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arXiv:2402.10187v2 Announce Type: replace Abstract: The Euclid mission is expected to image millions of galaxies with high resolution, providing an extensive dataset to study galaxy evolution. We investigate the application of deep learning to predict the detailed morphologies of galaxies in Euclid using Zoobot a convolutional neural network pretrained with 450000 galaxies from the Galaxy Zoo project. We adapted Zoobot for emulated Euclid images, generated based on Hubble Space Telescope COSMOS images, and with labels provided by volunteers in the Galaxy Zoo: Hubble project. We demonstrate that the trained Zoobot model successfully measures detailed morphology for emulated Euclid images. It effectively predicts whether a galaxy has features and identifies and characterises various features such as spiral arms, clumps, bars, disks, and central bulges. When compared to volunteer classifications Zoobot achieves mean vote fraction deviations of less than 12% and an accuracy above 91% for the confident volunteer classifications across most morphology types. However, the performance varies depending on the specific morphological class. For the global classes such as disk or smooth galaxies, the mean deviations are less than 10%, with only 1000 training galaxies necessary to reach this performance. For more detailed structures and complex tasks like detecting and counting spiral arms or clumps, the deviations are slightly higher, around 12% with 60000 galaxies used for training. In order to enhance the performance on complex morphologies, we anticipate that a larger pool of labelled galaxies is needed, which could be obtained using crowdsourcing. Finally, our findings imply that the model can be effectively adapted to new morphological labels. We demonstrate this adaptability by applying Zoobot to peculiar galaxies. In summary, our trained Zoobot CNN can readily predict morphological catalogues for Euclid images.

arXiv:2407.07940v3 Announce Type: replace Abstract: Euclid will collect an enormous amount of data during the mission's lifetime, observing billions of galaxies in the extragalactic sky. Along with traditional template-fitting methods, numerous machine learning algorithms have been presented for computing their photometric redshifts and physical parameters (PPs), requiring significantly less computing effort while producing equivalent performance measures. However, their performance is limited by the quality and amount of input information, to the point where the recovery of some well-established physical relationships between parameters might not be guaranteed. To forecast the reliability of Euclid photo-$z$s and PPs calculations, we produced two mock catalogs simulating Euclid photometry. We simulated the Euclid Wide Survey (EWS) and Euclid Deep Fields (EDF). We tested the performance of a template-fitting algorithm (Phosphoros) and four ML methods in recovering photo-$z$s, PPs (stellar masses and star formation rates), and the SFMS. To mimic the Euclid processing as closely as possible, the models were trained with Phosphoros-recovered labels. For the EWS, we found that the best results are achieved with a mixed labels approach, training the models with wide survey features and labels from the Phosphoros results on deeper photometry, that is, with the best possible set of labels for a given photometry. This imposes a prior, helping the models to better discern cases in degenerate regions of feature space, that is, when galaxies have similar magnitudes and colors but different redshifts and PPs, with performance metrics even better than those found with Phosphoros. We found no more than 3% performance degradation using a COSMOS-like reference sample or removing u band data, which will not be available until after data release DR1. The best results are obtained for the EDF, with appropriate recovery of photo-$z$, PPs, and the SFMS.

A team of researchers has today (Friday 13th) been awarded more than £5m* to establish the Spatial Profiling and Annotation Centre of Excellence (SPACE) to open up access to their groundbreaking cancer mapping technology and establish collaborations with other scientists to enable them to investigate tumours in 3D. The...

