We present new reddening maps of the Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC) and Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) based on the data of the third phase of the Optical Gravitational Lensing Experiment (OGLE III). We ...have used two different methods to derive optical reddening maps. We adopt a theoretical mean unreddened color for the red clump (RC) in the SMC and LMC, respectively. We subdivide the photometric data for both Clouds into subfields and calculate the difference between the observed RC position and the theoretical value for each field, which provides us with the reddening value in (V -- I). Furthermore, reddening values are obtained for 13490 LMC RR Lyrae ab and 1529 SMC RR Lyrae ab stars covering the whole OGLE III region of the Magellanic Clouds (MCs). The observed colors (V -- I) of the RR Lyrae stars are compared with the color from the absolute magnitudes. The absolute magnitude of each RR Lyrae star is computed using its period and metallicity derived from Fourier decomposition of its light curve. In general, we find a low and uniform reddening distribution in both MCs. The RC method indicates a mean reddening of the LMC of E(V -- I) = 0.09 ? 0.07 mag, while for the SMC E(V -- I) = 0.04 ? 0.06 mag is obtained. With RR Lyrae stars a median value of E(V -- I) = 0.11 ? 0.06 mag for the LMC and E(V -- I) = 0.07 ? 0.06 mag for the SMC is found. The LMC shows very low reddening in the bar region, whereas the reddening in the star-forming leading edge and 30 Doradus is considerably higher. In the SMC, three pronounced regions with higher reddening are visible. Two are located along the bar, while the highest reddening is found in the star-forming wing of the SMC. In general, the regions with higher reddening are in good spatial agreement with infrared reddening maps as well as with reddening estimations of other studies. The position-dependent reddening values from the RC method are available via the German Astrophysical Virtual Observatory interface.
The far side of the Milky Way's disk is one of the most concealed parts of the known universe due to extremely high interstellar extinction and point-source density toward low Galactic latitudes. ...Large time-domain photometric surveys operating in the near-infrared hold great potential for the exploration of these vast uncharted areas of our Galaxy. We conducted a census of distant classical and type II Cepheids along the southern Galactic midplane using near-infrared photometry from the VISTA Variables in the Vía Láctea survey. We performed a machine-learned classification of the Cepheids based on their infrared light curves using a convolutional neural network. We have discovered 640 distant classical Cepheids with up to ∼40 mag of visual extinction and over 500 type II Cepheids, most of them located in the inner bulge. Intrinsic color indices of individual Cepheids were predicted from sparse photometric data using a neural network, allowing their use as accurate reddening tracers. They revealed a steep, spatially varying near-infrared extinction curve toward the inner bulge. Type II Cepheids in the Galactic bulge were also employed to measure robust mean selective-to-absolute extinction ratios. They trace a centrally concentrated spatial distribution of the old bulge population with a slight elongation, consistent with earlier results from RR Lyrae stars. Likewise, the classical Cepheids were utilized to trace the Galactic warp and various substructures of the Galactic disk and uncover significant vertical and radial age gradients of the thin disk population at the far side of the Milky Way.
Aiming to extend the census of RR Lyrae stars to highly reddened low-latitude regions of the central Milky Way, we performed a deep near-IR variability search using data from the VISTA Variables in ...the Vía Láctea (VVV) survey of the bulge, analyzing the photometric time series of over a hundred million point sources. In order to separate fundamental-mode RR Lyrae (RRab) stars from other periodically variable sources, we trained a deep bidirectional long short-term memory recurrent neural network (RNN) classifier using VVV survey data and catalogs of RRab stars discovered and classified by optical surveys. Our classifier attained a ∼99% precision and recall for light curves with signal-to-noise ratio above 60, and is comparable to the best-performing classifiers trained on accurate optical data. Using our RNN classifier, we identified over 4300 hitherto unknown bona fide RRab stars toward the inner bulge. We provide their photometric catalog and VVV photometric time series.
