Browsing by Author "Cross, N. J. G."

Now showing 1 - 5 of 5
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    Hubble Space Telescope ACS Multiband Coronagraphic Imaging of the Debris Disk around β Pictoris
    (2006) Golimowski, D. A.; Ardila, D. R.; Krist, J. E.; Clampin, M.; Ford, H. C.; Illingworth, G. D.; Bartko, F.; Benitez, N.; Blakeslee, J. P.; Bouwens, R. J.; Bradley, L. D.; Broadhurst, T. J.; Brown, R. A.; Burrows, C. J.; Cheng, E. S.; Cross, N. J. G.; Demarco, R.; Feldman, P. D.; Franx, M.; Goto, T.; Gronwall, C.; Hartig, G. F.; Holden, B. P.; Homeier, N. L.; Infante, L.; Jee, M. J.; Kimble, R. A.; Lesser, M. P.; Martel, A. R.; Mei, S.; Menanteau, F.; Meurer, G. R.; Miley, G. K.; Motta, V.; Postman, M.; Rosati, P.; Sirianni, M.; Sparks, W. B.; Tran, H. D.; Tsvetanov, Z. I.; White, R. L.; Zheng, W.; Zirm, A. W.
    We present F435W(B), F606W (broad V), and F814W(broad I) coronagraphic images of the debris disk around beta Pictoris obtained with the Hubble Space Telescope's Advanced Camera for Surveys. These images provide the most photometrically accurate and morphologically detailed views of the disk between 30 and 300 AU from the star ever recorded in scattered light. We confirm that the previously reported warp in the inner disk is a distinct secondary disk inclined by similar to 5 degrees from the main disk. The projected spine of the secondary disk coincides with the isophotal inflections, or "butterfly asymmetry,'' previously seen at large distances from the star. We also confirm that the opposing extensions of the main disk have different position angles, but we find that this "wing-tilt asymmetry'' is centered on the star rather than offset from it, as previously reported. The main disk's northeast extension is linear from 80 to 250 AU, but the southwest extension is distinctly bowed with an amplitude of similar to 1 AU over the same region. Both extensions of the secondary disk appear linear, but not collinear, from 80 to 150 AU. Within similar to 120 AU of the star, the main disk is similar to 50% thinner than previously reported. The surface brightness profiles along the spine of the main disk are fitted with four distinct radial power laws between 40 and 250 AU, while those of the secondary disk between 80 and 150 AU are fitted with single power laws. These discrepancies suggest that the two disks have different grain compositions or size distributions. The F606W/F435W and F814W/F435W flux ratios of the composite disk are nonuniform and asymmetric about both projected axes of the disk. The disk's northwest region appears 20%-30% redder than its southeast region, which is inconsistent with the notion that forward scattering from the nearer northwest side of the disk should diminish with increasing wavelength. Within similar to 120 AU, the m(F435W)-m(F606W) and m(F435W)-m(F814W) colors along the spine of the main disk are similar to 10% and similar to 20% redder, respectively, than those of beta Pic. These colors increasingly redden beyond similar to 120 AU, becoming 25% and 40% redder, respectively, than the star at 250 AU. These measurements overrule previous determinations that the disk is composed of neutrally scattering grains. The change in color gradient at similar to 120 AU nearly coincides with the prominent inflection in the surface brightness profile at similar to 115 AU and the expected water-ice sublimation boundary. We compare the observed red colors within similar to 120 AU with the simulated colors of nonicy grains having a radial number density alpha r(-3) and different compositions, porosities, and minimum grain sizes. The observed colors are consistent with those of compact or moderately porous grains of astronomical silicate and/or graphite with sizes greater than or similar to 0.15-0.20 mu m, but the colors are inconsistent with the blue colors expected from grains with porosities greater than or similar to 90%. The increasingly red colors beyond the ice sublimation zone may indicate the condensation of icy mantles on the refractory grains, or they may reflect an increasing minimum grain size caused by the cessation of cometary activity.
