Browsing by Author "Hempel, M."

Now showing 1 - 20 of 22
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    Discovery of VVV CL001 A low-mass globular cluster next to UKS 1 in the direction of the Galactic bulge
    (EDP SCIENCES S A, 2011) Minniti, D.; Hempel, M.; Toledo, I.; Ivanov, V. D.; Alonso Garcia, J.; Saito, R. K.; Catelan, M.; Geisler, D.; Jordan, A.; Borissova, J.; Zoccali, M.; Kurtev, R.; Carraro, G.; Barbuy, B.; Claria, J.; Rejkuba, M.; Emerson, J.; Moni Bidin, C.
    Context. It is not known how many globular clusters may remain undetected towards the Galactic bulge.
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    Massive open star clusters using the VVV survey. III. A young massive cluster at the far edge of the Galactic bar
    (2014) Ramírez Alegría, S.; Borissova, J.; Chené, A. N.; O'Leary, E.; Amigo, P.; Minniti, D.; Saito, R. K.; Geisler, D.; Kurtev, R.; Hempel, M.; Gromadzki, M.; Clarke, J. R. A.; Negueruela, I.; Marco, A.; Fierro, C.; Bonatto, C.; Catelan, Márcio
    Context. Young massive clusters are key to map the Milky Way's structure, and near-infrared large area sky surveys have contributed strongly to the discovery of new obscured massive stellar clusters. Aims: We present the third article in a series of papers focused on young and massive clusters discovered in the VVV survey. This article is dedicated to the physical characterization of VVV CL086, using part of its OB-stellar population. Methods: We physically characterized the cluster using JHKS near-infrared photometry from ESO public survey VVV images, using the VVV-SkZ pipeline, and near-infrared K-band spectroscopy, following the methodology presented in the first article of the series. Results: Individual distances for two observed stars indicate that the cluster is located at the far edge of the Galactic bar. These stars, which are probable cluster members from the statistically field-star decontaminated CMD, have spectral types between O9 and B0 V. According to our analysis, this young cluster (1.0 Myr < age < 5.0 Myr) is located at a distance of 11+5-6 kpc, and we estimate a lower limit for the cluster total mass of (2.8+1.6-1.4) · 103 M⊙. It is likely that the cluster contains even earlier and more massive stars. Based on observations taken within the ESO VISTA Public Survey VVV (programme ID 179.B-2002), and with ISAAC, VLT, ESO (programme 087.D-0341A).Near-IR photometry of the most probable cluster members is only available at the CDS via anonymous ftp to http://cdsarc.u-strasbg.fr (ftp://130.79.128.5) or via http://cdsarc.u-strasbg.fr/viz-bin/qcat?J/A+A/564/L9...
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    Milky Way demographics with the VVV survey I. The 84-million star colour-magnitude diagram of the Galactic bulge
    (EDP SCIENCES S A, 2012) Saito, R. K.; Minniti, D.; Dias, B.; Hempel, M.; Rejkuba, M.; Alonso Garcia, J.; Barbuy, B.; Catelan, M.; Emerson, J. P.; Gonzalez, O. A.; Lucas, P. W.; Zoccali, M.
    Context. The Milky Way (MW) bulge is a fundamental Galactic component for understanding the formation and evolution of galaxies, in particular our own. The ESO Public Survey VISTA Variables in the Via Lactea is a deep near-IR survey mapping the Galactic bulge and southern plane. Particularly for the bulge area, VVV is covering similar to 315 deg(2). Data taken during 2010 and 2011 covered the entire bulge area in the JHKs bands.
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    Milky Way demographics with the VVV survey: III. Evidence for a great dark lane in the 157 million star bulge color-magnitude diagram
    (2014) Minniti, D.; Saito, R.; Gonzalez, O.; Zoccali, Manuela; Rejkuba, M.; Alonso-Garcia, J.; Benjamin, R.; Catelan, Márcio; Dekany, Istvan; Emerson, J.; Hempel, M.; Lucas, P.; Schultheis, M.