ABSTRACT We report the discovery of DGSAT I, an ultra-diffuse, quenched galaxy located 10 4 in projection from the Andromeda galaxy (M31). This low-surface brightness galaxy ( V = 24.8 mag arcsec−2), ...found with a small amateur telescope, appears unresolved in sub-arcsecond archival Subaru/Suprime-Cam images, and hence has been missed by optical surveys relying on resolved star counts, in spite of its relatively large effective radius (Re(V) = 12″) and proximity (15′) to the well-known dwarf spheroidal galaxy And II. Its red color (V − I = 1.0), shallow Sérsic index (nV = 0.68), and the absence of detectable H emission are typical properties of dwarf spheroidal galaxies and suggest that it is mainly composed of old stars. Initially interpreted as an interesting case of an isolated dwarf spheroidal galaxy in the local universe, our radial velocity measurement obtained with the BTA 6 m telescope (Vh = 5450 40 km s−1) shows that this system is an M31-background galaxy associated with the filament of the Pisces-Perseus supercluster. At the distance of this cluster (∼78 Mpc), DGSAT I would have an Re ∼ 4.7 kpc and MV ∼ −16.3. Its properties resemble those of the ultra-diffuse galaxies (UDGs) recently discovered in the Coma cluster. DGSAT I is the first case of these rare UDGs found in this galaxy cluster. Unlike the UDGs associated with the Coma and Virgo clusters, DGSAT I is found in a much lower density environment, which provides a fresh constraint on the formation mechanisms for this intriguing class of galaxy.
The orbits, atmospheric parameters, chemical abundances, and ages of individual stars in the Milky Way provide the most comprehensive illustration of galaxy formation available. The Tycho-Gaia ...Astrometric Solution (TGAS) will deliver astrometric parameters for the largest ever sample of Milky Way stars, though its full potential cannot be realized without the addition of complementary spectroscopy. Among existing spectroscopic surveys, the RAdial Velocity Experiment (RAVE) has the largest overlap with TGAS ( 200,000 stars). We present a data-driven re-analysis of 520,781 RAVE spectra using The Cannon. For red giants, we build our model using high-fidelity APOGEE stellar parameters and abundances for stars that overlap with RAVE. For main sequence and sub-giant stars, our model uses stellar parameters from the K2/EPIC. We derive and validate effective temperature Teff, surface gravity log g, and chemical abundances of up to seven elements (O, Mg, Al, Si, Ca, Fe, and Ni). We report a total of 1,685,851 elemental abundances with a typical precision of 0.07 dex, a substantial improvement over previous RAVE data releases. The synthesis of RAVE-on and TGAS is the most powerful data set for chemo-dynamic analyses of the Milky Way ever produced.
This paper presents the detailed abundances and r-process classifications of 126 newly identified metal-poor stars as part of an ongoing collaboration, the R-Process Alliance. The stars were ...identified as metal-poor candidates from the RAdial Velocity Experiment (RAVE) and were followed up at high spectral resolution (R ∼ 31,500) with the 3.5 m telescope at Apache Point Observatory. The atmospheric parameters were determined spectroscopically from Fe i lines, taking into account non-LTE corrections and using differential abundances with respect to a set of standards. Of the 126 new stars, 124 have Fe/H < −1.5, 105 have Fe/H < −2.0, and 4 have Fe/H < −3.0. Nine new carbon-enhanced metal-poor stars have been discovered, three of which are enhanced in r-process elements. Abundances of neutron-capture elements reveal 60 new r-I stars (with +0.3 ≤ Eu/Fe ≤ +1.0 and Ba/Eu < 0) and 4 new r-II stars (with Eu/Fe > +1.0). Nineteen stars are found to exhibit a "limited-r" signature (Sr/Ba > +0.5, Ba/Eu < 0). For the r-II stars, the second- and third-peak main r-process patterns are consistent with the r-process signature in other metal-poor stars and the Sun. The abundances of the light, , and Fe-peak elements match those of typical Milky Way (MW) halo stars, except for one r-I star that has high Na and low Mg, characteristic of globular cluster stars. Parallaxes and proper motions from the second Gaia data release yield UVW space velocities for these stars that are consistent with membership in the MW halo. Intriguingly, all r-II and the majority of r-I stars have retrograde orbits, which may indicate an accretion origin.
