stars from the Hamburg/ESO Survey. I. Selection and Follow-up Observations from 329 Fields
We present a sample of 1777 bright (91.0) metal-poor([Fe/H]<-2.0) giants of 9%+/-2%, which is lower than previouslyreported. However, the frequency rises to similar (>20%) and highervalues with increasing distance from the Galactic plane. Although thenumbers of stars at low metallicity are falling rapidly at the lowestmetallicities, there is evidence that the fraction of carbon-enhancedmetal-poor stars is increasing rapidly as a function of decliningmetallicity. For ~60 objects, high-resolution data have already beenobtained; one of these, HE 1327-2326, is the new record holder for themost iron-deficient star known.
| The Origins and Evolutionary Status of B Stars Found Far from the Galactic Plane. II. Kinematics and Full Sample Analysis
This paper continues the analysis of faint high-latitude B stars fromMartin. Here we analyze the kinematics of the stars and combine themwith the abundance information from the first paper to classify eachone. The sample contains 31 Population I runaways, 15 old evolved stars(including 5 blue horizontal-branch [BHB] stars, 3 post-HB stars, 1pulsating helium dwarf, and 6 stars of ambiguous classification), 1 Fdwarf, and 2 stars that do not easily fit in one of the othercategories. No star in the sample unambiguously shows thecharacteristics of a young massive star formed in situ in the halo. Thetwo unclassified stars are probably extreme Population I runaways. Thelow binary frequency and rotational velocity distribution of thePopulation I runaways imply that most were ejected from dense starclusters by the dynamic ejection scenario. However, we remain puzzled bythe lack of runaway Be stars. We also confirm that PB 166 and HIP 41979are both nearby solar-metallicity BHB stars.Based on observations made at the 2.1 m Otto Struve Telescope ofMcDonald Observatory, operated by the University of Texas at Austin.
| Young Stars far from the Galactic Plane: Runaways from Clusters
Quite recently, a significant number of OB stars far from the galacticplane have been found, situated at z-distances ranging from severalhundreds of pc to several kpc. The short lifetimes of these stars poseproblems for their interpretation in terms of the standard picture ofstar formation. Different mechanisms have been put forward to explainthe existence of these stars, either within the conventional view, orpostulating star formation in the galactic halo itself. These mechanismsrange from arguing that they are misidentified evolved or abnormalstars, to postulating powerful ejection mechanisms for young disk stars;in situ formation also admits several variants. We have collected fromthe literature a list of young stars far from the plane, for which theevidence of youth seems convincing. We discuss two possible formationmechanisms for these stars: ejection from the plane as the result ofdynamical evolution of small clusters (Poveda et al. 1967) and in situformation, via induced shocks created by spiral density waves (Martos etal. 1999). We compute galactic orbits for these stars, and identify thestars that could be explained by one or the other mechanism. We findthat about 90 percent of the stars can be accounted for by the clusterejection mechanism, that is, they can be regarded as runaway stars inthe galactic halo.
| CaII K interstellar observations towards early-type disc and halo stars - distances to intermediate- and high-velocity clouds
We compare existing high spectral resolution(R=λ/Δλ~ 40000) CaII K observations(λair= 3933.66 Å) towards 88 mainly B-typestars, and new observations taken using the Intermediate dispersionSpectrograph and Imaging System (ISIS) on the William Herschel Telescopeat R~ 10000 towards three stars taken from the Palomar-Green Survey,with 21-cm HI emission-line profiles, in order to search for opticalabsorption towards known intermediate- and high-velocity cloudcomplexes. Given certain assumptions, limits to the gas phase abundanceof CaII are estimated for the cloud components. We use the data toderive the following distances from the Galactic plane (z). (i)Tentative lower z-height limits of 2800 and 4100 pc towards complex Cusing lack of absorption in the spectra of HD341617 and PG0855+294,respectively. (ii) A weak lower z-height of 1400 pc towards complexWA-WB using lack of absorption in EC09470-1433 and a weak lower limit of2470 pc using lack of absorption in EC09452-1403. (iii) An upperz-height of 2470 pc towards a southern intermediate-velocity cloud (IVC)with vLSR=-55 km s-1 using PG2351+198. (iv)Detection of a possible IVC in CaII absorption at vLSR=+52 kms-1 using EC20104-2944. No associated HI in emission isdetected. At this position, normal Galactic rotation predicts velocitiesof up to ~+25 km s-1. The detection puts an upper z-height of1860 pc to the cloud. (v) Tentative HI and CaII K detections towards anIVC at ~+70 km s-1 in the direction of high-velocity cloud(HVC) complex WE, sightline EC06387-8045, indicating that the IVC may beat a z-height lower than 1770 pc. (vi) Detection of CaII K absorption inthe spectrum of PG0855+294 in the direction of IV20, indicating thatthis IVC has a z-height smaller than 4100 pc. (vii) A weak lowerz-height of 4300 pc towards a small HVC with vLSR=+115 kms-1 at l, b= 200°, + 52°, using lack of absorption inthe CaII K spectrum of PG0955+291.