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    Millimagnitude photometry for transiting extrasolar planetary candidates V. Follow-up of 30 OGLE transits. New candidates
    (EDP SCIENCES S A, 2010) Pietrukowicz, P.; Minniti, D.; Diaz, R. F.; Fernandez, J. M.; Zoccali, M.; Gieren, W.; Pietrzynski, G.; Ruiz, M. T.; Udalski, A.; Szeifert, T.; Hempel, M.
    Aims. We used VLT/VIMOS images in the V band to obtain light curves of the extrasolar planetary transits OGLE-TR-111 and OGLE-TR-113 and the candidate planetary transits: OGLE-TR-82, OGLE-TR-86, OGLE-TR-91, OGLE-TR-106, OGLE-TR-109, OGLE-TR-110, OGLE-TR-159, OGLE-TR-167, OGLE-TR-170, OGLE-TR-171.
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    Stellar Variability in the VVV Survey: An Update
    (2014) Catelan, Marcio; Dekany, I.; Hempel, M.; Minniti, D.
    The Vista Variables in the Via Lactea (VVV) ESO Public Survey consists in a near-infrared time-series survey of the Galactic bulge and inner disk, covering 562 square degrees of the sky, over a total timespan of more than 5 years. In this paper, we provide an updated account of the current status of the survey, especially in the context of stellar variability studies. In this sense, we give a first description of our efforts towards the construction of the VVV Variable Star Catalog (VVV-VSC)....
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    The Vista Variables in the Vía Láctea (VVV) ESO Public Survey: Current Status and First Results
    (2011) Catelan, Marcio; Minniti, D.; Lucas, P. W.; Alonso-García, J.; Angeloni, R.; Beamín, J. C.; Bonatto, C.; Borissova, J.; Contreras, C.; Cross, N.; Dékáany, I.; Emerson, J. P.; Eyheramendy, S.; Geisler, D.; González-Solares, E.; Helminiak, K. G.; Hempel, M.; Irwin, M. J.; Ivanov, V. D.; Jordán, A.; Kerins, E.; Kurtev, R.; Mauro, F.; Moni Bidin, C.; Navarrete, C.; Pérez, P.; Pichara, K.; Read, M.; Rejkuba, M.; Saito, R. K.; Sale, S. E.; Toledo, I.
    Vista Variables in the Vía Láctea (VVV) is an ESO Public Survey that is performing a variability survey of the Galactic bulge and part of the inner disk using ESO's 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 VVV Infrared Variability Catalog (VIVA-I)
    (2020) Ferreira Lopes, E. C.; Cross, N. J. G.; Catelan, M.; Minniti, D.; Hempel, M.; Lucas, W. P.; Angeloni, R.; Jablonsky, F.; Braga, F. V.; Leao, C. I.; Herpich, F. R.; Alonso-Garcia, J.; Papageorgiou, A.; Pichara, K.; Saito, K. R.; Bradley, A.; Beamin Muhlenbrock Juan Carlos; Cortes, C.; De Medeiros, J. R.; Russell, Christopher
    Thanks to the VISTA Variables in the Via Lactea (VVV) ESO Public Survey it is now possible to explore a large number of objects in those regions. This paper addresses the variability analysis of all VVV point sources having more than 10 observations in VVVDR4 using a novel approach. In total, the near-IR light curves of 288,378,769 sources were analysed using methods developed in the New Insight Into Time Series Analysis project. As a result, we present a complete sample having 44, 998, 752 variable star candidates (VVV-CVSC), which include accurate individual coordinates, near-IR magnitudes (ZYJHKs), extinctions A(Ks), variability indices, periods, amplitudes, among other parameters to assess the science. Unfortunately, a side effect of having a highly complete sample, is also having a high level of contamination by non-variable (contamination ratio of non-variables to variables is slightly over 10:1). To deal with this, we also provide some flags and parameters that can be used by the community to de-crease the number of variable candidates without heavily decreasing the completeness of the sample. In particular, we cross-identified 339,601 of our sources with Simbad and AAVSO databases, which provide us with information for these objects at other wavelegths. This sub-sample constitutes a unique resource to study the corresponding near-IR variability of known sources as well as to assess the IR variability related with X-ray and Gamma-Ray sources. On the other hand, the other 99.5% sources in our sample constitutes a number of potentially new objects with variability information for the heavily crowded and reddened regions of the Galactic Plane and Bulge. The present results also provide an important queryable resource to perform variability analysis and to characterize ongoing and future surveys like TESS and LSST.
