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An Imaging Survey for Extrasolar Planets around 45 Close, Young Stars with the Simultaneous Differential Imager at the Very Large Telescope and MMT
We present the results of a survey of 45 young (<~250 Myr), close(<~50 pc) stars with the Simultaneous Differential Imager (SDI)implemented at the VLT and the MMT for the direct detection ofextrasolar planets. As part of the survey, we observed 54 objects,consisting of 45 close, young stars; two more distant (<150 pc),extremely young (<=10 Myr) stars; three stars with known radialvelocity planets; and four older, very nearby (<=20 pc) solaranalogs. Our SDI devices use a double Wollaston prism and a quad filterto take images simultaneously at three wavelengths surrounding the 1.62μm methane absorption bandhead found in the spectrum of cool browndwarfs and gas giant planets. By differencing adaptive optics-correctedimages in these filters, speckle noise from the primary star issignificantly attenuated, resulting in photon (andflat-field)-noise-limited data. In our VLT data, we achieved H-bandcontrasts>~10 mag (5 σ) at a separation of 0.5" from theprimary star on 45% of our targets and H-band contrasts>~9 mag at aseparation of 0.5" on 80% of our targets. With these contrasts, we canimage (5 σ detection) a 7 MJ planet 15 AU from a 70 MyrK1 star at 15 pc or a 7.8 MJ planet at 2 AU from a 12 Myr Mstar at 10 pc. We detected no candidates with S/N>2 σ whichbehaved consistently like a real object. From our survey null result, wecan rule out (with 93% confidence) a model planet population whereN(a)~constant out to a distance of 45 AU.Steward Observatory, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ 85721.
| SIM PlanetQuest Key Project Precursor Observations to Detect Gas Giant Planets around Young Stars
We present a review of precursor observing programs for the SIMPlanetQuest Key Project devoted to detecting Jupiter-mass planets aroundyoung stars. In order to ensure that the stars in the sample are free ofvarious sources of astrometric noise that might impede the detection ofplanets, we have initiated programs to collect photometry, high-contrastimages, interferometric data, and radial velocities for stars in boththe northern and southern hemispheres. We have completed a high-contrastimaging survey of target stars in Taurus and the Pleiades and found nodefinitive common proper motion companions within 1" (140 AU) of the SIMtargets. Our radial velocity surveys have shown that many of the targetstars in Sco-Cen are fast rotators, and a few stars in Taurus and thePleiades may have substellar companions. Interferometric data of a fewstars in Taurus show no signs of stellar or substellar companions withseparations of 5-50 mas. The photometric survey suggests thatapproximately half of the stars initially selected for this program arevariable to a degree (1 σ > 0.1 mag) that would degrade theastrometric accuracy achievable for that star. While the precursorprograms are still a work in progress, we provide a comprehensive listof all targets and rank them according to their viability as a result ofthe observations taken to date. The observable that removes by far themost targets from the SIM young stellar object (YSO) program isphotometric variability.
| Rotation and Activity of Pre-Main-Sequence Stars
We present a study of rotation (vsini) and chromospheric activity(Hα equivalent width) based on an extensive set of high-resolutionoptical spectra obtained with the MIKE instrument on the 6.5 m MagellanClay telescope. Our targets are 74 F-M dwarfs in four young stellarassociations, spanning ages from 6 to 30 Myr. By comparing Hα EWsin our sample to results in the literature, we see a clear evolutionarysequence: Chromospheric activity declines steadily from the T Tauriphase to the main sequence. Using activity as an age indicator, we finda plausible age range for the Tuc-Hor association of 10-40 Myr. Between5 and 30 Myr, we do not see evidence for rotational braking in the totalsample, and thus angular momentum is conserved, in contrast to youngerstars. This difference indicates a change in the rotational regulationat ~5-10 Myr, possibly because disk braking cannot operate longer thantypical disk lifetimes, allowing the objects to spin up. Therotation-activity relation is flat in our sample; in contrast tomain-sequence stars, there is no linear correlation for slow rotators.We argue that this is because young stars generate their magnetic fieldsin a fundamentally different way from main-sequence stars, and not justthe result of a saturated solar-type dynamo. By comparing our rotationalvelocities with published rotation periods for a subset of stars, wedetermine ages of 13+7-6 and9+8-2 Myr for the η Cha and TWA associations,respectively, consistent with previous estimates. Thus we conclude thatstellar radii from evolutionary models by Baraffe et al. (1998) are inagreement with the observed radii to within +/-15%.
