Examinando por Autor "Beamín, J.C."
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Ítem A qualitative classification of extraterrestrial civilizations(EDP Sciences, 2020-07) Ivanov, V.D.; Beamín, J.C.; Cáceres, C.; Minniti, D.Context. Interest in searches for extraterrestrial civilizations (ETCs) has been boosted in recent decades by the discovery of thousands of exoplanets. Aims. We turn to the classification of ETCs for new considerations that may help to design better strategies for searching for ETCs. Methods. This study is based on analogies with our own biological, historical, technological, and scientific development. We took a basic taxonomic approach to ETCs and investigated the implications of the new classification on ETC evolution and observational patterns. Finally, we used the quantitative scheme of Kardashev and considered its implications on the searches for ETCs as a counter example to our qualitative classification. Results. We propose a classification based on the abilities of ETCs to modify and integrate with their environments: Class 0 uses the environment as it is, Class 1 modifies the environment to fit its needs, Class 2 modifies itself to fit the environment, and a Class 3 ETC is fully integrated with the environment. Combined with the classical Kardashev scale, our scheme forms a two-dimensional method for interpreting ETC properties. Conclusions. The new framework makes it obvious that the available energy is not a unique measure of ETC progress: it may not even correlate with how well that energy is used. The possibility for progress without increased energy consumption implies a lower detectability, so in principle the existence of a Kardashev Type III ETC in the Milky Way cannot be ruled out. This reasoning weakens the Fermi paradox, allowing for the existence of advanced, yet not energy hungry, low-detectability ETCs. The integration of ETCs with the environment will make it impossible to tell technosignatures and natural phenomena apart. Therefore, the most likely opportunity for SETI searches to find advanced ETCs is to look for beacons, specifically set up by them for young civilizations like ours (if they would want to do that remains a matter of speculation). The other SETI window of opportunity is to search for ETCs at technological level similar to ours. To rephrase the famous saying of Arthur Clarke, sufficiently advanced civilizations are indistinguishable from nature. © ESO 2020.Ítem Properties of the solar neighbor WISE J072003.20-084651.2(EDP Sciences, 2015-02) Ivanov, V.D.; Vaisanen, P.; Kniazev, A.Y.; Beletsky, Y.; Mamajek, E.E.; Mužić, K.; Beamín, J.C.; Boffin, H.M.J.; Pourbaix, D.; Gandhi, P.; Gulbis, A.; Monaco, L.; Saviane, I.; Kurtev, R.; Mawet, D.; Borissova, J.; Minniti, D.Context. The severe crowding towards the Galactic plane suggests that the census of nearby stars in that direction may be incomplete. Recently, Scholz reported a new M9 object at an estimated distance d ≃ 7 pc (WISE J072003.20- 084651.2; hereafter WISE J0720) at Galactic latitude b = 2.3°. Aims. Our goals are to determine the physical characteristics of WISE J0720, its kinematic properties, and to address the question of whether it is a binary object, as was suggested in the discovery paper. Methods. Optical and infrared spectroscopy from the Southern African Large Telescope and Magellan, respectively, and spectral energy distribution fitting were used to determine the spectral type of WISE J0720. The measured radial velocity, proper motion, and parallax yielded its Galactic velocities. We also investigated if WISE J0720 may show X-ray activity based on archival data. Results. Our spectra are consistent with spectral type L0 ± 1. We find no evidence for binarity, apart from a minor 2σ level difference in the radial velocities taken at two different epochs. The spatial velocity of WISE J0720 does not connect it to any known moving group; instead, it places the object with high probability in the old thin disk or in the thick disk. The spectral energy distribution fit hints at excess in the 12 μm and 22 μm WISE bands which may be due to a redder companion, but the same excess is visible in other late-type objects, and it more likely implies a shortcoming of the models (e.g., problems with the effective wavelengths of the filters for these extremely cool objects, etc.) rather than a disk or redder companion. The optical spectrum shows some Hα emission, indicative of stellar activity. Archival X-ray observations yield no detection. Conclusions. WISE J0720 is a new member of the solar neighborhood, the third nearest L dwarf. Our data do not support the hypothesis of its binary nature. © ESO 2015.