VIRAC2: NIR astrometry and time series photometry for 500M+ stars from the VVV and VVVX surveys

ABSTRACT We present VIRAC2, a catalogue of positions, proper motions, parallaxes and Z, Y, J, H, and $K_s$ near-infrared photometric time series of 545 346 537 unique stars. The catalogue is based on a point spread function fitting reduction of nearly a decade of VISTA VVV and VVVX images, which cover $560~{\rm deg}^2$ of the Southern Galactic plane and bulge. The catalogue is complete at the $\gt 90$ per cent level for $11\lt K_s~{\rm mag}\lt 16$ sources, but extends to $K_s\approx {}17.5$ mag in most fields. Astrometric performance for $11\lt K_s~{\rm mag}\lt 14$ sources is typically $\approx {}0.37~{\rm mas~yr}^{-1}$ per dimension for proper motion, and $1~{\rm mas}$ for parallax. At $K_s=16$ the equivalent values are around $1.5~{\rm mas~yr}^{-1}$ and $5~{\rm mas}$. These uncertainties are validated against Gaia DR3 and Hubble Space Telescope astrometry. The complete catalogues are available via the ESO archive. We perform an initial search of the catalogue for nearby ultracool dwarf candidates. In total, we find 26 new sources whose parallaxes place them within 50 parsecs of the Sun. Among them we find two high-confidence T dwarfs and a number of other sources that appear to lie close to the L/T transition.

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Publication Details

Journal
Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Published
2024-12-20
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/stae2797
Citations
16
Primary Topic
Stellar, planetary, and galactic studies
Type
article
Field-Weighted Citation Impact
4.97

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article

VIRAC2: NIR astrometry and time series photometry for 500M+ stars from the VVV and VVVX surveys

Leigh C. Smith, D. Minniti, R. K. Saito, Jason L. Sanders et al.
16 citations
Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Stellar, planetary, and galactic studies
4.97
article

VIRAC2: NIR astrometry and time series photometry for 500M+ stars from the VVV and VVVX surveys

Leigh C. Smith, D. Minniti, R. K. Saito, Jason L. Sanders, P. W. Lucas, M. Hempel, J. Alonso-García, C. Gónzalez-Fernández, R. Kurtev, Vasily Belokurov, V. D. Ivanov, Sergey E. Koposov, L. R. Bedin, N. W. Evans
article en
16 citations

Abstract

ABSTRACT We present VIRAC2, a catalogue of positions, proper motions, parallaxes and Z, Y, J, H, and $K_s$ near-infrared photometric time series of 545 346 537 unique stars. The catalogue is based on a point spread function fitting reduction of nearly a decade of VISTA VVV and VVVX images, which cover $560~{\rm deg}^2$ of the Southern Galactic plane and bulge. The catalogue is complete at the $\gt 90$ per cent level for $11\lt K_s~{\rm mag}\lt 16$ sources, but extends to $K_s\approx {}17.5$ mag in most fields. Astrometric performance for $11\lt K_s~{\rm mag}\lt 14$ sources is typically $\approx {}0.37~{\rm mas~yr}^{-1}$ per dimension for proper motion, and $1~{\rm mas}$ for parallax. At $K_s=16$ the equivalent values are around $1.5~{\rm mas~yr}^{-1}$ and $5~{\rm mas}$. These uncertainties are validated against Gaia DR3 and Hubble Space Telescope astrometry. The complete catalogues are available via the ESO archive. We perform an initial search of the catalogue for nearby ultracool dwarf candidates. In total, we find 26 new sources whose parallaxes place them within 50 parsecs of the Sun. Among them we find two high-confidence T dwarfs and a number of other sources that appear to lie close to the L/T transition.

Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical SocietyVol. 536(4)
Universidad de Antofagasta (CL), European Southern Observatory (DE), Universidad Andrés Bello (CL), University of Hertfordshire (GB), Valparaiso University (US), University of Cambridge (GB), Vatican Secret Archives (VA), Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina (BR), Millennium Institute of Astrophysics (CL), Royal Observatory (GB), Max Planck Institute for Astronomy (DE), Institute of Astronomy (RU), Osservatorio Astronomico di Padova (IT), University College London (GB), University of Valparaíso (CL), University of Edinburgh (GB)
National Science Foundation, UK Research and Innovation, University of Hertfordshire, Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico, Centro de Astrofísica y Tecnologías Afines, Agencia Nacional de Investigación y Desarrollo, Science and Technology Facilities Council
Openalex Percentile: Top 4%
Stellar, planetary, and galactic studies
4.97
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