| Unraveling the Origins of Nearby Young Stars
A systematic search for close conjunctions and clusterings in the pastof nearby stars younger than the Pleiades is undertaken, which mayreveal the time, location, and mechanism of formation of these oftenisolated, disconnected from clusters and star-forming regions, objects.The sample under investigation includes 101 T Tauri, post-TT, andmain-sequence stars and stellar systems with signs of youth, culled fromthe literature. Their Galactic orbits are traced back in time and nearapproaches are evaluated in time, distance, and relative velocity.Numerous clustering events are detected, providing clues to the originof very young, isolated stars. Each star's orbit is also matched withthose of nearby young open clusters, OB and TT associations andstar-forming molecular clouds, including the Ophiuchus, Lupus, CoronaAustralis, and Chamaeleon regions. Ejection of young stars from openclusters is ruled out for nearly all investigated objects, but thenearest OB associations in Scorpius-Centaurus, and especially, the denseclouds in Ophiuchus and Corona Australis have likely played a major rolein the generation of the local streams (TWA, Beta Pic, andTucana-Horologium) that happen to be close to the Sun today. The core ofthe Tucana-Horologium association probably originated from the vicinityof the Upper Scorpius association 28 Myr ago. A few proposed members ofthe AB Dor moving group were in conjunction with the coeval Cepheus OB6association 38 Myr ago.
| Deep imaging survey of the environment of α Centauri. I. Adaptive optics imaging of α Cen B with VLT-NACO
Context: .α Centauri is our closest stellar neighbor, at adistance of only 1.3 pc, and its two main components have spectral typescomparable to the Sun. This is therefore a favorable target for animaging search for extrasolar planets. Moreover, indications exist thatthe gravitational mass of α Cen B is higher than its modeled mass,the difference being consistent with a substellar companion of a fewtens of Jupiter masses. Aims: .We searched for faint comovingcompanions to α Cen B. As a secondary objective, we built acatalogue of the detected background sources. Methods: .We usedthe NACO adaptive optics system of the VLT in the J, H, andKs bands to search for companions to α Cen B. Thisinstrument allowed us to achieve a very high sensitivity to point-likesources, with a limiting magnitude of mKs ≈ 18 at 7'' fromthe star. We complemented this data set with archival coronagraphicimages from the HST-ACS instrument to obtain an accurate astrometriccalibration. Results: .Over the observed area, we did not detectany comoving companion to α Cen B down to an absolute magnitude of19-20 in the H and Ks bands. However, we present a catalogueof 252 background objects within about 15'' of the star. This cataloguefills part of the large void area that surrounds α Cen in skysurveys due to the strong diffused light. We also present a model of thediffused light as a function of angular distance for the NACOinstrument, that can be used to predict the background level for brightstar observations. Conclusions: .According to recent numericalmodels, the limiting magnitude of our search sets the maximum mass ofpossible companions to 20-30 times Jupiter, between 7 and 20 AU fromα Cen B.
| Accretion Disks around Young Stars: Lifetimes, Disk Locking, and Variability
We report the findings of a comprehensive study of disk accretion andrelated phenomena in four of the nearest young stellar associationsspanning 6-30 million years in age, an epoch that may coincide with thelate stages of planet formation. We have obtained ~650 multiepochhigh-resolution optical spectra of 100 low-mass stars that are likelymembers of the η Chamaeleontis (~6 Myr), TW Hydrae (~8 Myr), βPictoris (~12 Myr), and Tucanae-Horologium (~30 Myr) groups. Our datawere collected over 12 nights between 2004 December and 2005 July on theMagellan Clay 6.5 m telescope. Based on Hα line profiles, alongwith a variety of other emission lines, we find clear evidence ofongoing accretion in 3 out of 11 η Cha stars and 2 out of 32 TWHydrae members. None of the 57 β Pic or Tuc-Hor members showsmeasurable signs of accretion. Together, these results imply significantevolution of the disk-accretion process within the first several Myr ofa low-mass star's life. While a few disks can continue to accrete for upto ~10 Myr, our findings suggest that disks accreting for beyond thattimescale are rather rare. This result provides an indirect constrainton the timescale for gas dissipation in inner disks and, in turn, ongas-giant planet formation. All accretors in our sample are slowrotators, whereas nonaccretors cover a large range in rotationalvelocities. This may hint at rotational braking by disks at ages up to~8 Myr. Our multiepoch spectra confirm that emission-line variability iscommon even in somewhat older T Tauri stars, among which accretors tendto show particularly strong variations. Thus, our results indicate thataccretion and wind activity undergo significant and sustained variationsthroughout the lifetime of accretion disks.