Ítem Searching for extragalactic sources in the VISTA variables in the Via láctea survey(Institute of Physics Publishing, 2018) Baravalle, L.D.; Alonso, M.V.; Castellón, J.L.N.; Beamín, J.C.; Minniti, D.We search for extragalactic sources in the VISTA Variables in the Vía Láctea survey that are hidden by the Galaxy. Herein, we describe our photometric procedure to find and characterize extragalactic objects using a combination of SExtractor and PSFEx. It was applied in two tiles of the survey: d010 and d115, without previous extragalactic IR detections, in order to obtain photometric parameters of the detected sources. The adopted criteria to define extragalactic candidates include CLASS-STAR < 0.3; 1.0 < R1 2 < 5.0 arcsec; 2.1 < C < 5; and F > 0.002 and the colors: 0.5 < (J-Ks) < 2.0 mag; 0.0 < (J-H) < 1.0 mag; 0.0 < (H-Ks) < 2.0 mag and (J-H) + 0.9 (H-Ks) > 0.44 mag. We detected 345 and 185 extragalactic candidates in the d010 and d115 tiles, respectively. All of them were visually inspected and confirmed to be galaxies. In general, they are small and more circular objects, due to the near-IR sensitivity to select more compact objects with higher surface brightness. The procedure will be used to identify extragalactic objects in other tiles of the VVV disk, which will allow us to study the distribution of galaxies and filaments hidden by the Milky Way.Ítem Searching for faint comoving companions to the a Centauri system in the VVV survey infrared images(Oxford University Press, 2017-12) Beamín, J.C.; Minniti, D.; Pullen, J.B.; Ivanov, V.D.; Bendek, E.; Bayo, A.; Gromadzki, M.; Kurtev, R.; Lucas, P.W.; Butler, R.P.The VVV survey has observed the southern disc of the MilkyWay in the near-infrared, covering 240 deg2 in the ZYJHKs filters. We search the VVV survey images in a ~19 deg2 field around α Centauri, the nearest stellar system to the Sun, to look for possible overlooked companions that the baseline in time of VVV would be able to uncover. The photometric depth of our search reaches Y ~ 19.3mag, J ~ 19 mag, and Ks ~ 17 mag. This search has yielded no new companions in a Centauri system, setting an upper mass limit for any unseen companion well into the brown dwarf/planetary mass regime. The apparent magnitude limits were turned into effective temperature limits, and the presence of companion objects with effective temperatures warmer than 325K can be ruled out using different state-of-the-art atmospheric models. These limits were transformed into mass limits using evolutionary models, companions with masses above 11MJup were discarded, extending the constraints recently provided in the literature up to projected distances of d < 7000 au from a Cen AB and ~1 200 au from Proxima. In the next few years, the VVV extended survey (VVVX) will allow us to extend the search and place similar limits on brown dwarfs/planetary companions to a Cen AB for separations up to 20 000 au. © Crown copyright 2017.Ítem Spectrophotometric characterization of high proper motion sources from WISE(Oxford University Press, 2015-12) Beamín, J.C.; Ivanov, V.D.; Minniti, D.; Smart, R.L.; Muzić, K.; Mendez, R.A.; Beletsky, Y.; Bayo, A.; Gromadzki, M.; Kurtev, R.The census of the solar neighbourhood is almost complete for stars and becoming more complete in the brown dwarf regime. Spectroscopic, photometric and kinematic characterization of nearby objects helps us to understand the local mass function, the binary fraction, and provides new targets for sensitive planet searches. We aim to derive spectral types and spectrophotometric distances of a sample of new high proper motion sources found with the WISE (Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer) satellite, and obtain parallaxes for those objects that fall within the area observed by the Vista Variables in the Vía Láctea survey (VVV). We used low-resolution spectroscopy and template fitting to derive spectral types, multiwavelength photometry to characterize the companion candidates and obtain photometric distances. Multi-epoch imaging from the VVV survey was used to measure the parallaxes and proper motions for three sources. We confirm a new T2 brown dwarf within ∼15 pc. We derived optical spectral types for 24 