Interferometry of stunning spiral arms around young star reveals gravity’s hand in planet formation Traditionally, planet formation has been described as a “bottom-up” process, as dust grains gradually collect into bigger conglomerations over tens of millions of years: from microns, to centimeters, to meters, to kilometers...

arXiv:2409.00197v1 Announce Type: new Abstract: Globular clusters (GCs) are sites of extremely efficient star formation, and recent studies suggest they significantly contributed to the early Milky Way's stellar mass build-up. Although their role has since diminished, GCs' impact on the Galaxy's initial evolution can be traced today by identifying their most chemically unique stars--those with anomalous nitrogen and aluminum overabundances and oxygen depletion. While they are a perfect tracer of clusters, be it intact or fully dissolved, these high-[N/O], high-[Al/Fe] GC-origin stars are extremely rare within the current Galaxy. To address the scarcity of these unusual, precious former GC members, we train a neural network (NN) to identify high-[N/O], high-[Al/Fe] stars using low-resolution Gaia BP/RP spectra. Our NN achieves a classification accuracy of approximately $\approx99\%$ and a false positive rate of around $\approx7\%$, identifying 878 new candidates in the Galactic field. We validate our results with several physically-motivated sanity checks, showing, for example, that the incidence of selected stars in Galactic GCs is significantly higher than in the field. Moreover, we find that most of our GC-origin candidates reside in the inner Galaxy, having likely formed in the proto-Milky Way, consistent with previous research. The fraction of GC candidates in the field drops at a metallicity of [Fe/H]$\approx-1$, approximately coinciding with the completion of spin-up, i.e. the formation of the Galactic stellar disk.

arXiv:2408.17250v1 Announce Type: new Abstract: Context: In the context of Galactic archaeology, the outer halo remains relatively unexplored with respect to its metallicity distribution, merger debris, and the abundance of known very/extremely metal-poor ([Fe/H]

arXiv:2408.16815v1 Announce Type: new Abstract: We present a novel method to constrain the formation time of the Milky Way disc using the chrono-kinematic signatures of the inner Galaxy. We construct an O-rich Mira variable sample from the Gaia Long-period Variable catalogue to study the kinematic behaviour of stars with different ages in the inner Galaxy. From the Auriga suite of cosmological zoom-in simulations, we find that the age of the oldest stellar population with imprints of the bar in density and kinematics matches the disc spin-up epoch. This is because stars born before the spin-up show insufficient rotation and are not kinematically cold enough to be efficiently trapped by the bar. We find that the bar kinematic signature disappears for Mira variables with a period shorter than 190 days. Using the period-age relation of Mira variables, we constrain the spin-up epoch of the Milky Way to be younger than $\sim11-12$~Gyr (redshift $\sim3$). We also discuss and compare our method and result to other evidence of the Milky Way spin-up epoch under the context of a realistic age uncertainty. Age uncertainty leads to an overestimation of the disc formation time when performing backward modelling. Our constrain of the spin-up epoch is independent from previous studies because it relies on the kinematics of the inner Galaxy instead of the solar vicinity.

arXiv:2311.08358v2 Announce Type: replace Abstract: We present the first large-scale 3D kinematic study of ~2000 spectroscopically-confirmed young stars (

arXiv:2402.14907v2 Announce Type: replace Abstract: Overdensities in the radial phase space $(r,v_r)$ of the Milky Way's halo have previously been associated with the phase-mixed debris of a highly radial merger event, such as Gaia Sausage-Enceladus. We present and test an alternative theory in which the overdense 'chevrons' are instead composed of stars trapped in resonances with the Galactic bar. We develop an analytic model of resonant orbits in the isochrone potential, and complement this with a test particle simulation of a stellar halo in a realistic barred Milky Way potential. These models are used to predict the appearance of action space $(J_\phi,J_r)$ and radial phase space in the Solar neighbourhood. They are able to reproduce almost all salient features of the observed chevrons. In particular, both the analytic model and simulation predict that the chevrons are more prominent at $v_r

arXiv:2311.09294v2 Announce Type: replace Abstract: There has been a discussion for many years on whether the disc in the Milky Way extends down to low metallicity. We aim to address the question by employing a large sample of giant stars with radial velocities and homogeneous metallicities based on the Gaia DR3 XP spectra. We study the 3D velocity distribution of stars in various metallicity ranges, including the very-metal poor regime (VMP, [M/H] $

More than 20 national space projects have been announced today by DSIT Secretary of State Peter Kyle, on the opening day of the Farnborough International Airshow The projects, worth £33 million, come from the UK Space Agency’s National Space Innovation Programme – designed to invest in high-potential technologies, drive...

