Minute-cadence Observations of the Galactic Plane with the Wide Field Survey Telescope (WFST): Overview, Methodology, and Early Results

Abstract As the time-domain survey telescope of the highest survey power in the Northern Hemisphere currently, the Wide Field Survey Telescope (WFST) is scheduled to hourly/daily/semiweekly scan the Northern sky up to ∼23 mag in four optical ( ugri ) bands. Unlike the observation cadences in forthcoming regular survey missions, WFST performed “staring” observations toward the Galactic plane in a cadence of ≈1 minute for a total on-source time of about 13 hr during the commissioning and pilot observation phases. Such an observation cadence is well applied in producing densely sampled light curves and hunting for stars exhibiting fast stellar variabilities. Here we introduce the primary methodologies in detecting variability, periodicity, and stellar flares among half a million sources from the minute-cadence observations, and present the WFST g / r -band light curves generated from periodic variable stars and flaring stars. Benefiting from the high photometric precisions and deep detection limits of WFST, the observations have captured several rare variable stars, such as a variable hot white dwarf (WD) and an ellipsoidal WD binary candidate. By surveying the almost unexplored parameter spaces for variables, WFST will lead to new opportunities in discovering unique variable stars in the Northern sky.

Authors

Publication Details

Journal
The Astrophysical Journal Supplement Series
Published
2025-05-01
DOI
https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4365/adc0fc
Citations
4
Primary Topic
Stellar, planetary, and galactic studies
Type
article
Field-Weighted Citation Impact
4.62
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article

Minute-cadence Observations of the Galactic Plane with the Wide Field Survey Telescope (WFST): Overview, Methodology, and Early Results

Lulu Fan, Xianzhong Zheng, Wen Zhao, Wei Liu et al.
4 citations
The Astrophysical Journal Supplement Series
Stellar, planetary, and galactic studies
4.62
article

Minute-cadence Observations of the Galactic Plane with the Wide Field Survey Telescope (WFST): Overview, Methodology, and Early Results

Lulu Fan, Xianzhong Zheng, Wen Zhao, Wei Liu, Ji-an Jiang, Jie Gao, Yongquan Xue, Xu Kong, Min-Xuan Cai, Mingtao Liang, Wentao Luo, Zhengyan Liu, Qingfeng Zhu, Zhen Wan, Zheyu Lin, Tinggui Wang, Jie Lin, Xuzhi Li, Jiazheng Zhu, Xiaoling Zhang, Jian Wang, Feng Li, Hairen Wang, Ning Jiang, Jinlong Tang, Bin Li, Dazhi Yao, Hongfei Zhang, Hao Liu
article en
4 citations

Abstract

Abstract As the time-domain survey telescope of the highest survey power in the Northern Hemisphere currently, the Wide Field Survey Telescope (WFST) is scheduled to hourly/daily/semiweekly scan the Northern sky up to ∼23 mag in four optical ( ugri ) bands. Unlike the observation cadences in forthcoming regular survey missions, WFST performed “staring” observations toward the Galactic plane in a cadence of ≈1 minute for a total on-source time of about 13 hr during the commissioning and pilot observation phases. Such an observation cadence is well applied in producing densely sampled light curves and hunting for stars exhibiting fast stellar variabilities. Here we introduce the primary methodologies in detecting variability, periodicity, and stellar flares among half a million sources from the minute-cadence observations, and present the WFST g / r -band light curves generated from periodic variable stars and flaring stars. Benefiting from the high photometric precisions and deep detection limits of WFST, the observations have captured several rare variable stars, such as a variable hot white dwarf (WD) and an ellipsoidal WD binary candidate. By surveying the almost unexplored parameter spaces for variables, WFST will lead to new opportunities in discovering unique variable stars in the Northern sky.

The Astrophysical Journal Supplement SeriesVol. 278(1)
Openalex Percentile: Top 6%
Stellar, planetary, and galactic studies
4.62
DOIOpen Access PDFOpenAlex
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