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The Geneva-Copenhagen survey of the Solar neighbourhood. Ages, metallicities, and kinematic properties of 14 000 F and G dwarfs
We present and discuss new determinations of metallicity, rotation, age,kinematics, and Galactic orbits for a complete, magnitude-limited, andkinematically unbiased sample of 16 682 nearby F and G dwarf stars. Our63 000 new, accurate radial-velocity observations for nearly 13 500stars allow identification of most of the binary stars in the sampleand, together with published uvbyβ photometry, Hipparcosparallaxes, Tycho-2 proper motions, and a few earlier radial velocities,complete the kinematic information for 14 139 stars. These high-qualityvelocity data are supplemented by effective temperatures andmetallicities newly derived from recent and/or revised calibrations. Theremaining stars either lack Hipparcos data or have fast rotation. Amajor effort has been devoted to the determination of new isochrone agesfor all stars for which this is possible. Particular attention has beengiven to a realistic treatment of statistical biases and errorestimates, as standard techniques tend to underestimate these effectsand introduce spurious features in the age distributions. Our ages agreewell with those by Edvardsson et al. (\cite{edv93}), despite severalastrophysical and computational improvements since then. We demonstrate,however, how strong observational and theoretical biases cause thedistribution of the observed ages to be very different from that of thetrue age distribution of the sample. Among the many basic relations ofthe Galactic disk that can be reinvestigated from the data presentedhere, we revisit the metallicity distribution of the G dwarfs and theage-metallicity, age-velocity, and metallicity-velocity relations of theSolar neighbourhood. Our first results confirm the lack of metal-poor Gdwarfs relative to closed-box model predictions (the ``G dwarfproblem''), the existence of radial metallicity gradients in the disk,the small change in mean metallicity of the thin disk since itsformation and the substantial scatter in metallicity at all ages, andthe continuing kinematic heating of the thin disk with an efficiencyconsistent with that expected for a combination of spiral arms and giantmolecular clouds. Distinct features in the distribution of the Vcomponent of the space motion are extended in age and metallicity,corresponding to the effects of stochastic spiral waves rather thanclassical moving groups, and may complicate the identification ofthick-disk stars from kinematic criteria. More advanced analyses of thisrich material will require careful simulations of the selection criteriafor the sample and the distribution of observational errors.Based on observations made with the Danish 1.5-m telescope at ESO, LaSilla, Chile, and with the Swiss 1-m telescope at Observatoire deHaute-Provence, France.Complete Tables 1 and 2 are only available in electronic form at the CDSvia anonymous ftp to cdsarc.u-strasbg.fr (130.79.128.5) or viahttp://cdsweb.u-strasbg.fr/cgi-bin/qcat?J/A+A/418/989
| Stroemgren photometry of F- and G-type stars brighter than V = 9.6. I. UVBY photometry
Within the framework of a large photometric observing program, designedto investigate the Galaxy's structure and evolution, Hβ photometryis being made for about 9000 stars. As a by-product, supplementary uvbyphotometry has been made. The results are presented in a cataloguecontaining 6924 uvby observations of 6190 stars, all south ofδ=+38deg. The overall internal rms errors of one observation(transformed to the standard system) of a program star in the interval6.5
| The distance and structure of the Coalsack. I - Photometric data
The results of UBV and H-beta photometry for 284 stars of spectral typesB to F located in the area of the dark cloud Coalsack are presented.Most of the present stars are brighter than 10.0 mag and are classifiedin the MK system of Houk and Cowley (1975). For each star, the bestvalues for the extinction and distance modulus are provided, withtypical estimated errors of + or - 0.08 mag for the extinction and + or- 0.32 mag for the distance modulus. Possible misclassifications andspectral peculiarities are noted for several of the stars.
| The Southern Coalsack - Extinction and distance
H-beta and uvby photometric observations are reported for 236 stars oftypes B, A, and F in the region of the Southern Coalsack. Data obtainedwith the 50-cm Stromgren Automatic Telescope at ESO are presented inextensive tables, graphs, and maps and characterized in detail. Threedistinct structures are identified: (1) a nearby region (d less than 200pc) dominated by stars in front of the Coalsack, with evidence of a verydiffuse feature; (2) an intermediate region (d = 200-1100 pc) with starsreddened by Coalsack dust and/or the ISM behind it; and (3) a distantregion (d = 1.1-3.0 kpc) in which the reddening of 22 early B starsimplies a color-excess lower limit of E(b-y) = 0.230 mag, consistentwith a 10,000-solar-mass cloud at d = 1.2 kpc. The average upper-limitdistance to the main Coalsack components is estimated as 180 + or - 26pc, with some material possibly as near as 120 pc.
| Stromgren and H-beta photometry of stars earlier than G0 in the Southern Coalsack direction
Four-color and H-beta photometry have been obtained for 236 starsearlier than G0 in order to study the color excess distribution in theSouthern Coalsack direction. The beta histogram of the stars reveals arelative absence of stars in the range of A4 to A9. The (b-y)distribution for B-type stars suggests the existence of three differenttypes of stars located at different distances.
| The chemical evolution of the solar neighborhood. I - A bias-free reduction technique and data sample
The possible ways of measuring the age-metallicity relation for thegalactic disk in the neighborhood of the sun are discussed. It is shownthat the use of a field star sample chosen on the basis of effectivetemperature introduces a bias which results in a monotonic increase inthe metal abundance of the disk with time. However, if theage-metallicity relation for the disk can be shown to satisfy certaincriteria, the bias introduced in such a sample can be neglected: thegalactic disk apparently satisfies the criteria. It is concluded that asample analyzed through the use of uvby and H(beta) photometry inconjunction with a self-consistent set of theoretical isochronesprovides the least biased, most accurate estimate of the age-metallicityrelation for the disk.
| Preferred frequency for interstellar communications
It is suggested that the 4829.659-MHz line frequency of the1(11)-to-1(10) rotational transition of formaldehyde is a plausiblefrequency to monitor for the purpose of detecting interstellarcommunications. The formaldehyde line is of interest because, as aresult of the antimaser effect, it exhibits a very low excitationtemperature. The background radiation temperature in the direction ofdark clouds is below the 3 K background temperature; the backgroundnoise temperature, lowered approximately 1 K, is lower than at any otherfrequency band.
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Observation and Astrometry data
| Constellation: | Musca |
| Right ascension: | 12h41m52.58s |
| Declination: | -64°43'43.5" |
| Apparent magnitude: | 7.365 |
| Distance: | 135.685 parsecs |
| Proper motion RA: | -22.4 |
| Proper motion Dec: | 0.2 |
| B-T magnitude: | 7.881 |
| V-T magnitude: | 7.408 |
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