An international team (including IoA astronomers Laura Rogers and Amy Bonsor) have recently found hundreds of “polluted” white dwarf stars in our home galaxy, the Milky Way. These are white dwarfs caught actively consuming planets in their orbit. They are a valuable resource for studying the interiors of these distant...

We are pleased to announce that Professor George Efstathiou (IoA director 2004-2008) is awarded the Albert Einstein Medal 2024. The medal is awarded to deserving individuals for outstanding scientific findings, works, or publications related to Albert Einstein. The award ceremony will take place on October 9, 2024 during...

arXiv:2407.06280v1 Announce Type: new Abstract: We present the stellar value-added catalogue based on the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI) Early Data Release. The catalogue contains radial velocity and stellar parameter measurements for $\simeq$ 400,000 unique stars observed during commissioning and survey validation by DESI. These observations were made under conditions similar to the Milky Way Survey (MWS) currently carried out by DESI but also include multiple specially targeted fields, such as those containing well-studied dwarf galaxies and stellar streams. The majority of observed stars have $16

Lord Martin Rees (born in England in 1942) is one of the most distinguished theoretical physicists of our time, with seminal contributions in a large number of areas, from cosmology and the formation of the first stars and galaxies to high-energy astrophysics, to the formation and evolution of massive black holes in the...

arXiv:2407.05004v1 Announce Type: new Abstract: This paper presents the first public data release of the S-PLUS Ultra-Short Survey (USS), a photometric survey with short exposure times, covering approximately 9300 deg$^{2}$ of the Southern sky. The USS utilizes the Javalambre 12-band magnitude system, including narrow and medium-band and broad-band filters targeting prominent stellar spectral features. The primary objective of the USS is to identify bright, extremely metal-poor (EMP; [Fe/H] $\leq -3$) and ultra metal-poor (UMP; [Fe/H] $\leq -4$) stars for further analysis using medium- and high-resolution spectroscopy.}{This paper provides an overview of the survey observations, calibration method, data quality, and data products. Additionally, it presents the selection of EMP and UMP candidates.}{The data from the USS were reduced and calibrated using the same methods as presented in the S-PLUS DR2. An additional step was introduced, accounting for the offset between the observed magnitudes off the USS and the predicted magnitudes from the very low-resolution Gaia XP spectra.}{This first release contains data for 163 observed fields totaling $\sim$324 deg$^{2}$ along the Celestial Equator. The magnitudes obtained from the USS are well-calibrated, showing a difference of $\sim 15$ mmag compared to the predicted magnitudes by the GaiaXPy toolkit. By combining colors and magnitudes, 140 candidates for EMP or UMP have been identified for follow-up studies.}{The S-PLUS USS DR1 is an important milestone in the search for bright metal-poor stars, with magnitudes in the range 10 $

