Examinando por Autor "Libralato M."

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    A deep view of a fossil relic in the Galactic bulge: The Globular Cluster HP 1
    (Oxford University Press, 2019-04-21) Kerber L.O.; Libralato M.; Souza S.O.; Oliveira R.A.P.; Ortolani S.; Pérez-Villegas A.
    HP 1 is an α-enhanced and moderately metal-poor bulge globular cluster with a blue horizontal branch. These combined characteristics make it a probable relic of the early star formation in the innermost Galactic regions. Here, we present a detailed analysis of a deep near-infrared (NIR) photometry of HP 1 obtained with the NIR GSAOI + GeMS camera at the Gemini-South telescope. J and K S images were collected with an exquisite spatial resolution (FWHM 1/40.1 arcsec), reaching stars at two magnitudes below the MSTO. We combine our GSAOI data with archival F606W-filter HST ACS/WFC images to compute relative proper motions and select bona fide cluster members. Results from statistical isochrone fits in the NIR and optical-NIR colour-magnitude diagrams indicate an age of 12.8 +0.9-0.8 Gyr, confirming that HP 1 is one of the oldest clusters in the Milky Way. The same fits also provide apparent distance moduli in the K S and V filters in very good agreement with the ones from 11 RR Lyrae stars. By subtracting the extinction in each filter, we recover a heliocentric distance of 6.59 +0.17-0.15 kpc. Furthermore, we refine the orbit of HP 1 using this accurate distance and update and accurate radial velocities (from high-resolution spectroscopy) and absolute proper motions (from Gaia DR2), reaching mean perigalactic and apogalactic distances of 1/40.12 and 1/43 kpc, respectively.
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    High-precision astrometry with VVV II. A near-infrared extension of Gaia into the Galactic plane
    (EDP Sciences, 2024-07) Griggio M.; Libralato M.; Bellini A.; Bedin L.R.; Anderson J.; Smith L.C.; Minniti D.
    Aims. We use near-infrared, ground-based data from the VISTA Variables in the Via Lactea (VVV) survey to indirectly extend the astrometry provided by the Gaia catalog to objects in heavily extinct regions toward the Galactic bulge and plane that are beyond Gaia’s reach. Methods. We made use of state-of-the-art techniques developed for high-precision astrometry and photometry with the Hubble Space Telescope to process the VVV data. We employed empirical, spatially variable, effective point spread functions and local transformations to mitigate the effects of systematic errors, like residual geometric distortion and image motion, and to improve measurements in crowded fields and for faint stars. We also anchored our astrometry to the absolute reference frame of Gaia Data Release 3. Results. We measure between 20 and 60 times more sources than Gaia in the region surrounding the Galactic center, obtaining a single-exposure precision of about 12 mas and a proper-motion precision of better than 1 mas yr−1 for bright, unsaturated sources. Our astrometry provides an extension of Gaia into the Galactic center. We publicly release the astro-photometric catalogs of the two VVV fields considered in this work, which contain a total of ∼3.5 million sources. Our catalogs cover ∼3 sq. deg, about 0.5% of the entire VVV survey area.