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    Recovering Algol-type eclipsing binaries in the CRTS
    (2020) Carmo, A.; Ferreira Lopes, C. E.; Papageorgiou, A.; Jablonski, F. J.; Rodrigues, C. V.; Drake, A. J.; Cross, N. J. G.; Catelan , Marcio
    Eclipsing binary systems are relevant to astronomy since they provide primary means of determining fundamental stellar astrophysical quantities such as mass, radius, and temperature of the components. Algol-type eclipsing binaries (EAs) have spherical or slightly ellipsoidal components and are generally systems that produce light curves with narrow eclipses and few points within the eclipse. The most current photometric surveys usually have observation cadences larger than these eclipses duration, which hinders the detection of EAs. The variability of these objects can even be detected, but the period is rarely found because an optimized constraint is required. Thereby, we used a new methodology to find new EAs in the Catalina Real-Time Transient Survey. As a result, we determined periodicity for 56\% of EA$_\mathrm{up}$ (EAs marked as having unknown period), which corresponds to 87 new EAs reported. Also, we use color criteria to select a subsample that contains 8 low-mass binary systems with spectral types K and M. To obtain the individual physical parameters of these components, each light curve was modeled with the Wilson & Devinney light curve synthesis code combined with a Monte Carlo Markov chain process. The results were examined in the scenario of radius inflation of low-mass stars in binary systems....
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    The VISTA Variables in the Via Lactea extended (VVVX) ESO public survey: Completion of the observations and legacy
    (2024) Saito, R. K.; Hempel, M.; Alonso-Garcia, J.; Lucas, P. W.; Minniti, D.; Alonso, S.; Baravalle, L.; Borissova, J.; Caceres, C.; Chene, A. N.; Cross, N. J. G.; Duplancic, F.; Garro, E. R.; Gomez, M.; Ivanov, V. D.; Kurtev, R.; Luna, A.; Majaess, D.; Navarro, M. G.; Pullen, J. B.; Rejkuba, M.; Sanders, J. L.; Smith, L. C.; Albino, P. H. C.; Alonso, M. V.; Amores, E. B.; Angeloni, R.; Arias, J. I.; Arnaboldi, M.; Barbuy, B.; Bayo, A.; Beamin, J. C.; Bedin, L. R.; Bellini, A.; Benjamin, R. A.; Bica, E.; Bonatto, C. J.; Botan, E.; Braga, V. F.; Brown, D. A.; Cabral, J. B.; Camargo, D.; Garatti, Caratti O. A.; Carballo-Bello, J. A.; Catelan, M.; Chavero, C.; Chijani, M. A.; Claria, J. J.; Coldwell, G. V.; Pena, C. Contreras; Contreras Ramos, R.; Corral-Santana, J. M.; Cortes, C. C.; Cortes-Contreras, M.; Cruz, P.; Daza-Perilla, I. V.; Debattista, V. P.; Dias, B.; Donoso, L.; D'Souza, R.; Emerson, J. P.; Federle, S.; Fermiano, V.; Fernandez, J.; Fernandez-Trincado, J. G.; Ferreira, T.; Ferreira Lopes, C. E.; Firpo, V.; Flores-Quintana, C.; Fraga, L.; Froebrich, D.; Galdeano, D.; Gavignaud, I.; Geisler, D.; Gerhard, O. E.; Gieren, W.; Gonzalez, O. A.; Gramajo, L. V.; Gran, F.; Granitto, P. M.; Griggio, M.; Guo, Z.; Gurovich, S.; Hilker, M.; Jones, H. R. A.; Kammers, R.; Kuhn, M. A.; Kumar, M. S. N.; Kundu, R.; Lares, M.; Libralato, M.; Lima, E.; Maccarone, T. J.; Marchant Cortes, P.; Martin, E. L.; Masetti, N.; Matsunaga, N.; Mauro, F.; McDonald, I.; Mejias, A.; Mesa, V.; Milla-Castro, F. P.; Minniti, J. H.; Moni Bidin, C.; Montenegro, K.; Morris, C.; Motta, V.; Navarete, F.; Navarro Molina, C.; Nikzat, F.; Nilo Castellon, J. L.; Obasi, C.; Ortigoza-Urdaneta, M.; Palma, T.; Parisi, C.; Pena Ramirez, K.; Pereyra, L.; Perez, N.; Petralia, I.; Pichel, A.; Pignata, G.; Ramirez Alegria, S.; Rojas, A. F.; Rojas, D.; Roman-Lopes, A.; Rovero, A. C.; Saroon, S.; Schmidt, E. O.; Schroeder, A. C.; Schultheis, M.; Sgro, M. A.; Solano, E.; Soto, M.; Stecklum, B.; Steeghs, D.; Tamura, M.; Tissera, P.; Valcarce, A. A. R.; Valotto, C. A.; Vasquez, S.; Villalon, C.; Villanova, S.; Vivanco Cadiz, F.; Zelada Bacigalupo, R.; Zijlstra, A.; Zoccali, M.