| Contributions to the Nearby Stars (NStars) Project: Spectroscopy of Stars Earlier than M0 within 40 pc-The Southern Sample
We are obtaining spectra, spectral types, and basic physical parametersfor the nearly 3600 dwarf and giant stars earlier than M0 in theHipparcos catalog within 40 pc of the Sun. Here we report on resultsfor 1676 stars in the southern hemisphere observed at Cerro TololoInter-American Observatory and Steward Observatory. These resultsinclude new, precise, homogeneous spectral types, basic physicalparameters (including the effective temperature, surface gravity, andmetallicity [M/H]), and measures of the chromospheric activity of ourprogram stars. We include notes on astrophysically interesting stars inthis sample, the metallicity distribution of the solar neighborhood, anda table of solar analogs. We also demonstrate that the bimodal nature ofthe distribution of the chromospheric activity parameterlogR'HK depends strongly on the metallicity, andwe explore the nature of the ``low-metallicity'' chromosphericallyactive K-type dwarfs.
| Astrometric and spectroscopic confirmation of a brown dwarf companion to GSC 08047-00232. VLT/NACO deep imaging and spectroscopic observations
We report VLT/NACO imaging observations of the stars GSC 08047-00232 andHIP 6856, probable members of the large Tucana-Horologium association.During our previous ADONIS/SHARPII deep imaging survey, a substellarcandidate companion was discovered around each star. Based on VLT/NACOastrometric measurements, we find that GSC 08047-00232 and the faintcandidate companion near to it share the same proper motion with asignificance of 3.1 σ. On the contrary, the candidate companion toHIP 6856 is probably a background object with a significance of 4.3σ. We also detect a new fainter and closer candidate companion toHIP 6856, but which is likely a background object too with asignificance of 4 σ. Recent VLT/NACO spectroscopic measurements ofGSC 08047-00232 finally confirm the substellar nature of this youngbrown dwarf with a derived spectral type M 9.5±1. GSC 08047-00232B, with an estimated mass of 25±10 MJup and aneffective temperature of 2100±200 K, is presently the thirdsubstellar companion identified among young, nearby associations.Based on observations obtained at the VLT in ESO with programs 70.C-0677and 072.C-0644.
| On the Rotation of Post-T Tauri Stars in Associations
Nearby associations or moving groups of post-T Tauri stars with agesbetween ~10 and 30 Myr are excellent objects for the study of theinitial spin-up phase during the pre-main-sequence evolution. Anempirical approach is adopted here for the first time with these starsto infer their rotations, properties, and relations to X-ray emission.Three nearby associations with distances less than 100 pc areconsidered: the TW Hydrae association (TWA) with an age of 8 Myr, theβ Pictoris moving group (BPMG) with an age of 12 Myr, and acombination of Tucana and Horologium associations (Tuc/HorA; 30 Myr).Two low- and high-rotation modes are considered for each association,with stellar masses of0.1Msolar<=M<1.5Msolar and1.5Msolar<=M<=2.6Msolar, respectively.Because no observed rotational periods are known for these stars, we usea mathematical tool to infer representative equatorial rotationvelocities v0(eq) from the observed distribution of projectedrotational velocities (vsini). This is done for each mode and for eachassociation. A spin-up is found for the high-rotation mode, whereas inthe low-rotation mode the v0(eq) do not increasesignificantly. This insufficient increase of v0(eq) isprobably the cause of a decrease of the total mean specific angularmomentum for the low-mass stars between 8 and 30 Myr. However, for thehigh-mass stars, where a sufficient spin-up is present, the specificangular momentum is practically conserved in this same time interval. Atwo-dimensional (mass and vsini) K-S statistical test yields resultscompatible with a spin-up scenario. By supposing that the distributionof the masses of these three associations follows a universal massfunction, we estimate the number of members of these associations thatremain to be detected. The analysis of rotational and stellar massesusing the luminosity X-ray indicators LX andLX/Lb present similar properties, as does thedependence on stellar mass and rotation, at least for the youngerassociations TWA and BPMG, to those obtained for T Tauri stars in theOrion Nebula Cluster (1 Myr). A strong desaturation effect appears at~30 Myr, the age of Tuc/HorA, measured essentially by the early-G andlate-F type stars. This effect seems to be provoked by the minimumconfiguration of the stellar convection layers, attained for the firsttime for the higher mass stars at ~30 Myr. The desaturation appears tobe independent of rotation at this stage.