arXiv:2407.04204v1 Announce Type: new Abstract: (abridged) The third data release of Gaia, has provided stellar parameters, metallicity [M/H], [{\alpha}/Fe], individual abundances, broadening parameter from its RVS spectra for about 5.6 million objects thanks to the GSP-Spec module. The catalogue publishes the radial velocity of 33 million sources. We took advantage of the intersections between Gaia RVS and Gaia-ESO to compare their stellar parameters, abundances and radial and rotational velocities. We aimed at verifying the overall agreement between the two datasets, considering the various calibrations and the quality-control flag system suggested for the Gaia GSP-Spec parameters. For the targets in common between Gaia RVS and Gaia-ESO, we performed several statistical checks on the distributions of their stellar parameters, abundances and velocities of targets in common. For the Gaia surface gravity and metallicity we considered both the uncalibrated and calibrated values. We find an excellent agreement between the Gaia and Gaia-ESO radial velocities given the uncertainties affecting each dataset. Less than 25 of ~2100 Gaia-ESO spectroscopic binaries are flagged as non-single stars by Gaia. The temperature scales are in good agreement. The calibrated GSP-Spec gravity should be preferred. We note that the quality (accuracy, precision) of the GSP-Spec parameters degrades quickly for objects fainter than G~11. We find that the somewhat imprecise GSP-Spec abundances due to its medium-resolution spectroscopy over a short wavelength window and the faint G regime of the sample under study can be counterbalanced by working with averaged quantities. We studied some properties of the open-cluster population: our combined sample traces very well the radial [Fe/H] and [Ca/Fe] gradients, the age-metallicity relations in different radial regions, and it places the clusters in the thin disc.

arXiv:2406.18636v1 Announce Type: new Abstract: Carbon abundances, especially at low metallicity, reveal the early chemical evolution of a system, tracing the supernovae (SNe) that contributed and how much of their ejecta made it into the next stellar generation. Our sample from the \textit{Pristine} Inner Galaxy Survey (PIGS) includes $\sim 350$ metal-poor ([Fe/H]~$+0.7$) as in the Galaxy under-predicts the number of CEMP stars in DGs, and for Sgr a cut at [C/Fe]$~\sim +0.35$ may be more appropriate, which brings the frequency of CEMP stars in agreement with that in the Galaxy.

arXiv:2406.16646v1 Announce Type: new Abstract: The ESO public survey VISTA Variables in the V\'ia L\'actea (VVV) surveyed the inner Galactic bulge and the adjacent southern Galactic disk from $2009-2015$. Upon its conclusion, the complementary VVV eXtended (VVVX) survey has expanded both the temporal as well as spatial coverage of the original VVV area, widening it from $562$ to $1700$ sq. deg., as well as providing additional epochs in $JHK_{\rm s}$ filters from $2016-2023$. With the completion of VVVX observations during the first semester of 2023, we present here the observing strategy, a description of data quality and access, and the legacy of VVVX. VVVX took $\sim 2000$ hours, covering about 4% of the sky in the bulge and southern disk. VVVX covered most of the gaps left between the VVV and the VISTA Hemisphere Survey (VHS) areas and extended the VVV time baseline in the obscured regions affected by high extinction and hence hidden from optical observations. VVVX provides a deep $JHK_{\rm s}$ catalogue of $\gtrsim 1.5\times10^9$ point sources, as well as a $K_{\rm s}$ band catalogue of $\sim 10^7$ variable sources. Within the existing VVV area, we produced a $5D$ map of the surveyed region by combining positions, distances, and proper motions of well-understood distance indicators such as red clump stars, RR Lyrae, and Cepheid variables. In March 2023 we successfully finished the VVVX survey observations that started in 2016, an accomplishment for ESO Paranal Observatory upon 4200 hours of observations for VVV+VVVX. The VVV+VVVX catalogues complement those from the Gaia mission at low Galactic latitudes and provide spectroscopic targets for the forthcoming ESO high-multiplex spectrographs MOONS and 4MOST.

arXiv:2406.14134v1 Announce Type: new Abstract: Hypervelocity stars (HVSs) are stars which have been ejected from the Galactic Centre (GC) at velocities of up to a few thousand km/s. They are tracers of the Galactic potential and can be used to infer properties of the GC, such as the initial-mass function and assembly history. HVSs are rare, however, with only about a dozen promising candidates discovered so far. In this work we use a novel, highly efficient method to identify new HVS candidates in Gaia. This method uses the nearly radial trajectories of HVSs to infer their distances and velocities based on their position and Gaia proper motion alone. Through comparison of inferred distances with Gaia parallaxes and photometry we identified 600 HVS candidates with G