Contents
Images
Upload your image
DSS Images Other Images
Related articles
The Geneva-Copenhagen survey of the solar neighbourhood. III. Improved distances, ages, and kinematics
Context: Ages, chemical compositions, velocity vectors, and Galacticorbits for stars in the solar neighbourhood are fundamental test datafor models of Galactic evolution. The Geneva-Copenhagen Survey of theSolar Neighbourhood (Nordström et al. 2004; GCS), amagnitude-complete, kinematically unbiased sample of 16 682 nearby F andG dwarfs, is the largest available sample with complete data for starswith ages spanning that of the disk. Aims: We aim to improve theaccuracy of the GCS data by implementing the recent revision of theHipparcos parallaxes. Methods: The new parallaxes yield improvedastrometric distances for 12 506 stars in the GCS. We also use theparallaxes to verify the distance calibration for uvby? photometryby Holmberg et al. (2007, A&A, 475, 519; GCS II). We add newselection criteria to exclude evolved cool stars giving unreliableresults and derive distances for 3580 stars with large parallax errorsor not observed by Hipparcos. We also check the GCS II scales of T_effand [Fe/H] and find no need for change. Results: Introducing thenew distances, we recompute MV for 16 086 stars, and U, V, W,and Galactic orbital parameters for the 13 520 stars that also haveradial-velocity measurements. We also recompute stellar ages from thePadova stellar evolution models used in GCS I-II, using the new valuesof M_V, and compare them with ages from the Yale-Yonsei andVictoria-Regina models. Finally, we compare the observed age-velocityrelation in W with three simulated disk heating scenarios to show thepotential of the data. Conclusions: With these revisions, thebasic data for the GCS stars should now be as reliable as is possiblewith existing techniques. Further improvement must await consolidationof the T_eff scale from angular diameters and fluxes, and the Gaiatrigonometric parallaxes. We discuss the conditions for improvingcomputed stellar ages from new input data, and for distinguishingdifferent disk heating scenarios from data sets of the size andprecision of the GCS.Full Table 1 is only available in electronic form at the CDS viaanonymous ftp to cdsarc.u-strasbg.fr (130.79.128.5) or viahttp://cdsweb.u-strasbg.fr/cgi-bin/qcat?J/A+A/501/941
| The Radial Velocity Experiment (rave): Second Data Release
We present the second data release of the Radial Velocity Experiment(RAVE), an ambitious spectroscopic survey to measure radial velocitiesand stellar atmosphere parameters (temperature, metallicity, surfacegravity, and rotational velocity) of up to one million stars using the 6dF multi-object spectrograph on the 1.2 m UK Schmidt Telescope of theAnglo-Australian Observatory (AAO). The RAVE program started in 2003,obtaining medium resolution spectra (median R = 7500) in the Ca-tripletregion (8410-8795 Å) for southern hemisphere stars drawn from theTycho-2 and SuperCOSMOS catalogues, in the magnitude range 9 < I <12. Following the first data release, the current release doubles thesample of published radial velocities, now containing 51,829 radialvelocities for 49,327 individual stars observed on 141 nights between2003 April 11 and 2005 March 31. Comparison with external data setsshows that the new data collected since 2004 April 3 show a standarddeviation of 1.3 km s–1, about twice as good as for thefirst data release. For the first time, this data release containsvalues of stellar parameters from 22,407 spectra of 21,121 individualstars. They were derived by a penalized χ2 method usingan extensive grid of synthetic spectra calculated from the latestversion of Kurucz stellar atmosphere models. From comparison withexternal data sets, our conservative estimates of errors of the stellarparameters for a spectrum with an average signal-to-noise ratio (S/N) of~40 are 400 K in temperature, 0.5 dex in gravity, and 0.2 dex inmetallicity. We note however that, for all three stellar parameters, theinternal errors estimated from repeat RAVE observations of 855 stars areat least a factor 2 smaller. We demonstrate that the results show nosystematic offsets if compared to values derived from photometry orcomplementary spectroscopic analyses. The data release includes propermotions from Starnet2, Tycho-2, and UCAC2 catalogs and photometricmeasurements from Tycho-2 USNO-B, DENIS, and 2MASS. The data release canbe accessed via the RAVE Web site: http://www.rave-survey.org andthrough CDS.
| Metallicities and activities of southern stars
Aims. We present the results from high-resolution spectroscopicmeasurements to determine metallicities and activities of bright starsin the southern hemisphere. Methods: We measured the iron abundances([Fe/H]'s) and chromospheric emission indices (log h{R}'{HK})of 353 solar-type stars with V = 7.5-9.5. [Fe/H] abundances aredetermined using a custom χ2 fitting procedure within alarge grid of Kurucz model atmospheres. The chromospheric activitieswere determined by measuring the amount of emission in the cores of thestrong Caii HK lines. Results: Our comparison of the metallicity sampleto other [Fe/H] determinations was found to agree at the ±0.05dex level for spectroscopic values and at the ±0.1 dex level forphotometric values. The distribution of chromospheric activities isdescribed by a bimodal distribution, agreeing with the conclusions fromother works. Also an analysis of Maunder minimum status was attempted,and it was found that 6 ± 4 stars in the sample could be in aMaunder minimum phase of their evolution and hence the Sun should onlyspend a few per cent of its main sequence lifetime in Maunder minimum.Based on observations made with the ESO telescopes at the La SillaParanal observatory under programme ID's 076.C-0578(B) and077.C-0192(A). Table 4 is only available in electronic form at the CDSvia anonymous ftp to cdsarc.u-strasbg.fr (130.79.128.5) or viahttp://cdsweb.u-strasbg.fr/cgi-bin/qcat?J/A+A/485/571
| Pulkovo compilation of radial velocities for 35495 stars in a common system.