We use data on variable stars from the Optical Gravitational Lensing Experiment survey to determine the three-dimensional structure of the Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC). Deriving individual distances ...to RR Lyrae stars and Cepheids, we investigate the distribution of these tracers of the old and young populations in the SMC. Individual reddening estimates from the intrinsic color of each star are used to obtain high precision three-dimensional maps. The distances of RR Lyrae stars and Cepheids are in very good agreement with each other. The young population is very differently oriented than the old stars. The RR Lyrae stars show a fairly homogeneous distribution, while the Cepheids roughly follow the distribution of the bar, with their northeastern part being closer to us than the southwestern part of the bar. Interactions between the SMC, Large Magellanic Cloud, and Milky Way are presumably responsible for the tilted, elongated structure of the young population of the SMC.
Abstract
We attempt to identify RR Lyrae (RRL) stars in stellar streams that might have escaped from seven globular clusters (GCs) based on proper motions, distances, color–magnitude diagrams, and ...other properties extracted from the Gaia Early Data Release 3 (EDR3) database. Specifically, we cross-match two large RRL stars catalogs (from Gaia DR2 and Catalina Sky Survey) with each other and with the EDR3 database, and we end up with a sample of ∼150,000 unique RRL stars. We calculate distances to RRL stars using the
M
G
–Fe/H and
M
V
–Fe/H absolute magnitude–metallicity relations and adopt Fe/H values for the GCs from different spectroscopic studies. We also constrain our search to areas where stellar streams associated with GCs were previously suggested or identified in other studies. We identify 24 RRL stars that might have escaped from the following seven GCs: Palomar 13 (Pal 13), NGC 6341 (M92), NGC 5904 (M5), NGC 5466, NGC 1261, NGC 288, and NGC 1851. We list our findings in Table 2.
Abstract
We present the detection of 89 low surface brightness (LSB), and thus low stellar density galaxy candidates in the Perseus cluster core, of the kind named ‘ultra-diffuse galaxies’, with mean ...effective V-band surface brightnesses 24.8–27.1 mag arcsec−2, total V-band magnitudes −11.8 to −15.5 mag, and half-light radii 0.7–4.1 kpc. The candidates have been identified in a deep mosaic covering 0.3 deg2, based on wide-field imaging data obtained with the William Herschel Telescope. We find that the LSB galaxy population is depleted in the cluster centre and only very few LSB candidates have half-light radii larger than 3 kpc. This appears consistent with an estimate of their tidal radius, which does not reach beyond the stellar extent even if we assume a high dark matter content (M/L = 100). In fact, three of our candidates seem to be associated with tidal streams, which points to their current disruption. Given that published data on faint LSB candidates in the Coma cluster – with its comparable central density to Perseus – show the same dearth of large objects in the core region, we conclude that these cannot survive the strong tides in the centres of massive clusters.
Abstract
We have revisited the problem of metallicity prediction of RR Lyrae stars from their near-infrared light curves in the Cousins
I
wave band. Our study is based on high-quality time series ...photometry and state-of-the-art high-resolution spectroscopic abundance measurements of 80 fundamental-mode (RRab) and 24 first-overtone (RRc) stars, spanning ∼−2.7, +0.18 dex and ∼−3, −0.5 dex ranges, respectively. Employing machine-learning methods, we investigated various light-curve representations and regression models to identify their optimal form for our objective. Accurate new empirical relations between the Fe/H iron abundance and the light-curve parameters have been obtained using Bayesian regression for both RRab and RRc stars with mean absolute prediction errors of 0.16 dex and 0.18 dex, respectively. We found that earlier
I
-band Fe/H estimates had a systematic positive bias of up to ∼0.4 dex in the metal-poor regime. Our new predictive models were deployed on large ensembles of RR Lyrae stars to obtain photometric metallicity distribution functions (MDFs) for various old stellar populations in and around the Milky Way. We find that the mode of the old bulge component’s MDF is approximately −1.4 dex, in remarkable agreement with the latest spectroscopic result. Furthermore, we derive MDF modes of −1.83, −2.13, and −1.77 dex for the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds and the Sagittarius dwarf galaxy, respectively.
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