sources, mostly M dwarfs within 50 pc. We addressed the wide binary nature of 16 objects found by the WISE mission and previously known high proper motion sources. Six of these are probably members of wide binaries, two of those are new, and present evidence against the physical binary nature of two candidate binary stars found in the literature, and eight that we selected as possible binary systems. We discuss a likely microlensing event produced by a nearby low-mass star and a galaxy, that is to occur in the following five yearsÍtem Temperature constraints on the coldest brown dwarf known: WISE 0855-0714(EDP Sciences, 2014-10) Beamín, J.C.; Ivanov, V.D.; Bayo, A.; Mužić, K.; Boffin, H.M.J.; Allard, F.; Homeier, D.; Minniti, D.; Gromadzki, M.; Kurtev, R.; Lodieu, N.; Martin, E.L.; Mendez, R.A.Context. Nearby isolated planetary mass objects are beginning to be discovered, but their individual properties are poorly constrained because their low surface temperatures and strong molecular self-absorption make them extremely faint. Aims. We aimed to detect the near-infrared emission of the coldest brown dwarf (BD) found so far, WISE0855-0714, located ~2.2 pc away, and to improve its temperature estimate (Teff = 225−260 K) from a comparison with state-of-the-art models of BD atmospheres. Methods. We observed the field containing WISE0855-0714 with HAWK-I at the VLT in the Y band. For BDs with Teff< 500 K theoretical models predict strong signal (or rather less molecular absorption) in this band. Results. WISE0855-0714 was not detected in our Y-band images, thus placing an upper limit on its brightness to Y> 24.4 mag at 3σ level, leading to Y − [ 4.5 ] > 10.5. Combining this limit with previous detections and upper limits at other wavelengths, WISE0855-0714 is confirmed as the reddest BD detected, further supporting its status as the coldest known brown dwarf. We applied spectral energy distribution fitting with collections of models from two independent groups for extremely cool BD atmospheres leading to an effective temperature of Teff< 250 K,Ítem The VVV templates project towards an automated classification of VVV light-curves: I. Building a database of stellar variability in the near-infrared(EDP Sciences, 2014-07) Angeloni, R.; Contreras Ramos, R.; Catelan, M.; Dékány, I.; Gran, F.; Alonso-García, J.; Hempel, M.; Navarrete, C.; Andrews, H.; Aparicio, A.; Beamín, J.C.; Berger, C.; Borissova, J.; Contreras Peña, C.; Cunial, A.; De Grijs, R.; Espinoza, N.; Eyheramendy, S.; Eyheramendy, S.; Fiaschi, M.; Hajdu, G.; Han, J.; Hełminiak, K.G.; Hempel, A.; Hidalgo, S.L.; Ita, Y.; Jeon Y., -B; Jordán, A.; Kwon, J.; Lee, J.T.; Martín, E.L.; Masetti, N.; Matsunaga, N.; Milone, A.P.; Minniti, D.; Morelli, L.; Murgas, F.; Nagayama, T.; Navarro, C.; Ochner, P.; Pérez, P.; Pichara, K.; Rojas-Arriagada, A.; Roquette, J.; Saito, R.K.; Siviero, A.; Sohn, J.; Sung, H.-I.; Tamura, M.; Tata, R.; Tomasella, L.; Townsend, B.; Whitelock, P.Context. The Vista Variables in the Vía Láctea (VVV) ESO Public Survey is a variability survey of the Milky Way bulge and an adjacent section of the disk carried out from 2010 on ESO Visible and Infrared Survey Telescope for Astronomy (VISTA). The VVV survey will eventually deliver a deep near-IR atlas with photometry and positions in five passbands (ZYJHKS) and a catalogue of 1−10 million variable point sources – mostly unknown – that require classifications. Aims. The main goal of the VVV Templates Project, which we introduce in this work, is to develop and test the machine-learning algorithms for the automated classification of the VVV light-curves. As VVV is the first massive, multi-epoch survey of stellar variability in the near-IR, the template light-curves that are required for training the classification algorithms are not available. In the first paper of the series we describe the construction of this comprehensive database of infrared stellar variability. Methods. First, we performed a systematic search in the literature and public data archives; second, we coordinated a worldwide observational campaign; and third, we exploited the VVV variability database itself on (optically) well-known stars to gather high-quality infrared light-curves of several hundreds of variable stars. Results. We have now collected a significant (and still increasing) number of infrared template light-curves. This database will be used as a training-set for the machine-learning algorithms that will automatically classify the light-curves produced by VVV. The results of such an auto mated classification will be covered in forthcoming papers of the series.