Keywords

With the development of cutting-edge multi-object spectrographs, fiber positioners located in the focal plane are being scaled down in size, and miniature hollow-cup Permanent Magnet motors are now being considered as a suitable replacement for Faulhaber Precistep stepper motors. However, the small electrical time constant of such coreless motors poses a challenge, as the problem of severe commutation torque ripple in a fiber positioner running a position loop has been tricky. To overcome this challenge, it is advised to increase the Pulse Width Modulation (PWM) frequency as much as possible to mitigate the effects of the current fluctuation. This must be done while ensuring adequate resolution of the PWM generator. By employing a voltage open-loop field-oriented control based on a modulation frequency of 1 MHz, the drive current only costs 25 mA under a 3.3 V power supply. The sine degree of phase current is immaculate, and the repeat positioning accuracy can reach 2 μm. Moreover, it is possible to further shrink the bill of devices and the layout area of the Printed Circuit Board, especially in size-sensitive applications. This device has been developed under the new generation of The Large Sky Area Multi-Object Fiber Spectroscopic Telescope.

The restricted three-body problem (RTBP) is a fundamental model in celestial mechanics. Periodic orbits in the synodic frame play a very important role in understanding the dynamics of the RTBP model. Most of these periodic orbits, when interpreted in the sidereal frame, are actually resonant periodic orbits. As a result, numerical computation of the periodic orbits is also one approach for researchers to understand the orbital resonances of the three-body problem. Extensive studies have been carried out on this topic, concerning either the circular case or the elliptic case of this model. In this paper, we make a brief review of the history and current status of the studies on resonant periodic orbits in the RTBP model. Starting from the unperturbed two-body problem, we organize the review paper by the two cases of this model—the circular restricted three-body problem and the elliptic restricted three-body problem.

We have developed a general statistical procedure for analysis of 2D and 3D finite patterns, which is applied to the data from recently released Gaia-ESA catalog DR2. The 2D analysis clearly confirms our former results on the presence of binaries in the former DR1 catalog. Our main objective is the statistical 3D analysis of DR2. For this, it is essential that the DR2 catalog includes parallaxes and data on the proper motion. The analysis allows us to determine for each pair of stars the probability that it is the binary star. This probability is represented by the function $\beta \left({\rm{\Delta }}\right)$ depending on the separation. Furthermore, a combined analysis of the separation with proper motion provides a clear picture of binaries with two components of the motion: parallel and orbital. The result of this analysis is an estimate of the average orbital period and mass of the binary system. The catalog we have created involves 80,560 binary candidates.

We present the discovery of an extremely cold, nearby brown dwarf in the solar neighborhood, found in the CatWISE catalog. Photometric follow-up with Spitzer reveals that the object, CWISEP J193518.59–154620.3, has ch1–ch2 = 3.24 ± 0.31 mag, making it one of the reddest brown dwarfs known. Using the Spitzer photometry and the polynomial relations from Kirkpatrick et al. we estimate an effective temperature in the ∼270–360 K range, and a distance estimate in the 5.6–10.9 pc range. We combined the WISE, NEOWISE, and Spitzer data to measure a proper motion of ${\mu }_{\alpha }\cos \delta =337\pm 69$ mas yr⁻¹, μ_δ = −50 ± 97 mas yr⁻¹, which implies a relatively low tangential velocity in the range 7–22 km s⁻¹.

The Halo Assembly in Lambda Cold Dark Matter: Observations in 7 Dimensions (HALO7D) data set consists of Keck II/DEIMOS spectroscopy and Hubble Space Telescope–measured proper motions of Milky Way halo main-sequence turnoff stars in the CANDELS fields. In this paper, the second in the HALO7D series, we present the proper motions for the HALO7D sample. We discuss our measurement methodology, which makes use of a Bayesian mixture modeling approach for creating the stationary reference frame of distant galaxies. Using the 3D kinematic HALO7D sample, we estimate the parameters of the halo velocity ellipsoid, $\langle {v}_{\phi }\rangle ,{\sigma }_{r},{\sigma }_{\phi },{\sigma }_{\theta }$, and the velocity anisotropy β. Using the full HALO7D sample, we find $\beta ={0.68}_{-0.05}^{+0.04}$ at $\langle r\rangle =23$ kpc. We also estimate the ellipsoid parameters for our sample split into three apparent magnitude bins; the posterior medians for these estimates of β are consistent with one another. Finally, we estimate β in each of the individual HALO7D fields. We find that the velocity anisotropy β can vary from field-to field, which suggests that the halo is not phase-mixed at $\langle r\rangle =23\,\mathrm{kpc}$. We explore the β variation across the skies of two stellar halos from the Latte suite of FIRE-2 simulations, finding that both simulated galaxies show β variation over a range similar to that of the variation observed across the four HALO7D fields. The accretion histories of the two simulated galaxies result in different β variation patterns; spatially mapping β is thus a way forward in characterizing the accretion history of the Galaxy.