| CaII K interstellar observations towards early-type disc and halo stars
We present high-resolution (R=λ/Δλ~ 40000) CaII Kinterstellar observations (λair= 3933.66Å)towards 88 mainly B-type stars, of which 74 are taken from theEdinburgh-Cape or Palomar-Green surveys, and 81 have |b| > 25°.The majority of the data come from previously existing spectroscopy,although also included are 18 new observations of stars with echellespectra taken with UVES on the Very Large Telescope UT2 (Kueyen). Some49 of the sample stars have distance estimates above the Galactic plane(|z|) >= 1 kpc, and are thus good probes of the halo interstellarmedium. Of the 362 interstellar Ca K components that we detect, 75 (21per cent) have absolute values of their LSR velocity values exceeding 40km s-1. In terms of the deviation velocity for the sightlineswith distance estimates, 46/273 (17 per cent) of components havevelocity values exceeding those predicted by standard Galactic rotationby more than 40 km s-1. Combining this data set with previousobservations, we find that the median value of the reduced equivalentwidth (REW) of stars with |z| >= 1 kpc (EW×sin|b|) is ~115mÅ (n= 80), similar to that observed in extragalactic sightlinesby Bowen. Using data of all z distances, the REW at infinity is found tobe ~130 mÅ, with the scaleheight (l) of the CaII K column densitydistribution being ~800 pc (n= 196) and reduced column density atinfinity of log[N(CaII K) cm-2]~12.24. This implies that ~30per cent of CaII K absorption occurs at distances exceeding ~1 kpc. Fornine sightlines with distance exceeding 1 kpc and with a companionobject within 5°, we find that all but two have values of CaIIreduced equivalent width the same to within ~20 per cent, when the REWof the nearest object is extrapolated to the distance of the further ofthe pair, and assuming l= 800 pc. For 29 of our sightlines with |z|>= 1 kpc and a HI detection from the Leiden-Dwingeloo survey(beamsize of 0.5°), we find log(N(CaII K)/N(HI)) ranging from -7.4to -8.4. Values of the CaII K abundance relative to neutral hydrogen(log[N(CaIIK)cm-2]-log[N(HI)cm-2]) are found to bemore than ~0.5dex higher in stars with distances exceeding ~100 pc, whencompared with the (log[N(CaII K) cm-2]-log[N(Htot) cm-2]) values found in nearbysightlines such as those in Wakker & Mathis (2000). Finally, stellarCaII K equivalent widths of the sample are determined for 26 objects.
