Within this use case you discover the shapes of galaxies and their
classification according to the Hubble diagram. You are offered
sequences of galaxies with different morphologies and are asked to
order them. The morphological classification of galaxies is still in
use even if we have discovered that the Hubble diagram "per se" has no
direct physical or evolutionary meaning. Besides introducing the main
shapes of galaxies, the use case offer a demonstration of the
classification process, a fundamental tool of astronomers.
We present the discovery of a 3h5m orbital-period binary star at the heart of the planetary nebula M 3-1 - the shortest period photometrically variable central star known and second only to V458 Vul, in general. Combined modelling of light and radial velocity curves reveals both components to be close to Roche lobe filling, strongly indicating that the central star will rapidly evolve to become a cataclysmic variable, perhaps experiencing a similar evolution to V458 Vul resulting in a nova eruption before the planetary nebula has fully dissipated. While the short orbital period and near Roche lobe filling natures of both components make the central binary of M 3-1 an important test case with which to constrain the formation processes of cataclysmic variables, novae, and perhaps even supernovae type Ia.
We present the spectroscopic analysis of 333 OB-type stars extracted from VLT-MUSE observations of the central 30x30pc of NGC 2070 in the Tarantula Nebula on the Large Magellanic Cloud, the majority of which are analysed for the first time. The distribution of stars in the spectroscopic Hertzsprung-Russell diagram (sHRD) shows 281 stars in the main sequence. We find two groups in the main sequence, with estimated ages of 2.1+/-0.8 and 6.2+/-2Myr. A subgroup of 52 stars is apparently beyond the main sequence phase, which we consider to be due to emission-type objects and/or significant nebular contamination affecting the analysis. As in previous studies, stellar masses derived from the sHRD are systematically larger than those obtained from the conventional HRD, with the differences being largest for the most massive stars. Additionally, we do not find any trend between the estimated projected rotational velocity and evolution in the sHRD. The projected rotational velocity distribution presents a tail of fast rotators that resembles findings in the wider population of 30 Doradus. We use published spectral types to calibrate the HeI{lambda}4921/HeII{lambda}5411 equivalent-width ratio as a classification diagnostic for early-type main sequence stars when the classical blue-visible region is not observed. Our model-atmosphere analyses demonstrate that the resulting calibration is well correlated with effective temperature.
We report Swift observations of a sample of 92 bright soft X-ray selected active galactic nuclei (AGNs). This sample represents the largest number of AGNs observed to study the spectral energy distribution (SED) of AGNs with simultaneous optical/UV and X-ray data. The principal motivation of this study is to understand the SEDs of AGNs in the optical/UV to X-ray regime and to provide bolometric corrections which are important in determining the Eddington ratio L/L_Edd_. In particular, we rigorously explore the dependence of the UV-EUV contribution to the bolometric correction on the assumed EUV spectral shape. We find strong correlations of the spectral slopes {alpha}_X_ and {alpha}_UV_ with L/L_Edd_.
Parts I and III of the sixth fundamental catalog, a catalog of
high-precision astrometry for bright stars combining centuries of
ground-based observations as reflected in FK5 with HIPPARCOS
astrometry.
The result contains, in particular for the proper motions,
statistically significant improvements of the Hipparcos data und
represents a system of unprecedented accuracy for these 4150
fundamental stars. The typical mean error in pm is 0.35 mas/year for
878 basic stars, and 0.59 mas/year for the sample of the 3272
additional stars.
Parts I and III of the sixth fundamental catalog, a catalog of
high-precision astrometry for bright stars combining centuries of
ground-based observations as reflected in FK5 with HIPPARCOS
astrometry.
The result contains, in particular for the proper motions,
statistically significant improvements of the Hipparcos data und
represents a system of unprecedented accuracy for these 4150
fundamental stars. The typical mean error in pm is 0.35 mas/year for
878 basic stars, and 0.59 mas/year for the sample of the 3272
additional stars.
The Earth rotates around its polar axis and orbits around the Sun:
the sky above us (the celestial sphere) is in constant apparent
motion. Stellarium is the perfect tool to demonstrate the motions of
the sky, the use of coordinates and to illustrate constellations.
The populations of small bodies of the Solar System (asteroids, comets, and Kuiper Belt objects) are used to constrain the origin and evolution of the Solar System. Their orbital distribution and composition distribution are both required to track the dynamical pathway from their formation regions to their current locations. We aim to increase the sample of Solar System objects (SSOs) that have multifilter photometry and compositional taxonomy. Methods. We searched for moving objects in the SkyMapper Southern Survey. We used the predicted SSO positions to extract photometry and astrometry from the SkyMapper frames. We then applied a suite of filters to clean the catalog from false-positive detections. We finally used the near-simultaneous photometry to assign a taxonomic class to objects. We release a catalog of 880,528 individual observations, consisting of 205515 known and unique SSOs. The catalog completeness is estimated to be about 97% down to V=18mag and the purity is higher than 95% for known SSOs. The near-simultaneous photometry provides either three, two, or a single color that we use to classify 117356 SSOs with a scheme consistent with the widely used Bus-DeMeo taxonomy. The present catalog contributes significantly to the sample of asteroids with known surface properties (about 40% of main-belt asteroids down to an absolute magnitude of 16). We will release more observations of SSOs with future SkyMapper data releases.
