Search Publications

A systematic study of variability among OB-stars based on HIPPARCOS photometry
DOI: 10.1051/0004-6361/200912304 Bibcode: 2009A&A...507.1141L

Lefèvre, L.; Moffat, A. F. J.; Marchenko, S. V. +1 more

Context: Variability is a key factor for understanding the nature of the most massive stars, the OB stars. Such stars lie closest to the unstable upper limit of star formation.
Aims: In terms of statistics, the data from the HIPPARCOS satellite are unique because of time coverage and uniformity. They are ideal to study variability in this larg…

2009 Astronomy and Astrophysics
Hipparcos 51
Forbush decreases and turbulence levels at coronal mass ejection fronts
DOI: 10.1051/0004-6361:200809551 Bibcode: 2009A&A...494.1107S

Antia, H. M.; Subramanian, P.; Kojima, H. +14 more

Aims: We seek to estimate the average level of MHD turbulence near coronal mass ejection (CME) fronts as they propagate from the Sun to the Earth.
Methods: We examined the cosmic ray data from the GRAPES-3 tracking muon telescope at Ooty, together with the data from other sources for three closely observed Forbush decrease events. Each of thes…

2009 Astronomy and Astrophysics
SOHO 51
Propagating waves in polar coronal holes as seen by SUMER & EIS
DOI: 10.1051/0004-6361/200912059 Bibcode: 2009A&A...499L..29B

Solanki, S. K.; Teriaca, L.; Gupta, G. R. +3 more

Context: To study the dynamics of coronal holes and the role of waves in the acceleration of the solar wind, spectral observations were performed over polar coronal hole regions with the SUMER spectrometer on SoHO and the EIS spectrometer on Hinode.
Aims: Using these observations, we aim to detect the presence of propagating waves in the coron…

2009 Astronomy and Astrophysics
Hinode SOHO 51
Molecular gas in NUclei of GAlaxies (NUGA). XI. A complete gravity torque map of NGC 4579: new clues to bar evolution
DOI: 10.1051/0004-6361/200810640 Bibcode: 2009A&A...496...85G

Hunt, L. K.; Krips, M.; Schinnerer, E. +6 more

In this paper we create a complete gravity torque map of the disk of the LINER/Seyfert 1.9 galaxy NGC 4579. We quantify the efficiency of angular momentum transport and search for signatures of secular evolution in the fueling process from r ~ 15 kpc down to the inner r ~ 50 pc around the active galactic nucleus (AGN). We use both the 1-0 and 2-1 …

2009 Astronomy and Astrophysics
eHST 50
Updating the orbital ephemeris of Hercules X-1; rate of decay and eccentricity of the orbit
DOI: 10.1051/0004-6361/200911690 Bibcode: 2009A&A...500..883S

Klochkov, D.; Wilms, J.; Staubert, R.

We present an update of the orbital ephemeris of the binary X-ray pulsar Her X-1 and determine an improved value for the rate of orbital decay. In addition, we report the first measurement of the orbital eccentricity. We analyzed pulse timing data of Her X-1 from X-ray observations by RXTE (Rossi X-Ray Timing Explorer) and INTEGRAL over the period…

2009 Astronomy and Astrophysics
INTEGRAL 50
Noise properties of the CoRoT data. A planet-finding perspective
DOI: 10.1051/0004-6361/200911885 Bibcode: 2009A&A...506..425A

Mazeh, T.; Guterman, P.; Aigrain, S. +30 more

In this short paper, we study the photometric precision of stellar light curves obtained by the CoRoT satellite in its planet-finding channel, with a particular emphasis on the time scales characteristic of planetary transits. Together with other articles in the same issue of this journal, it forms an attempt to provide the building blocks for a s…

2009 Astronomy and Astrophysics
CoRoT 50
Transit mapping of a starspot on CoRoT-2. Probing a stellar surface with planetary transits
DOI: 10.1051/0004-6361/200912329 Bibcode: 2009A&A...504..561W

Schmitt, J. H. M. M.; Czesla, S.; Guenther, E. W. +4 more

We analyze variations in the transit lightcurves of CoRoT-2b, a massive hot Jupiter orbiting a highly active G star. We use one transit lightcurve to eclipse-map a photospheric spot occulted by the planet. In this case study we determine the size and longitude of the eclipsed portion of the starspot and systematically study the corresponding uncer…

2009 Astronomy and Astrophysics
CoRoT 50
Evolution of the early-type galaxy fraction in clusters since z = 0.8
DOI: 10.1051/0004-6361/20078872 Bibcode: 2009A&A...508.1141S

Pelló, R.; White, S. D. M.; Milvang-Jensen, B. +13 more

We study the morphological content of a large sample of high-redshift clusters to determine its dependence on cluster mass and redshift. Quantitative morphologies are based on PSF-convolved, 2D bulge+disk decompositions of cluster and field galaxies on deep Very Large Telescope FORS2 images of eighteen, optically-selected galaxy clusters at 0.45 &…

2009 Astronomy and Astrophysics
eHST 49
Model atmospheres of chemically peculiar stars. Self-consistent empirical stratified model of HD 24712
DOI: 10.1051/0004-6361/200911623 Bibcode: 2009A&A...499..879S

Shulyak, D.; Ryabchikova, T.; Kochukhov, O. +1 more

Context: High-resolution spectra of some chemically peculiar stars clearly demonstrate the presence of strong abundance gradients in their atmospheres. However, these inhomogeneities are usually ignored in the standard scheme of model atmosphere calculations, breaking the consistency between model structure and spectroscopically derived abundance …

2009 Astronomy and Astrophysics
IUE 49
Multi-wavelength study of X-ray luminous clusters at z ~ 0.3. I. Star-formation activity of cluster galaxies
DOI: 10.1051/0004-6361/200811589 Bibcode: 2009A&A...500..947B

Böhringer, H.; Biviano, A.; Pierini, D. +1 more

Context: The current paradigm of cosmic formation and evolution of galaxy clusters foresees growth mostly through merging. Galaxies in the infall region or in the core of a cluster undergo transformations owing to different environmental stresses.
Aims: For two X-ray luminous clusters at redshift z 0.3 with opposite X-ray morphologies (i.e., d…

2009 Astronomy and Astrophysics
XMM-Newton 48