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    The VVV Survey of the Milky Way: first year results
    (2011) Minniti, D.; Clariá, J. J.; Saito, R. K.; Hempel, M.; Lucas, P. W.; Rejkuba, M.; Toledo, I.; Gonzalez, O. A.; Alonso-García, J.; Irwin, M. J.; Gonzalez-Solares, E.; Cross, N.; Ivanov, V. D.; Soto, M.; Dékány, I.; Angeloni, R.; Catelan, Marcio; Amôres, E. B.; Gurovich, S.; Emerson, J. P.; Lewis, J.; Hodgkin, S.; Pietrukowicz, P.; Zoccali, M.; Sale, S. E.; Barbá, R.; Barbuy, B.; Beamin, J. C.; Helminiak, K.; Borissova, J.; Folkes, S. L.; Gamen, R. C.; Geisler, D.; Mauro, F.; Chené, A. -N.; Alonso, M. V.; Gunthardt, G.; Hanson, M.; Kerins, E.; Kurtev, R.; Majaess, D.; Martín, E.; Masetti, N.; Mirabel, I. F.; Monaco, L.; Moni Bidin, C.; Padilla, N.; Rojas, A.; Pietrzynski, G.; Saviane, I.; Valenti, E.; Weidmann, W.; López-Corredoira, M.; Ahumada, A. V.; Aigrain, S.; Arias, J. I.; Bica, E.; Bandyopadhyay, R. M.; Baume, G.; Bedin, L. R.; Bonatto, C.; Bronfman, L.; Carraro, G.; Contreras, C.; Davis, C. J.; de Grijs, R.; Dias, B.; Drew, J. E.; Fariña, C.; Feinstein, C.; Fernández Lajús, E.; Gieren, W.; Goldman, B.; Gosling, A.; Hambly, N. C.; Hoare, M.; Jordán, A.; Kinemuchi, K.; Maccarone, T.; Merlo, D. C.; Mennickent, R. E.; Morelli, L.; Motta, V.; Palma, T.; Popescu, B.; Parisi, M. C.; Parker, Q.; Pignata, G.; Read, M. A.; Ruiz, M. T.; Roman-Lopes, A.; Schreiber, M. R.; Schröder, A. C.; Smith, M.; Sodré, L., Jr.; Stephens, A. W.; Walton, N. A.; Zijlstra, A. A.; Tamura, M.; Tappert, C.; Thompson, M. A.; Vanzi, L.
    The VISTA Variables in the Via Lactea (VVV) is an ESO public near-IR variability survey that is scanning the Milky Way bulge and an adjacent section of the Galactic mid-plane. The survey will take 1929 hours of observations with the VISTA 4.1-m telescope during five years, covering a billion point sources across an area of 520 sqdeg, including 36 known globular clusters and more than 350 open clusters. The final product will be a deep IR atlas in five passbands (0.9 - 2.5 microns) and a catalogue of more than a million variable point sources....