| Young Stars Near the Sun
Until the late 1990s the rich Hyades and the sparse UMa clusters werethe only coeval, comoving concentrations of stars known within 60 pc ofEarth. Both are hundreds of millions of years old. Then beginning in thelate 1990s the TW Hydrae Association, the Tucana/Horologium Association,the Pictoris Moving Group, and the AB Doradus Moving Group wereidentified within 60 pc of Earth, and the Chamaeleontis cluster wasfound at 97 pc. These young groups (ages 8 50 Myr), along with othernearby, young stars, will enable imaging and spectroscopic studies ofthe origin and early evolution of planetary systems.
| Constraining the Lifetime of Circumstellar Disks in the Terrestrial Planet Zone: A Mid-Infrared Survey of the 30 Myr old Tucana-Horologium Association
We have conducted an N-band survey of 14 young stars in the ~30 Myr oldTucana-Horologium association to search for evidence of warm,circumstellar dust disks. Using the MIRAC-BLINC camera on the Magellan I(Baade) 6.5 m telescope, we find that none of the stars have astatistically significant N-band excess compared to the predictedstellar photospheric flux. Using three different sets of assumptions,this null result rules out the existence of the following around thesepost-T Tauri stars: (1) optically thick disks with inner hole radii of<~0.1 AU, (2) optically thin disks with masses of less than10-6 M⊕ (in ~1 μm sized grains) within<~10 AU of these stars, and (3) scaled-up analogs of the solar systemzodiacal dust cloud with more than 4000 times the emitting area. Oursurvey was sensitive to dust disks in the terrestrial planet zone withfractional luminosity oflog(Ldust/L*)~10-2.9, yet none werefound. Combined with results from previous surveys, these data suggestthat circumstellar dust disks become so optically thin as to beundetectable at N band before age ~20 Myr. We also present N-bandphotometry for several members of other young associations and asubsample of targets that will be observed with the Spitzer SpaceTelescope by the Formation and Evolution of Planetary Systems LegacyScience Program. Finally, we present an absolute calibration ofMIRAC-BLINC for four filters (L, N, 11.6, and Qs) on theCohen-Walker-Witteborn system.
| 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
| Adaptive optics imaging survey of the Tucana-Horologium association
We present the results of an adaptive optics (AO) imaging survey of thecommon associations of Tucana and Horologium, carried out at the ESO 3.6m telescope with the ADONIS/SHARPII system. Based on our observations oftwo dozen probable association members, HIP 1910 and HIP 108422 appearto have low-mass stellar companions, while HIP 6856 and GSC 8047-0232have possible sub-stellar candidate companions. Astrometricmeasurements, performed in November 2000 and October 2001, indicate thatHIP 1910 B likely is bound to its primary, but are inconclusive in thecase of the candidate companion to HIP 6856. Additional observations areneeded to confirm the HIP 6856 companionship as well as for HIP 108422and GSC 8047-0232.
