Search Publications

Rigorous treatment of barycentric stellar motion. Perspective and light-time effects in astrometric and radial velocity data
DOI: 10.1051/0004-6361/201424483 Bibcode: 2014A&A...570A..62B

Lindegren, L.; Butkevich, A. G.

Context. High-precision astrometric and radial-velocity observations require accurate modelling of stellar motions in order to extrapolate measurements over long time intervals, and to detect deviations from uniform motion caused, for example, by unseen companions.
Aims: We aim to explore the simplest possible kinematic model of stellar motio…

2014 Astronomy and Astrophysics
Hipparcos 36
The accretion environment in Vela X-1 during a flaring period using XMM-Newton
DOI: 10.1051/0004-6361/201322404 Bibcode: 2014A&A...563A..70M

Wilms, J.; Torrejón, J. M.; Kretschmar, P. +8 more

We present analysis of 100 ks contiguous XMM-Newton data of the prototypical wind accretor Vela X-1. The observation covered eclipse egress between orbital phases 0.134 and 0.265, during which a giant flare took place, enabling us to study the spectral properties both outside and during the flare. This giant flare with a peak luminosity of 3.92

2014 Astronomy and Astrophysics
XMM-Newton 36
The extended structure of the dwarf irregular galaxies Sextans A and Sextans B. Signatures of tidal distortion in the outskirts of the Local Group
DOI: 10.1051/0004-6361/201423659 Bibcode: 2014A&A...566A..44B

Bellazzini, M.; Galleti, S.; Testa, V. +7 more

We present a detailed study of the stellar and H i structure of the dwarf irregular galaxies Sextans A and Sextans B, members of the NGC 3109 association. We use newly obtained deep (r ≃ 26.5) and wide-field g and r photometry to extend the surface brightness (SB) profiles of the two galaxies down to µV ≃ 31.0 mag/arcsec2

2014 Astronomy and Astrophysics
eHST 36
Conversion from mutual helicity to self-helicity observed with IRIS
DOI: 10.1051/0004-6361/201424377 Bibcode: 2014A&A...570A..93L

Peter, H.; Zhang, J.; Li, L. P. +1 more

Context. In the upper atmosphere of the Sun observations show convincing evidence for crossing and twisted structures, which are interpreted as mutual helicity and self-helicity.
Aims: We use observations with the new Interface Region Imaging Spectrograph (IRIS) to show the conversion of mutual helicity into self-helicity in coronal structure…

2014 Astronomy and Astrophysics
IRIS 35
Metal distribution in sloshing galaxy clusters: the case of A496
DOI: 10.1051/0004-6361/201424016 Bibcode: 2014A&A...570A.117G

Molendi, Silvano; Ghizzardi, Simona; De Grandi, Sabrina

We report results from a detailed study of the sloshing gas in the core of A496. We detected the low-temperature/entropy spiral feature found in several cores. We also found that conduction between the gas in the spiral and the ambient medium must be suppressed by more than one order of magnitude compared with the Spitzer conductivity. Intriguingl…

2014 Astronomy and Astrophysics
XMM-Newton 35
Spectroscopy of BL Lacertae objects of extraordinary luminosity
DOI: 10.1051/0004-6361/201424232 Bibcode: 2014A&A...570A.126L

Sbarufatti, B.; Falomo, R.; Treves, A. +1 more


Aims: We aim to determine the redshift (or stringent lower limits) of a number of bright BL Lacs objects.
Methods: We secured optical and near-infrared medium-resolution spectra of four bright BL Lac objects of unknown redshift using the spectrograph X-Shooter at the ESO-VLT.
Results: In spite of the high quality of the spectra and …

2014 Astronomy and Astrophysics
eHST 35
Modeling magnesium escape from HD 209458b atmosphere
DOI: 10.1051/0004-6361/201323064 Bibcode: 2014A&A...565A.105B

Lecavelier des Etangs, A.; Bourrier, V.; Vidal-Madjar, A.

Transit observations in the Mg i line of HD 209458b revealed signatures of neutral magnesium escaping the upper atmosphere of the planet, while no atmospheric absorption was found in the Mg ii doublet. Here we present a 3D particle model of the dynamics of neutral and ionized magnesium populations, coupled with an analytical modeling of the atmosp…

2014 Astronomy and Astrophysics
eHST 34
The rapid evolution of the exciting star of the Stingray nebula
DOI: 10.1051/0004-6361/201323189 Bibcode: 2014A&A...565A..40R

Rauch, T.; Werner, K.; Kruk, J. W. +5 more

Context. SAO 244567, the exciting star of the Stingray nebula, is rapidly evolving. Previous analyses suggested that it has heated up from an effective temperature of about 21 kK in 1971 to over 50 kK in the 1990s. Canonical post-asymptotic giant branch evolution suggests a relatively high mass while previous analyses indicate a…

2014 Astronomy and Astrophysics
IUE eHST 34
Structure and substructure analysis of DAFT/FADA galaxy clusters in the [0.4-0.9] redshift range
DOI: 10.1051/0004-6361/201321208 Bibcode: 2014A&A...561A.112G

Ilbert, O.; Schirmer, M.; Allam, S. +29 more

Context. The DAFT/FADA survey is based on the study of ~90 rich (masses found in the literature >2 × 1014 M) and moderately distant clusters (redshifts 0.4 < z < 0.9), all with HST imaging data available. This survey has two main objectives: to constrain dark energy (DE) using weak lensing tomography on galaxy clust…

2014 Astronomy and Astrophysics
XMM-Newton 33
Warm molecular gas temperature distribution in six local infrared bright Seyfert galaxies
DOI: 10.1051/0004-6361/201423430 Bibcode: 2014A&A...566A..49P

Spinoglio, Luigi; Pereira-Santaella, Miguel; van der Werf, Paul P. +1 more

We simultaneously analyze the spectral line energy distributions (SLEDs) of CO and H2 of six local luminous infrared (IR) Seyfert galaxies. For the CO SLEDs, we used new Herschel/SPIRE FTS data (from J = 4-3 to J = 13-12) and ground-based observations for the lower-J CO transitions. The H2 SLEDs were constructed using archiva…

2014 Astronomy and Astrophysics
Herschel 33