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    The VVV Survey: New Results (Part I)
    (2014) Minniti, D.; Saito, R. K.; Hempel, M.; Lucas, P. W.; Rejkuba, M.; Toledo, I.; Gonzalez, O. A.; Alonso-García, J.; Irwin, M. J.; Gonzalez-Solares, E.; Hodgkin, S. T.; Lewis, J. R.; Cross, N.; Ivanov, V. D.; Kerins, E.; Emerson, J. P.; Soto, M.; Amôres, E. B.; Gurovich, S.; Dékány, I.; Angeloni, R.; Beamin, J. C.; Catelan, Marcio; Padilla, N.; Zoccali, M.; Pietrukowicz, P.; Moni Bidin, C.; Mauro, F.; Geisler, D.; Folkes, S. L.; Sale, S. E.; Borissova, J.; Kurtev, R.; Ahumada, A. V.; Alonso, M. V.; Adamson, A.; Arias, J. I.; Bandyopadhyay, R. M.; Barbá, R. H.; Barbuy, B.; Baume, G. L.; Bedin, L. R.; Benjamin, R.; Bica, E.; Bonatto, C.; Bronfman, L.; Carraro, G.; Chenè, A. N.; Clariá, J. J.; Clarke, J. R. A.; Contreras, C.; Corvillón, A.; de Grijs, R.; Dias, B.; Drew, J. E.; Fariía, C.; Feinstein, C.; Fernández-Lajús, E.; Gamen, R. C.; Gieren, W.; Goldman, B.; González-Fernández, C.; Grand, R. J. J.; Gunthardt, G.; Hambly, N. C.; Hanson, M. M.; Helminiak, K.; Hoare, M. G.; Huckvale, L.; Jordán, A.; Kinemuchi, K.; Longmore, A.; López-Corredoira, M.; Maccarone, T.; Majaess, D.; Martín, E.; Masetti, N.; Mennickent, R. E.; Mirabel, I. F.; Monaco, L.; Morelli, L.; Motta, V.; Palma, T.; Parisi, M. C.; Parker, Q.; Peñaloza, F.; Pietrzyński, G.; Pignata, G.; Popescu, B.; Read, M. A.; Rojas, A.; Roman-Lopes, A.; Ruiz, M. T.; Saviane, I.; Schreiber, M. R.; Schröder, A. C.; Sharma, S.; Smith, M. D.; Sodré, L.; Stead, J.; Stephens, A. W.; Tamura, M.; Tappert, C.; Thompson, M. A.; Valenti, E.; Vanzi, L.; Walton, N. A.; Weidmann, W.; Zijlstra, A.
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    The VVV Survey: New Results (Part II)
    (2014) Minniti, D.; Saito, R. K.; Hempel, M.; Lucas, P. W.; Rejkuba, M.; Toledo, I.; Gonzalez, O. A.; Alonso-García, J.; Irwin, M. J.; Gonzalez-Solares, E.; Hodgkin, S. T.; Lewis, J. R.; Cross, N.; Ivanov, V. D.; Kerins, E.; Emerson, J. P.; Soto, M.; Amôres, E. B.; Gurovich, S.; Dékány, I.; Angeloni, R.; Beamin, J. C.; Catelan, Marcio; Padilla, N.; Zoccali, M.; Pietrukowicz, P.; Moni Bidin, C.; Mauro, F.; Geisler, D.; Folkes, S. L.; Sale, S. E.; Borissova, J.; Kurtev, R.; Ahumada, A. V.; Alonso, M. V.; Adamson, A.; Arias, J. I.; Bandyopadhyay, R. M.; Barbá, R. H.; Barbuy, B.; Baume, G. L.; Bedin, L. R.; Benjamin, R.; Bica, E.; Bonatto, C.; Bronfman, L.; Carraro, G.; Chenè, A. N.; Clariá, J. J.; Clarke, J. R. A.; Contreras, C.; Corvillón, A.; de Grijs, R.; Dias, B.; Drew, J. E.; Fariña, C.; Feinstein, C.; Fernández-Lajús, E.; Gamen, R. C.; Gieren, W.; Goldman, B.; González-Fernández, C.; Grand, R. J. J.; Gunthardt, G.; Hambly, N. C.; Hanson, M. M.; Helminiak, K.; Hoare, M. G.; Huckvale, L.; Jordán, A.; Kinemuchi, K.; Longmore, A.; López-Corredoira, M.; Maccarone, T.; Majaess, D.; Martín, E.; Masetti, N.; Mennickent, R. E.; Mirabel, I. F.; Monaco, L.; Morelli, L.; Motta, V.; Palma, T.; Parisi, M. C.; Parker, Q.; Peñaloza, F.; Pietrzyński, G.; Pignata, G.; Popescu, B.; Read, M. A.; Rojas, A.; Roman-Lopes, A.; Ruiz, M. T.; Saviane, I.; Schreiber, M. R.; Schröder, A. C.; Sharma, S.; Smith, M. D.; Sodré, L.; Stead, J.; Stephens, A. W.; Tamura, M.; Tappert, C.; Thompson, M. A.; Valenti, E.; Vanzi, L.; Walton, N. A.; Weidmann, W.; Zijlstra, A.