| Highly Ionized Gas in the Galactic Halo: A FUSE Survey of O VI Absorption toward 22 Halo Stars
Far Ultraviolet Spectroscopic Explorer (FUSE) spectra of 22 Galactichalo stars are studied to determine the amount of O VI in the Galactichalo between ~0.3 and ~10 kpc from the Galactic midplane. Strong O VIλ1031.93 absorption was detected toward 21 stars, and a reliable3 σ upper limit was obtained toward HD 97991. The weaker member ofthe O VI doublet at 1037.62 Å could be studied toward only sixstars because of stellar and interstellar blending problems. Themeasured logarithmic total column densities vary from 13.65 to 14.57with =14.17+/-0.28 (1 σ). The observed columns arereasonably consistent with a patchy exponential O VI distribution with amidplane density of 1.7×10-8 cm-3 and scaleheight between 2.3 and 4 kpc. We do not see clear signs of stronghigh-velocity components in O VI absorption along the Galactic sightlines, which indicates the general absence of high-velocity O VI within2-5 kpc of the Galactic midplane. This result is in marked contrast tothe findings of Sembach et al., who reported high-velocity O VIabsorption toward ~60% of the complete halo sight lines observed byFUSE. The line centroid velocities of the O VI absorption do not reflectGalactic rotation well. The O VI velocity dispersions range from 33 to78 km s-1, with an average of =45+/-11 kms-1 (1 σ). These values are much higher than the valueof ~18 km s-1 expected from thermal broadening for gas atT~3×105 K, the temperature at which O VI is expected toreach its peak abundance in collisional ionization equilibrium.Turbulence, inflow, and outflow must have an effect on the shape of theO VI profiles. Kinematical comparisons of O VI with Ar I reveal thateight of 21 sight lines are closely aligned in LSR velocity(|ΔVLSR|<=5 km s-1), while nine of 21exhibit significant velocity differences(|ΔVLSR|>=15 km s-1). This dual behaviormay indicate the presence of two different types of O VI-bearingenvironments toward the Galactic sight lines. The correlation betweenthe H I and O VI intermediate-velocity absorption is poor. We couldidentify the known H I intermediate-velocity components in the Ar Iabsorption but not in the O VI absorption in most cases. Comparison of OVI with other highly ionized species suggests that the high ions areproduced primarily by cooling hot gas in the Galactic fountain flow andthat turbulent mixing also has a significant contribution. The role ofturbulent mixing varies from negligible to dominant. It is mostimportant toward sight lines that sample supernova remnants like Loops Iand IV. The average N(C IV)/N(O VI) ratios for the nearby halo (thiswork) and complete halo (Savage et al.) are similar (~0.6), but thedispersion is larger in the sample of nearby halo sight lines. We areable to show that the O VI enhancement toward the Galactic center regionthat was observed in the FUSE survey of complete halo sight lines(Savage et al.) is likely associated with processes occurring near theGalactic center by comparing the observations toward the nearby HD177566 sight line to those toward extragalactic targets.
| Synthetic High-Resolution Line Spectra of Star-forming Galaxies below 1200 Å
We have generated a set of far-ultraviolet stellar libraries usingspectra of OB and Wolf-Rayet stars in the Galaxy and the Large and SmallMagellanic Cloud. The spectra were collected with the Far UltravioletSpectroscopic Explorer and cover a wavelength range from 1003.1 to1182.7 Å at a resolution of 0.127 Å. The libraries extendfrom the earliest O to late-O and early-B stars for the Magellanic Cloudand Galactic libraries, respectively. Attention is paid to the complexblending of stellar and interstellar lines, which can be significant,especially in models using Galactic stars. The most severe contaminationis due to molecular hydrogen. Using a simple model for the H2line strength, we were able to remove the molecular hydrogen lines in asubset of Magellanic Cloud stars. Variations of the photospheric andwind features of C III λ1176, O VI λλ1032, 1038, PV λλ1118, 1128, and S IV λλ1063, 1073, 1074are discussed as a function of temperature and luminosity class. Thespectral libraries were implemented into the LavalSB and Starburst99packages and used to compute a standard set of synthetic spectra ofstar-forming galaxies. Representative spectra are presented for variousinitial mass functions and star formation histories. The valid parameterspace is confined to the youngest ages of less than ~=10 Myr for aninstantaneous burst, prior to the age when incompleteness of spectraltypes in the libraries sets in. For a continuous burst at solarmetallicity, the parameter space is not limited. The suite of models isuseful for interpreting the rest-frame far-ultraviolet in local andhigh-redshift galaxies. Based on observations made with theNASA-CNES-CSA Far Ultraviolet Spectroscopic Explorer. FUSE is operatedfor NASA by the Johns Hopkins University under NASA contract NAS5-32985.
