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Uncovering the birth of the Milky Way through accurate stellar ages with Gaia
Ruiz-Lara, Tomás; Hill, Vanessa; Monelli, Matteo +4 more
Knowledge of the ages of the stars formed over a galaxy's lifetime is fundamental to an understanding of its formation and evolution. However, stellar ages are difficult to obtain since they cannot be measured from observations, but require comparison with stellar models1. Alternatively, age distributions can be derived by applying the …
An Embedded X-Ray Source Shines through the Aspherical AT 2018cow: Revealing the Inner Workings of the Most Luminous Fast-evolving Optical Transients
Berger, E.; Hurley, K.; Götz, D. +42 more
We present the first extensive radio to γ-ray observations of a fast-rising blue optical transient, AT 2018cow, over its first ∼100 days. AT 2018cow rose over a few days to a peak luminosity L pk ∼ 4 × 1044 erg s-1, exceeding that of superluminous supernovae (SNe), before declining as L ∝ t -2. Initial s…
Gaia Data Release 2. Specific characterisation and validation of all-sky Cepheids and RR Lyrae stars
Szabados, L.; Audard, M.; Rimoldini, L. +21 more
Context. The Gaia second Data Release (DR2) presents a first mapping of full-sky RR Lyrae stars and Cepheids observed by the spacecraft during the initial 22 months of science operations.
Aims: The Specific Objects Study (SOS) pipeline, developed to validate and fully characterise Cepheids and RR Lyrae stars (SOS Cep&RRL) observed by Gaia…
The Most Luminous Supernovae
Gal-Yam, Avishay
Over a decade ago, a group of supernova explosions with peak luminosities far exceeding (often by >100 times) those of normal events has been identified. These superluminous supernovae (SLSNe) have been a focus of intensive study. I review the accumulated observations and discuss the implications for the physics of these extreme explosions. SLS…
Gaia Data Release 2. Properties and validation of the radial velocities
Smith, M.; Gosset, E.; Allende Prieto, C. +52 more
Context. For Gaia DR2, 280 million spectra collected by the Radial Velocity Spectrometer instrument on board Gaia were processed, and median radial velocities were derived for 9.8 million sources brighter than GRVS = 12 mag.
Aims: This paper describes the validation and properties of the median radial velocities published in Gaia D…
An Older, More Quiescent Universe from Panchromatic SED Fitting of the 3D-HST Survey
Franx, Marijn; van Dokkum, Pieter; Conroy, Charlie +8 more
Galaxy observations are influenced by many physical parameters: stellar masses, star formation rates (SFRs), star formation histories (SFHs), metallicities, dust, black hole activity, and more. As a result, inferring accurate physical parameters requires high-dimensional models that capture or marginalize over this complexity. Here we reassess inf…
Inferences on the timeline of reionization at z ∼ 8 from the KMOS Lens-Amplified Spectroscopic Survey
Fontana, Adriano; Pentericci, Laura; Schmidt, Kasper B. +12 more
Detections and non-detections of Lyman alpha (Lyα) emission from z > 6 galaxies (<1 Gyr after the big bang) can be used to measure the timeline of cosmic reionization. Of key interest to measuring reionization's mid-stages, but also increasing observational challenge, are observations at z > 7, where Lyα redshifts to near infra-red wavele…
Age determination for 269 Gaia DR2 open clusters
Jordi, C.; Casamiquela, L.; Cantat-Gaudin, T. +9 more
Context. The Gaia Second Data Release provides precise astrometry and photometry for more than 1.3 billion sources. This catalog opens a new era concerning the characterization of open clusters and test stellar models, paving the way for better understanding of the disk properties.
Aims: The aim of the paper is to improve the knowledge of clu…
Nine-hour X-ray quasi-periodic eruptions from a low-mass black hole galactic nucleus
Read, A. M.; Knigge, C.; Heywood, I. +11 more
In the past two decades, high-amplitude electromagnetic outbursts have been detected from dormant galaxies and often attributed to the tidal disruption of a star by the central black hole1,2. X-ray emission from the Seyfert 2 galaxy GSN 069 (2MASX J01190869-3411305) at a redshift of z = 0.018 was first detected in July 2010 and implies …
Mass and shape of the Milky Way's dark matter halo with globular clusters from Gaia and Hubble
Helmi, Amina; Posti, Lorenzo
Aims: We estimate the mass of the inner (< 20 kpc) Milky Way and the axis ratio of its inner dark matter halo using globular clusters as tracers. At the same time, we constrain the distribution in phase-space of the globular cluster system around the Galaxy.
Methods: We use the Gaia Data Release 2 catalogue of 75 globular clusters' pr…