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    The VVV Templates Project
    (2014) Contreras Ramos, R.; Catelan, Marcio; Gran, F.; Navarrete, C.; Angeloni, R.; Alonso-García, J.; Dékány, I.; Hajdu, G.; Hempel, M.; Jordán, A.; Townsend, B.; Borissova, J.; Navarro, C.; Pichara, K.; Eyheramendy, S.
    Until now, stellar variability in the near-IR has been a relatively ill-explored research field. In particular, the number of high-quality light curves is very limited and, even worse, many variability classes have not yet been observed in a sufficiently extensive way in the near-IR, so that good light curves are entirely lacking for some such classes. Since VVV is the first ever large survey dedicated to stellar variability in the near-infrared, the first problem we had to face has thus been the construction of a proper statistically significant database of high-quality (i.e., template) near-IR light curves for a significant sample of stars taken to be representative of the different variability classes under study. The main purpose of the VVV Templates Project is thus to build a large database of well-defined, high-quality, near-IR light curves for variable stars of different types, which will form the basis of the VVV automated classification algorithms...
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    The Wide View of the Galactic Bulge as seen by the VVV ESO Public Survey
    (2013) Gonzalez, O. A.; Minniti, D.; Lucas, P.; Rejkuba, M.; Zoccali, M.; Valenti, E.; Saito, R.; Emerson, J.; Catelan, Marcio; Toledo, I.; Hempel, M.; Tobar, R.
    The first year of observations of the Galactic Bulge in the Vista Variables in the Via Lactea (VVV), one of ESO's public surveys with the VISTA telescope, have yielded a deep, near-infrared, multi-colour (Z,Y,J,H,Ks) photometric coverage of over 320 square degrees. Results based on this impressive dataset are presented, showing the global properties of the Bulge. Extinction has been mapped using the magnitude and colour of the red clump, revealing a large amount of small-scale structure. This extinction map has been used to de-redden the VVV stellar photometry to study the Bulge morphology from the absolute magnitude of the red clump and to derive photometric metallicities from the colour of red giant branch stars. The VVV survey continues to obtain multi-epoch data to investigate the variable stars in the Bulge.
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    Updated census of RR Lyrae stars in the globular cluster omega Centauri (NGC 5139)
    (2015) Navarrete, C.; Contreras, R.; Catelan, Márcio; Clement, C.; Gran, F.; Alonso, J.; Angeloni, Rodolfo; Hempel, M.; Dekany, I.; Minniti, D.
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    VISTA Variables in the Via Lactea (VVV): Current Status and First Results
    (2010) Saito, R.; Hempel, M.; Alonso-García, J.; Toledo, I.; Borissova, J.; González, O.; Beamin, J. C.; Minniti, D.; Lucas, P.; Emerson, J.; Ahumada, A.; Aigrain, S.; Alonso, M. V.; Amôres, E.; Angeloni, R.; Arias, J.; Bandyopadhyay, R.; Barbá, R.; Barbuy, B.; Baume, G.; Bedin, L.; Bica, E.; Bronfman, L.; Carraro, G.; Catelan, Marcio; Clariá, J.; Contreras, C.; Cross, N.; Davis, C.; de Grijs, R.; Dékány, I.; Janet Drew, J. D.; Fariña, C.; Feinstein, C.; Fernández Lajús, E.; Folkes, S.; Gamen, R.; Geisler, D.; Gieren, W.; Goldman, B.; Gosling, A.; Gunthardt, G.; Gurovich, S.; Hambly, N.; Hanson, M.; Hoare, M.; Irwin, M.; Ivanov, V.; Jordán, A.; Kerins, E.; Kinemuchi, K.; Kurtev, R.; Longmore, A.; López-Corredoira, M.; Maccarone, T.; Martín, E.; Masetti, N.; Mennickent, R.; Merlo, D.; Messineo, M.; Mirabel, F.; Monaco, L.; Moni Bidin, C.; Morelli, L.; Padilla, N.; Palma, T.; Parisi, M. C.; Parker, Q.; Pavani, D.; Pietrukowicz, P.; Pietrzynski, G.; Pignata, G.; Rejkuba, M.; Rojas, A.; Roman Lopes, A.; Ruiz, M. T.; Sale, S.; Saviane, I.; Schreiber, M.; Schröder, A.; Sharma, S.; Smith, M.; Sodré, L., Jr.; Soto, M.; Stephens, A.; Tamura, M.; Tappert, C.; Thompson, M.; Valenti, E.; Vanzi, L.; Weidmann, W.; Zoccali, M.