Ítem VVV high proper motion stars – I. The catalogue of bright KS ≤ 13.5 stars(OXFORD UNIV PRESS, 2016-09) Kurtev, R.; Gromadzki, M.; Beamín, J.C.; Folkes, S.L.; Pena Ramirez, K.; Ivanov, V.D.; Borissova, J.; Villanueva, V.; Minniti, D.; Mendez, R.; Lucas, P.W.; Smith, L.C.; Pinfield, D.J.; Kuhn, M.A.; Jones, H.R.A.; Antonova, A.; Yip, A.K.P.Knowledge of the stellar content near the Sun is important for a broad range of topics ranging from the search for planets to the study of Milky Way (MW) structure. The most powerful method for identifying potentially nearby stars is proper motion (PM) surveys. All old optical surveys avoid, or are at least substantially incomplete, near the Galactic plane. The depth and breadth of the 'VISTA Variables in Vía Láctea' (VVV) near-IR survey significantly improves this situation. Taking advantage of the VVV survey data base, we have measured PMs in the densest regions of the MW bulge and southern plane in order to complete the census of nearby objects. We have developed a custom PM pipeline based on VVV catalogues from the Cambridge Astronomy Survey Unit, by comparing the first epoch of JHKS with the multiepoch KS bands acquired later. Taking advantage of the large time baseline between the Two Micron All Sky Survey (2MASS) and the VVV observations, we also obtained 2MASS-VVV PMs.We present a near-IR PMcatalogue for the whole area of theVVVsurvey, which includes 3003 moving stellar sources. All of these have been visually inspected and are real PM objects. Our catalogue is in very good agreement with the PM data supplied in IR catalogues outside the densest zone of the MW. The majority of the PM objects in our catalogue are nearby M-dwarfs, as expected. This new data base allows us to identify 57 common PM binary candidates, among which are two new systems within 30 pc of the Sun.Ítem VVVX Near-IR Photometry for 99 Low-mass Stars in the Gaia EDR3 Catalog of Nearby Stars(EDP Sciences, 2022-04) Mejías, A.; Minniti, D.; Alonso-García, J.; Beamín, J.C.; Saito, R.K.; Solano, E.Context. Red dwarf stars, which represent 75% of stars in the Milky Way, can be studied in great detail in the solar neighborhood, where the sample is more complete. Aims. We intend to better characterize red-dwarf candidates selected from the Gαìα Catalog of Nearby Stars using optical and near-infrared multi-filter photometry from the Vista Variables in the Vía Láctea extended (VVVX) Survey, the DECam Plane Survey, the Panoramic Survey Telescope and Rapid Response System, and the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer. Methods. We performed a cross-matching procedure among the positions of a color-selected sample of M dwarfs in the VVVX Survey and the Gaia Early Data Release 3 sub-catalog of nearby stars. We explored their stellar parameters and spectral types using the Virtual Observatory SED Analyzer (VOSA). Radii were also obtained from the computed luminosities and Teff using the Stefan-Boltzmann equation. Masses and ages were computed for some of the objects using evolutionary tracks and isochrones. Additional mass estimations were obtained with the MKs 'M∗, relation. We then validated our results for the stellar parameters of two of our objects with spectra obtained with the TripleSpec instrument at the SOAR telescope, as well as those of our total amount of stars through a direct comparison with an independent sample from the literature. We revised the objects in our sample and compared their proper motion vectors with other sources within 3022 to identify possible companions and probed their renormalized unit weight error (RUWE) values to identify unresolved companions. Results. We present a catalog of physical parameters for 99 low-mass objects with distances from 43.2 to 111.3 pc. Effective temperatures range from 2500 to 3400 K, with the majority of stars in the sample compatible with the status of M4 dwarfs. We obtained a good agreement between the stellar parameters computed with VOSA and the estimations from observed spectra, also when comparing with an independent sample from the literature. The distribution of masses obtained with VOSA is concentrated toward the very low-mass regime. Eight objects present values of RUWE ¥ 1.4 and seven are consistent with being part of a binary system. © ESO 2022.