Astrometric ground-based catalogs usually suffer from varied systematic errors. These systematic errors were hard to detect because there was no independent reference catalog complete to very faint limiting magnitudes (∼20 mag). This situation has changed since the second data release of the Gaia mission (Gaia DR2). We aim to investigate positions and the proper-motion (PM) system of two ground-based catalogs, the UCAC5 and PPMXL, referring to the Gaia DR2. The individual position in the Gaia DR2 is transferred by its PM to the epoch of other catalogs for comparison. Systematic errors that depend on the magnitude, color, and sky regions in the UCAC5 and PPMXL could be clearly seen. A different behavior between the northern and southern sky is found in the PPMXL, which is possibly inherited from the imperfect calibration of the PM system. Besides, we perform a quantitative analysis of global differences for positions and PMs by the vector spherical harmonics method in terms of 3 rotation angles, 3 glide parameters, and 10 quadrupole parameters. We find a large glide component of ∼8 mas along Z-axis and a rotation angle of ∼5 mas about Z-axis for positional offsets between the PPMXL and Gaia DR2. These terms are found to be insignificant between the UCAC5 and Gaia DR2. We show that the position and PM system of the UCAC5, a new reduction of ground-based observations in the frame of the Gaia reference system, has been largely improved. This indicates that systematic errors in positions and PMs obtained from ground-based observations are mostly impacted by a relatively poor reference catalog. But these observations can be reconstructed in the frame of a space-based reference catalog. In this sense, our results justify the tradition of space-calibrated ground-based astrometric catalogs.

We have carried out Very Large Array imaging and a Fermi timing analysis of the 115 ms γ-ray and radio pulsar PSR J0002+6216. We found that the pulsar lies at the apex of a narrowly collimated cometary-like 7' tail of nonthermal radio emission, which we identify as a bow-shock pulsar wind nebula. The tail of the nebula points back toward the geometric center of the supernova remnant CTB 1 (G116.9+0.2) 28' away, at a position angle θ_μ = 113°. We measure a proper motion with 2.9σ significance from a Fermi timing analysis giving μ = 115 ± 33 mas yr⁻¹ and θ_μ = 121° ± 13°, corresponding to a large transverse pulsar velocity of 1100 km s⁻¹ at a distance of 2 kpc. This proper motion is of the right magnitude and direction to support the claim that PSR J0002+6216 was born from the same supernova that produced CTB 1. We explore the implications for pulsar birth periods, asymmetric supernova explosions, and mechanisms for pulsar natal kick velocities.

We present a new, probabilistic method for determining the systemic proper motions of Milky Way (MW) ultra-faint satellites in the Dark Energy Survey (DES). We utilize the superb photometry from the first public data release (DR1) of the DES to select candidate members and cross-match them with the proper motions from the Gaia DR2. We model the candidate members with a mixture model (satellite and MW) in spatial and proper motion space. This method does not require prior knowledge of satellite membership and can successfully determine the tangential motion of 13 DES satellites. With our method, we present measurements of the following satellites: Columba I, Eridanus III, Grus II, Phoenix II, Pictor I, Reticulum III, and Tucana IV. This is the first systemic proper motion measurement for several of these satellites, and the majority lack extensive spectroscopic follow-up studies. We compare these to the predictions of Large Magellanic Cloud satellites and the vast polar structure. With the high-precision DES photometry, we conclude that most of the newly identified member stars are very metal-poor ([Fe/H] ≲ −2), similar to other ultra-faint dwarf galaxies, while Reticulum III is likely more metal-rich. We also find potential members in the following satellites that might indicate their overall proper motion: Cetus II, Kim 2, and Horologium II. However, due to the small number of members in each satellite, spectroscopic follow-up observations are necessary to determine the systemic proper motion in these satellites.

We used high-resolution optical Hubble Space Telescope/WFC3 and multiconjugate adaptive optics assisted GEMINI GeMS/Gemini South Adaptive Optics Imager observations in the near-infrared (NIR) to investigate the physical properties of the globular cluster (GC) NGC 6569 in the Galactic bulge. We have obtained the deepest purely NIR color–magnitude diagram published so far for this cluster using ground-based observations, reaching K_s ≈ 21.0 mag (two magnitudes below the main-sequence turn-off point). By combining the two data sets secured at two different epochs, we determined relative proper motions for a large sample of individual stars in the center of NGC 6569, allowing a robust selection of cluster member stars. Our proper motion analysis solidly demonstrates that, despite its relatively high metal content, NGC 6569 hosts some blue horizontal branch stars. A differential reddening map has been derived in the direction of the system, revealing a maximum color excess variation of about $\delta E(B-V)\sim 0.12$ mag in the available field of view. The absolute age of NGC 6569 has been determined for the first time. In agreement with the other few bulge GCs with available age estimates, NGC 6569 turns out to be old, with an age of about 12.8 Gyr, and a typical uncertainty of 0.8–1.0 Gyr.

We present the analysis of the radial distributions and kinematic properties of the multiple stellar populations (mPOPs) hosted in the globular cluster (GC) NGC 6352 as part of the Hubble Space Telescope "UV Legacy Survey of Galactic Globular Clusters" program. NGC 6352 is one of the few GCs for which the mPOP tagging in appropriate color–magnitude diagrams is clear in all evolutionary sequences. We computed high-precision stellar proper motions for the stars from the cluster's core out to 75 arcsec (∼1.5 core radii, or ∼0.6 half-light radii). We find that, in the region explored, first- and second-generation stars share the same radial distribution and kinematic properties. Velocity dispersions, anisotropy radial profiles, differential rotation, and level of energy equipartition, all suggest that NGC 6352 is probably in an advanced evolutionary stage, and any possible difference in the structural and kinematic properties of its mPOPs have been erased by dynamical processes in the core of the cluster. We also provide an estimate of the mass of blue stragglers and of main-sequence binaries through kinematics alone. In general, in order to build a complete dynamical picture of this and other GCs, it will be essential to extend the analyses presented in this paper to the GCs' outer regions where some memories of the initial differences in the mPOP properties, and those imprinted by dynamical processes, might still be present.