    VISTA Variables in the Vía Láctea (VVV) is a public ESO near-IR variability survey aimed at scanning the Milky Way Bulge and an adjacent section of the mid-plane. VVV observations started in October 2009 during ESO science verification. Regular observations for the first year of the survey have been conducted since February 2010 and will cover a total area of 520 square degrees in five passbands and five epochs. Here we address the first results obtained from the VVV Survey as well as the current status of the observations....
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    Vista variables in the via lactea (VVV): first results and perspectives
    (2011) Saito, R. K.; Minniti, D.; Dekany, I.; Hempel, M.; Alonso-Garcia, J.; Toledo, I.; Beamin Muhlenbrock, Juan Carlos; Angeloni, R.; Lucas, P. W.; Emerson, J. P.
    VISTA Variables in the Via Lactea (VVV) is a public ESO near-IR variability survey scanning the Milky Way Bulge and an adjacent section of the mid-plane. The survey will take 1929 hours of observations with the 4 m VISTA telescope during five years (2010-2014), covering similar to 10(9) point sources across an area of 520 deg(2). Here we address the first results obtained from the VVV Survey as well as a glimpse into the possibilities for using a deep near-IR atlas in five passbands and a catalogue of more than 10(6) variable point sources. We expect to use the data to find planetary transits of late-type main-sequence stars. We discuss the planet searches and future follow-ups
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    VISTA Variables in the Vía Láctea (VVV): Halfway Status and Results
    (2014) Hempel, M.; Minniti, D.; Dékány, I.; Saito, R. K.; Lucas, P. W.; Emerson, J. P.; Ahumada, A. V.; Aigrain, S.; Alonso, M. V.; Alonso-García, J.; Amôres, E. B.; Angeloni, R.; Arias, J.; Bandyopadhyay, R.; Barbá, R. H.; Barbuy, B.; Baume, G.; Beamin, J. C.; Bedin, L.; Bica, E.; Borissova, J.; Bronfman, L.; Carraro, G.; Catelan, Marcio; Clariá, J. J.; Contreras, C.; Cross, N.; Davis, C.; de Grijs, R.; Drew, J. E.; Fariña, C.; Feinstein, C.; Fernández-Lajús, E. F.; Folkes, S.; Gamen, R. C.; Geisler, D.; Gieren, W.; Goldman, B.; González, O.; Gosling, A.; Gunthardt, G.; Gurovich, S.; Hambly, N. C.; Hanson, M.; Hoare, M.; Irwin, M. J.; Ivanov, V. D.; Jordán, A.; Kerins, E.; Kinemuchi, K.; Kurtev, R.; Longmore, A.; López-Corredoira, M.; Maccarone, T.; Martín, E.; Masetti, N.; Mennickent, R. E.; Merlo, D.; Messineo, M.; Mirabel, I. F.; Monaco, L.; Moni-Bidin, C.; Morelli, L.; Padilla, N.; Palma, T.; Parisi, M. C.; Parker, Q.; Pavani, D.; Pietrukowicz, P.; Pietrzynski, G.; Pignata, G.; Rejkuba, M.; Rojas, A.; Roman-Lopes, A.; Ruiz, M. T.; Sale, S. E.; Saviane, I.; Schreiber, M. R.; Schröder, A. C.; Sharma, S.; Smith, M.; Sodré, L., Jr.; Soto, M.; Stephens, A. W.; Tamura, M.; Tappert, C.; Thompson, M. A.; Toledo, I.; Valenti, E.; Vanzi, L.; Weidmann, W.; Zoccali, M.
