Search Publications
Space test of the equivalence principle: first results of the MICROSCOPE mission
Bergé, Joel; Chhun, Ratana; Métris, Gilles +31 more
The weak equivalence principle (WEP), stating that two bodies of different compositions and/or mass fall at the same rate in a gravitational field (universality of free fall), is at the very foundation of general relativity. The MICROSCOPE mission aims to test its validity to a precision of 10-15, two orders of magnitude better than cur…
The Pristine survey - VI. The first three years of medium-resolution follow-up spectroscopy of Pristine EMP star candidates
Sestito, Federico; Navarro, Julio F.; Martin, Nicolas +27 more
We present the results of a 3-yr long, medium-resolution spectroscopic campaign aimed at identifying very metal-poor stars from candidates selected with the CaHK, metallicity-sensitive Pristine survey. The catalogue consists of a total of 1007 stars, and includes 146 rediscoveries of metal-poor stars already presented in previous surveys, 707 new …
A loud quasi-periodic oscillation after a star is disrupted by a massive black hole
Steiner, James F.; Remillard, Ronald A.; Homan, Jeroen +9 more
The tidal forces close to massive black holes can rip apart stars that come too close to them. As the resulting stellar debris spirals toward the black hole, the debris heats up and emits x-rays. We report observations of a stable 131-second x-ray quasi-periodic oscillation from the tidal disruption event ASASSN-14li. Assuming the black hole mass …
Praesepe (NGC 2632) and its tidal tails
Röser, Siegfried; Schilbach, Elena
Aims: Within a 400 pc sphere around the Sun, we search for Praesepe's tidal tails in the Gaia Data Release 2 (DR2) data set.
Methods: We used a modified convergent-point method to find stars with space velocities close to the space velocity of the Praesepe cluster.
Results: We find a clear indication for the existence of Praesepe's …
Dark Energy Surveyed Year 1 results: calibration of cluster mis-centring in the redMaPPer catalogues
Bechtol, K.; Smith, M.; Allam, S. +84 more
The centre determination of a galaxy cluster from an optical cluster finding algorithm can be offset from theoretical prescriptions or N-body definitions of its host halo centre. These offsets impact the recovered cluster statistics, affecting both richness measurements and the weak lensing shear profile around the clusters. This paper models the …
HELP: a catalogue of 170 million objects, selected at 0.36-4.5 µm, from 1270 deg2 of prime extragalactic fields
Oliver, Seb; Vaccari, Mattia; Farrah, Duncan +15 more
We present an optical to near-infrared (NIR) selected astronomical catalogue covering 1270 deg2. This is the first attempt to systematically combine data from 23 of the premier extragalactic survey fields - the product of a vast investment of telescope time. The fields are those imaged by the Herschel Space Observatory that form the Her…
Consistent Dust and Gas Models for Protoplanetary Disks. III. Models for Selected Objects from the FP7 DIANA Project
Waters, L. B. F. M.; Pinte, C.; Woitke, P. +17 more
The European FP7 project DIANA has performed a coherent analysis of a large set of observational data of protoplanetary disks by means of thermo-chemical disk models. The collected data include extinction-corrected stellar UV and X-ray input spectra (as seen by the disk), photometric fluxes, low and high resolution spectra, interferometric data, e…
Achievements of Hinode in the first eleven years
Solanki, Sami K.; Tiwari, Sanjiv K.; Reeves, Katharine K. +33 more
Hinode is Japan's third solar mission following Hinotori (1981-1982) and Yohkoh (1991-2001): it was launched on 2006 September 22 and is in operation currently. Hinode carries three instruments: the Solar Optical Telescope, the X-Ray Telescope, and the EUV Imaging Spectrometer. These instruments were built under international collaboration with th…
Saturn's Deep Atmospheric Flows Revealed by the Cassini Grand Finale Gravity Measurements
Iess, L.; Guillot, T.; Miguel, Y. +4 more
How deep do Saturn's zonal winds penetrate below the cloud level has been a decades-long question, with important implications not only for the atmospheric dynamics but also for the interior density structure, composition, magnetic field, and core mass. The Cassini Grand Finale gravity experiment enables answering this question for the first time,…
MAGPHYS+photo-z: Constraining the Physical Properties of Galaxies with Unknown Redshifts
Daddi, E.; Salvato, M.; Vaccari, M. +8 more
We present an enhanced version of the multiwavelength spectral modeling code MAGPHYS that allows the estimation of galaxy photometric redshift and physical properties (e.g., stellar mass, star formation rate, dust attenuation) simultaneously, together with robust characterization of their uncertainties. The self-consistent modeling over ultraviole…