| A New Association of Post-T Tauri Stars near the Sun
Observing ROSAT sources in an area 20°×25° centered at thehigh-latitude (b=-59°) active star ER Eri, we found evidences for anearby association, that we call the Horologium association (HorA),formed by at least 10 very young stars, some of them being bona fidepost-T Tauri stars. We suggest other six stars as possible members ofthis proposed association. We examine several requirements thatcharacterize a young stellar association. Although no one of them,isolated, gives an undisputed prove of the existence of the HorA, alltogether practically create a strong evidence for it. In fact, the Liline intensities are between those of the older classical T Tauri starsand the ones of the Local Association stars. The space velocitycomponents of the HorA relative to the Sun (U=-9.5+/-1.0, V=-20.9+/-1.1,W=-2.1+/-1.9) are not far from those of the Local Association, so thatit could be one of its last episodes of star formation. In this regionof the sky there are some hotter and non-X-ray active stars, withsimilar space velocities, that could be the massive members of the HorA,among them, the nearby Be star Achernar. The maximum of the massdistribution function of its probable members is around 0.7-0.9Msolar. We estimate its distance as ~60 pc and its size as~50 pc. If spherical, this size would be larger than the surveyed area,and many other members could have been missed. ER Eri itself was foundto be not a member, but a background RS CVn-like system. We alsoobserved three control regions, two at northern and southern Galacticlatitudes and a third one in the known TW Hya association (TWA), and theproperties and distribution of their young stars strengthen the realityof the HorA. Contrary to the TWA, the only known binaries in the HorAare two very wide systems. The HorA is much more isolated from cloudsand older (~30 Myr) than the TWA and could give some clues about thelifetime of the disks around T Tauri stars. Actually, none of theproposed members is an IRAS source indicating an advanced stage of theevolution of their primitive accreting disks. Based on observations madeunder the Observatório Nacional-ESO agreement for the jointoperation of the 1.52 m ESO telescope and at the Observatório doPico dos Dias, operated by MCT/Laboratório Nacional deAstrofísica, Brazil
| Detection of moving clusters by a method of cinematic pairs.
Not Available
| The ROSAT Bright Survey: II. Catalogue of all high-galactic latitude RASS sources with PSPC countrate CR > 0.2 s-1
We present a summary of an identification program of the more than 2000X-ray sources detected during the ROSAT All-Sky Survey (Voges et al.1999) at high galactic latitude, |b| > 30degr , with countrate above0.2 s-1. This program, termed the ROSAT Bright Survey RBS, isto more than 99.5% complete. A sub-sample of 931 sources with countrateabove 0.2 s-1 in the hard spectral band between 0.5 and 2.0keV is to 100% identified. The total survey area comprises 20391deg2 at a flux limit of 2.4 x 10-12 ergcm-2 s-1 in the 0.5 - 2.0 keV band. About 1500sources of the complete sample could be identified by correlating theRBS with SIMBAD and the NED. The remaining ~ 500 sources were identifiedby low-resolution optical spectroscopy and CCD imaging utilizingtelescopes at La Silla, Calar Alto, Zelenchukskaya and Mauna Kea. Apartfrom completely untouched sources, catalogued clusters and galaxieswithout published redshift as well as catalogued galaxies with unusualhigh X-ray luminosity were included in the spectroscopic identificationprogram. Details of the observations with an on-line presentation of thefinding charts and the optical spectra will be published separately.Here we summarize our identifications in a table which contains opticaland X-ray information for each source. As a result we present the mostmassive complete sample of X-ray selected AGNs with a total of 669members and a well populated X-ray selected sample of 302 clusters ofgalaxies with redshifts up to 0.70. Three fields studied by us remainwithout optical counterpart (RBS0378, RBS1223, RBS1556). While the firstis a possible X-ray transient, the two latter are isolated neutron starcandidates (Motch et al. 1999, Schwope et al. 1999).
| The 74th Special Name-list of Variable Stars
We present the Name-list introducing GCVS names for 3153 variable starsdiscovered by the Hipparcos mission.
| A large, complete, volume-limited sample of G-type dwarfs. I. Completion of Stroemgren UVBY photometry
Four-colour photometry of potential dwarf stars of types G0 to K2,selected from the Michigan Spectral Catalogues (Vol. 1-3), has beencarried out. The results are presented in a catalogue containing 4247uvby observations of 3900 stars, all south of δ = -26deg. Theoverall internal rms errors of one observation (transformed to thestandard system) of a program star in the interval 8.5 < V < 10.5are 0.0044, 0.0021, 0.0039, and 0.0059, respectively, in V, b-y, m_1_ ,and c_1_. The purpose of the catalogue, combined with earliercatalogues, is to allow selection of a large, complete, volume-limitedsample of G- and K-type dwarfs, investigate their metallicitydistribution, and compare it to predictions of various models ofgalactic chemical evolution. Future papers in this series will discussthese subjects.
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Datos observacionales y astrométricos
| Constelación: | Fénix |
| Ascensión Recta: | 01h28m08.66s |
| Declinación: | -52°38'19.2" |
| Magnitud Aparente: | 9.382 |
| Distancia: | 37.147 parsecs |
| Movimiento Propio en Ascensión Recta: | 104 |
| Movimiento Propio en Declinación: | -44.1 |
| B-T magnitude: | 10.575 |
| V-T magnitude: | 9.481 |
Catálogos y designaciones:
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