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The Vista Variables in the Via Lactea (VVV) ESO Public Survey: Current Status and First Results

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 نشر من قبل Marcio Catelan
 تاريخ النشر 2011
  مجال البحث فيزياء
والبحث باللغة English
 تأليف M. Catelan




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Vista Variables in the Via Lactea (VVV) is an ESO Public Survey that is performing a variability survey of the Galactic bulge and part of the inner disk using ESOs Visible and Infrared Survey Telescope for Astronomy (VISTA). The survey covers 520 deg^2 of sky area in the ZYJHK_S filters, for a total observing time of 1929 hours, including ~ 10^9 point sources and an estimated ~ 10^6 variable stars. Here we describe the current status of the VVV Survey, in addition to a variety of new results based on VVV data, including light curves for variable stars, newly discovered globular clusters, open clusters, and associations. A set of reddening-free indices based on the ZYJHK_S system is also introduced. Finally, we provide an overview of the VVV Templates Project, whose main goal is to derive well-defined light curve templates in the near-IR, for the automated classification of VVV light curves.

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The VISTA Variables in the Via Lactea (VVV) survey is one of six public ESO surveys, and is now in its 4th year of observing. Although far from being complete, the VVV survey has already delivered many results, some directly connected to the intended science goals (detection of variables stars, microlensing events, new star clusters), others concerning more exotic objects, e.g. novae. Now, at the end of the fourth observing period, and comprising roughly 50% of the proposed observations, the actual status of the survey, as well some of the results based on the VVV data, are presented.
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