Not Available
| The Geneva-Copenhagen survey of the Solar neighbourhood. Ages, metallicities, and kinematic properties of 14 000 F and G dwarfs
We present and discuss new determinations of metallicity, rotation, age,kinematics, and Galactic orbits for a complete, magnitude-limited, andkinematically unbiased sample of 16 682 nearby F and G dwarf stars. Our63 000 new, accurate radial-velocity observations for nearly 13 500stars allow identification of most of the binary stars in the sampleand, together with published uvbyβ photometry, Hipparcosparallaxes, Tycho-2 proper motions, and a few earlier radial velocities,complete the kinematic information for 14 139 stars. These high-qualityvelocity data are supplemented by effective temperatures andmetallicities newly derived from recent and/or revised calibrations. Theremaining stars either lack Hipparcos data or have fast rotation. Amajor effort has been devoted to the determination of new isochrone agesfor all stars for which this is possible. Particular attention has beengiven to a realistic treatment of statistical biases and errorestimates, as standard techniques tend to underestimate these effectsand introduce spurious features in the age distributions. Our ages agreewell with those by Edvardsson et al. (\cite{edv93}), despite severalastrophysical and computational improvements since then. We demonstrate,however, how strong observational and theoretical biases cause thedistribution of the observed ages to be very different from that of thetrue age distribution of the sample. Among the many basic relations ofthe Galactic disk that can be reinvestigated from the data presentedhere, we revisit the metallicity distribution of the G dwarfs and theage-metallicity, age-velocity, and metallicity-velocity relations of theSolar neighbourhood. Our first results confirm the lack of metal-poor Gdwarfs relative to closed-box model predictions (the ``G dwarfproblem''), the existence of radial metallicity gradients in the disk,the small change in mean metallicity of the thin disk since itsformation and the substantial scatter in metallicity at all ages, andthe continuing kinematic heating of the thin disk with an efficiencyconsistent with that expected for a combination of spiral arms and giantmolecular clouds. Distinct features in the distribution of the Vcomponent of the space motion are extended in age and metallicity,corresponding to the effects of stochastic spiral waves rather thanclassical moving groups, and may complicate the identification ofthick-disk stars from kinematic criteria. More advanced analyses of thisrich material will require careful simulations of the selection criteriafor the sample and the distribution of observational errors.Based on observations made with the Danish 1.5-m telescope at ESO, LaSilla, Chile, and with the Swiss 1-m telescope at Observatoire deHaute-Provence, France.Complete Tables 1 and 2 are only available in electronic form at the CDSvia anonymous ftp to cdsarc.u-strasbg.fr (130.79.128.5) or viahttp://cdsweb.u-strasbg.fr/cgi-bin/qcat?J/A+A/418/989
| Mining the Metal-rich Stars for Planets
We examine the correlation between stellar metallicity and the presenceof short-period planets. It appears that approximately 1% of dwarf starsin the solar neighborhood harbor short-period planets characterized bynear-circular orbits and orbital periods P<20 days. However, amongthe most metal-rich stars (defined as having [Fe/H]>0.2 dex), itappears that the fraction increases to 10%. Using the Hipparcos databaseand the Hauck & Mermilliod compilation of Strömgren uvbyphotometry, we identify a sample of 206 metal-rich stars of spectraltype K, G and F which have an enhanced probability of harboringshort-period planets. Many of these stars would be excellent candidatesfor addition to radial velocity surveys. We have searched the Hipparcosepoch photometry for transiting planets within our 206 star catalog. Wefind that the quality of the Hipparcos data is not high enough to permitunambiguous transit detections. It is, however, possible to identifycandidate transit periods. We then discuss various ramifications of thestellar metallicity-planet connection. First, we show that there ispreliminary evidence for increasing metallicity with increasing stellarmass among known planet-bearing stars. This trend can be explained by ascenario in which planet-bearing stars accrete an average of 30M⊕ of rocky material after the gaseous protoplanetarydisk phase has ended. We present dynamical calculations which suggestthat a survey of metallicities of spectroscopic binary stars can be usedto understand the root cause of the stellar metallicity-planetconnection.
|
Submit a new article
Related links
Submit a new link
Member of following groups:
|
Observation and Astrometry data
| Constellation: | Sagittarius |
| Right ascension: | 20h06m23.89s |
| Declination: | -14°54'43.7" |
| Apparent magnitude: | 8.132 |
| Distance: | 53.476 parsecs |
| Proper motion RA: | -42.8 |
| Proper motion Dec: | -129 |
| B-T magnitude: | 8.917 |
| V-T magnitude: | 8.197 |
Catalogs and designations:
|
INHABITED SKY