    Context. The ESO public survey VISTA Variables in the Via Lactea (VVV) surveyed the inner Galactic bulge and the adjacent southern Galactic disk from 2009-2015. Upon its conclusion, the complementary VVV extended (VVVX) survey has expanded both the temporal as well as spatial coverage of the original VVV area, widening it from 562 to 1700 sq. deg., as well as providing additional epochs in JHKs filters from 2016-2023.
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    The VVV Infrared Variability Catalog (VIVA-I)
    (2020) Ferreira Lopes, E. C.; Cross, N. J. G.; Catelan, M.; Minniti, D.; Hempel, M.; Lucas, W. P.; Angeloni, R.; Jablonsky, F.; Braga, F. V.; Leao, C. I.; Herpich, F. R.; Alonso-Garcia, J.; Papageorgiou, A.; Pichara, K.; Saito, K. R.; Bradley, A.; Beamin Muhlenbrock Juan Carlos; Cortes, C.; De Medeiros, J. R.; Russell, Christopher
    Thanks to the VISTA Variables in the Via Lactea (VVV) ESO Public Survey it is now possible to explore a large number of objects in those regions. This paper addresses the variability analysis of all VVV point sources having more than 10 observations in VVVDR4 using a novel approach. In total, the near-IR light curves of 288,378,769 sources were analysed using methods developed in the New Insight Into Time Series Analysis project. As a result, we present a complete sample having 44, 998, 752 variable star candidates (VVV-CVSC), which include accurate individual coordinates, near-IR magnitudes (ZYJHKs), extinctions A(Ks), variability indices, periods, amplitudes, among other parameters to assess the science. Unfortunately, a side effect of having a highly complete sample, is also having a high level of contamination by non-variable (contamination ratio of non-variables to variables is slightly over 10:1). To deal with this, we also provide some flags and parameters that can be used by the community to de-crease the number of variable candidates without heavily decreasing the completeness of the sample. In particular, we cross-identified 339,601 of our sources with Simbad and AAVSO databases, which provide us with information for these objects at other wavelegths. This sub-sample constitutes a unique resource to study the corresponding near-IR variability of known sources as well as to assess the IR variability related with X-ray and Gamma-Ray sources. On the other hand, the other 99.5% sources in our sample constitutes a number of potentially new objects with variability information for the heavily crowded and reddened regions of the Galactic Plane and Bulge. The present results also provide an important queryable resource to perform variability analysis and to characterize ongoing and future surveys like TESS and LSST.
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    The WFCAM multiwavelength Variable Star Catalog (Corrigendum)
    (2015) Ferreira Lopes, C. E.; Dékány, I.; Catelan, Marcio; Cross, N. J. G.; Angeloni, R.; Leão, I. C.; De Medeiros, J. R.