| IUE Absorption-Line Observations of the Moderately and Highly Ionized Interstellar Medium toward 164 Early-Type Stars
We present measurements of Galactic interstellar Al III, Si IV, and C IVabsorption recorded in high-resolution archival ultraviolet spectra of164 hot early-type stars observed by the International UltravioletExplorer (IUE) satellite. The objects studied were drawn from the listof hot stars scheduled to be observed with the Far UltravioletSpectroscopic Explorer (FUSE) satellite as part of observing programsdesigned to investigate absorption by O VI in the Galactic disk andhalo. Multiple IUE echelle-mode integrations have been combined toproduce a single ultraviolet (1150-1900 Å) spectrum of each starwith a spectral resolution of ~25 km s-1 (FWHM). Selectedabsorption-line profiles are presented for each star along with plots ofthe apparent column density per unit velocity for each line of the AlIII, Si IV, and C IV doublets. We report absorption-line equivalentwidths, absorption velocities, and integrated column densities based onthe apparent optical depth method of examining interstellar absorptionlines. We also determine column densities and Doppler parameters fromsingle-component curve-of-growth analyses. The scientific analysis ofthese observations will be undertaken after the FUSE satellite producessimilar measurements for absorption by interstellar O IV, Fe III, S III,and other ions. Based on archival data from observations obtained withthe International Ultraviolet Explorer (IUE) satellite sponsored byNASA, SERC, and ESA.
| Model atmosphere and kinematical analyses of early-type stars from the Edinburgh-Cape Survey
We present high-resolution spectroscopic observations of 21 B-typestars, selected from the Edinburgh-Cape Blue Object Survey. Modelatmosphere analyses confirm that 14 of these stars are young,main-sequence B-type objects with Population I chemical compositions.The remaining seven are found to be evolved objects, includingsubdwarfs, horizontal branch and post-AGB objects. A kinematicalanalysis shows that all 14 young main-sequence stars could have formedin the disc and subsequently been ejected into the halo. These resultsare combined with the analysis of a previous subsample of stars takenfrom the Survey. Of the complete sample, 31 have been found to be young,main-sequence objects, with formation in the disc, and subsequentejection into the halo, again being found to be a plausible scenario.
| Rotational velocities of B-type stars from the Edinburgh-Cape survey
The projected rotational velocity distribution for a sample of 34 highGalactic latitude B-type stars from the Edinburgh-Cape Faint Blue ObjectSurvey is presented to investigate the evolutionary status of the groupas a whole. Statistical analyses of the distribution show it to besimilar to that expected if the sample contained mainly normalPopulation i early B-type stars, although a contamination of up to 20 %by evolved stars cannot be ruled out. This implies that a large fractionof the sample consists of normal Population i B-type stars similar tothose found in the Galactic disk. Possible mechanisms explaining thepresence of these stars in the halo are briefly discussed.
| The 73rd Name-List of Variable Stars
Not Available
| Photometry of faint blue stars - IX
Stromgren uv by photometry is presented for 129 `faint blue' stars takenfrom various catalogues. The photometry is used to estimate photometric`classifications' for the stars, which indicate a mixture of hotsubdwarfs, horizontal-branch stars, metal-weak subdwarfs and so on.Attention is drawn to stars (from this paper and previous papers in theseries) which appear to be somewhat reddened. Some are probablybinaries, and others might be objects with peculiar colours, such ascataclysmic variables. One star, LB 9963, almost certainly falls intothe latter category. Two stars which, from their colours, are PopulationII A-F stars are variable; one of these, OM 89, is the known RR Lyraestar, VW Dor.
| Interstellar titanium in the galactic halo
We present observations of Ti II lambda 3384 absorption toward 15distant stars in the Galactic halo and the Magellanic Clouds. These newdata extend existing surveys of the distribution of Ti(+) to largerdistances from the plane of the Galaxy than sampled previously, allowingthe scale height of titaniumn to be determined for the first time. Wefind hTi(+ = 1.5 +/- 0.2 kpc, a value which although greaterthan those of other tracers of neutral gas, is not as large as had beensuspected. We interpret the extended distribution of Ti(+) as anindication that its severe depletion in interstellar clouds in the diskis reduced at the lower densities prevailing in the halo. The data areconsistent with a simple power-law dependence of the Ti abundance on theambient density, with exponent k approximately = -1. If the model iscorrect, it implies that refractory elements like Ti are fully returnedto the gas phase at distances beyond approximately 1 kpc from the planeof the Galaxy.
| The Spacelab-1 Very Wide Field Survey of UV-excess objects. IV. The performance of the instrument in combination with optical photometry as a means of identifying stars with peculiar properties.
UV (195 nm) and Stroemgren uvby photometry of a 110 square degree fieldat high southern galactic latitudes are analyzed through a comparison ofi) UV magnitudes for 57 stars of various types common to the publishedTD1 catalogue and the Very Wide Field Camera (VWFC); and ii) observedand theoretical two-colour diagrams. The higher sensitivity of the VWFC(=~0.5magnitude) and its more complete survey are exemplified by thedetection and UV measurement of a series of objects with moderateUV-excess in addition to detection of some very blue objects of variousnature down to fainter than 12th magnitude in the optical domain. Adeeper survey with a VWFC-type instrument could provide a completesample for studies of the group properties of faint blue stars. Duringthe uvby reductions it was found that the usual procedure of plottingresiduals as functions of declination, hour angle and airmass can be apowerful and diagnostic test of photometer rigidity.
| The distribution of neutral hydrogen in the interstellar medium. 1: The data
We compile, from the existing literature, the largest sample to date(842 data points) of hydrogen column density measurements, N(H I), ofthe gas in the interstellar medium. We include only results obtainedfrom absorption measurements toward individual stars (594 in our sample)in an effort to construct a three-dimensional picture of theinterstellar gas. We derive hydrogen column densities toward a fractionof the stars in the sample from published column density measurements ofmetal ions. A three-dimensional physical model derived from this dataset will be presented in a companion paper. The observed stars spandistances from a few parsecs to a few thousand parsecs, and more thanhalf of the sample serves to describe the local interstellar mediumwithin a few hundred parsecs of the Sun. Hydrogen column densities rangefrom 1017 to 1022/sq cm. We describe here thevarious observational methods used to estimate the hydrogen columndensities and present the table with the stellar and hydrogen columndensity data. The provided table is intended as a global reference work,not to introduce new results.
| An IUE survey of interstellar H I LY alpha absorption. 1: Column densities
We measure Galactic interstellar neutral hydrogen column densities byanalyzing archival interstellar Ly alpha absorption line data toward 554B2 and hotter stars observed at high resolution with the IUE satellite.This study more than doubles the number of lines of sight with measuresof N(H I) based on Ly alpha. We have included the scattered lightbackground correction algorithm of Bianchi and Bohlin in our datareduction. We use the correlation between the Balmer discontinuity(c1) index and the stellar Ly alpha absorption in order toassess the effects of stellar Ly alpha contamination. Approximately 40%of the B stars with measured (c1) index, exhibit seriousstellar Ly alpha contamination. One table contains the derived values ofthe interstellar N(H I) for 393 stars with at most small amounts ofstellar contamination. Another lists the observed values of total N(H I)for 161 stars with suspected stellar Ly alpha contamination and/oruncertain stellar parameters.
| South African Astronomical Observatory. Research.
Not Available
| The distribution of interstellar AL III away from the Galactic plane
IUE spectra are analyzed to study the density distribution ofinterstellar Al III away from the Galactic plane. In most cases, themeasured values of the relative line strengths are consistent with onlymodest levels of line saturation. Al III is found to have an exponentialscale height and 1 sigma errors of 1.02(+0.36, -0.24) kpc. For the sameset of 70 stars, the scale height and 1 sigma errors for H I are0.67(+0.21, -0.16) kpc. The Al III scale height is similar to the valueobtained for free electrons from pulsar dispersion measures. The ionizedgas traced by Al III is somewhat more extended than the neutral gastraced by H I but less extended than the very highly ionized gas tracedby Si IV, C IV, and N V.
| The runaway nature of distant early-type stars in the galactic halo
The kinematics of a sample of 32 distant halo B-stars with masses in therange 3-21 solar masses are investigated using the current 'runawaystar' hypotheses to establish if they belong to this group of stars.Whether postmass transfer secondaries in evolved massive close binariescan be normal low mass B-stars is discussed, but support for this ideais not found. Thus it appears that the lower mass stars could not havebeen ejected out of the disk as a result of supernova explosions inmassive close binaries, while the higher mass objects do not in generalreveal a binary nature as expected from this theory. The results ofrecent N-body simulations of the purely dynamical ejection of runawaystars from young galactic star clusters are in excellent agreement withthe observations. Thus it appears that these halo stars are the mostdistant subgroup of OB runaways produced by cluster ejection yetobserved.
| Estimation of the equivalent width of the interstellar CA II K absorption line
Literature values for the equivalent width of the interstellarabsorption line of Ca II K (3933 A) are used to constrain a simpleempirical model for the strength of this line as a function of distancefrom the galactic plane. The best-fit model has an integrated Ca II Kequivalent width in the direction perpendicular to the galactic plane ofapproximately 200 mA and a 'scale height' of approximately 1100 pc. Sucha model is useful for estimating (and correcting for) the contributionof the interstellar Ca II K feature to the total observed Ca II K linestrength in the spectra of metal-deficient stars in the galactic halo.
| The kinematics of Milky Way halo gas. I - Observations of low-ionization species
Ultraviolet interstellar line day observed with the IUE toward 70 halostars and four extragalactic sight lines are analyzed in a study of thelarge-scale kinematic properties of the Milky Way halo gas. The motionsof the low-ionization gas is focused on. Large systematic velocities arefound, and a pronounced asymmetry in the absorption characteristics ofhalo gas toward the Galactic poles is indicated. In the north,substantial amounts of material are falling toward the disk atvelocities up to about 120 km/s in the most extreme case. Toward thesouth, low-ionization material shows no extreme or systematic motions.
| The density distribution of refractory elements away from the Galactic plane
The density distributions of the three refractory elements Ti II, Ca II,and Fe II away from the Galactic plane are compared with thedistribution of hydrogen and dust by examining plots of N s in b versusz. It is found that Ti II and Ca II are considerably more extended in zthan the H I and dust and that Fe II has an intermediate extension.Although the results are strongly influenced by sample bias, theindicated exponential scale heights for the data sample are h(Ti II) notless than 2 kpc, h(Ca II) = 1 kpc, h(Fe II) = 0.5 kpc, H(H I) = 0.3 kpc,and h(E/B-V) = 0.1 kpc. Furthermore, it is demonstrated that Ti II andCa II are much more smoothly distributed in space than the hydrogen ordust. The large scale heights for Ti II and Ca II and their smoothdistributions are most easily understood as the effect of a mixturealong the line of sight of two H I phases namely, a diffuse cloud phase,in which nearly all of the Ti and Ca are tied up in dust, and anintercloud medium, where refractory elements are less depleted. It isfound that Ti II and Ca II mostly trace the smoothly distributedintercloud medium. The smoothness of the distributions of Ti II and CaII makes them candidates for use as distance indicators.
| Analysis of high-latitude blue stars. III - Three emission-line stars
A simple analysis is made of three high-latitude B stars which haveemission lines. Balmer line equivalent widths from Reticon spectrogramstogether with published Stromgren photometry are used to determinedT(eff) and log g and the He I line widths are used to estimate values ofV sin i. The results are checked by fitting Kurucz profiles to theobserved H-delta profiles. All three stars appear to be normal Be starsat distances between 3 and 7 kpc from the galactic plane.
| Radial velocities and spectral types for a sample of faint blue stars.
Not Available
| Variability in the High Latitude Be Star JL 212 (= CPD -56 154)
Not Available
| Interstellar CA II absorption toward early-type stars at high Galactic latitudes
New high resolution AAT and INT observations of the Ca II 3933 Åinterstellar line towards nine early-type stars at high galacticlatitudes are presented. These are combined with the authors' earlierAAT data to investigate the distribution of Ca II in the galactic halo.A comparison of these results with Ca II equivalent widths forextragalactic sightlines implies that there is a significant amount ofthis ion out to z ≅ 1 kpc, but not much beyond z ≅ 2 kpc. Nocoincident high velocity Ca II absorption is detected in the spectra ofstars near known high velocity clouds (HVC). Although this may indicatethat the HVCs are either at greater distances than the stars or haveangular extents smaller than the separations of the stellar and HVCsightlines, it is also possible that they are nearby but contain toolittle Ca II to produce an observable absorption line.
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Observation and Astrometry data
| Constellation: | Phénix |
| Right ascension: | 00h49m01.30s |
| Declination: | -56°05'49.4" |
| Apparent magnitude: | 10.237 |
| Proper motion RA: | 0.8 |
| Proper motion Dec: | -2.1 |
| B-T magnitude: | 10.097 |
| V-T magnitude: | 10.226 |
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INHABITED SKY