    The VISTA Variables in the Vía Láctea (VVV) survey is one of six near-infrared ESO public surveys, and is now in its fourth 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 variable 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 status of the survey, as well some of results based on the VVV data, are presented....
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    VISTA Variables in the Via Lactea (VVV): The public ESO near-IR variability survey of the Milky Way
    (ELSEVIER, 2010) Minniti, D.; Lucas, P. W.; Emerson, J. P.; Saito, R. K.; Hempel, M.; Pietrukowicz, P.; Ahumada, A. V.; Alonso, M. V.; Alonso Garcia, J.; Arias, J. I.; Bandyopadhyay, R. M.; Barba, R. H.; Barbuy, B.; Bedin, L. R.; Bica, E.; Borissova, J.; Bronfman, L.; Carraro, G.; Catelan, M.; Claria, J. J.; Cross, N.; de Grijs, R.; Dekany, I.; Drew, J. E.; Farina, C.; Feinstein, C.; Fernandez Lajus, E.; Gamen, R. C.; Geisler, D.; Gieren, W.; Goldman, B.; Gonzalez, O. A.; Gunthardt, G.; Gurovich, S.; Hambly, N. C.; Irwin, M. J.; Ivanov, V. D.; Jordan, A.; Kerins, E.; Kinemuchi, K.; Kurtev, R.; Lopez Corredoira, M.; Maccarone, T.; Masetti, N.; Merlo, D.; Messineo, M.; Mirabel, I. F.; Monaco, L.; Morelli, L.; Padilla, N.; Palma, T.; Parisi, M. C.; Pignata, G.; Rejkuba, M.; Roman Lopes, A.; Sale, S. E.; Schreiber, M. R.; Schroeder, A. C.; Smith, M.; Sodre, L., Jr.; Soto, M.; Tamura, M.; Tappert, C.; Thompson, M. A.; Toledo, I.; Zoccali, M.; Pietrzynski, G.
    We describe the public ESO near-IR variability survey (VVV) scanning the Milky Way bulge and an adjacent section of the mid-plane where star formation activity is high. The survey will take 1929 h of observations with the 4-m VISTA telescope during 5 years (2010-2014), covering similar to 10(9) point sources across an area of 520 deg(2), including 33 known globular clusters and similar to 350 open clusters. The final product will be a deep near-IR atlas in five passbands (0.9-2.5 mu m) and a catalogue of more than 106 variable point sources. Unlike single-epoch surveys that, in most cases, only produce 2-D maps, the VVV variable star survey will enable the construction of a 3-D map of the surveyed region using well-understood distance indicators such as RR Lyrae stars, and Cepheids. It will yield important information on the ages of the populations. The observations will be combined with data from MACHO, OGLE, EROS, VST, Spitzer, HST, Chandra, INTEGRAL, WISE, Fermi LAT, XMM-Newton, GAIA and ALMA for a complete understanding of the variable sources in the inner Milky Way. This public survey will provide data available to the whole community and therefore will enable further studies of the history of the Milky Way, its globular cluster evolution, and the population census of the Galactic Bulge and center, as well as the investigations of the star forming regions in the disk. The combined variable star catalogues will have important implications for theoretical investigations of pulsation properties of stars. (C) 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
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    VVV DR1: The first data release of the Milky Way bulge and southern plane from the near-infrared ESO public survey VISTA variables in the Via Lactea
    (EDP SCIENCES S A, 2012) Saito, R. K.; Hempel, M.; Minniti, D.; Lucas, P. W.; Rejkuba, M.; Toledo, I.; Gonzalez, O. A.; Alonso Garcia, J.; Irwin, M. J.; Gonzalez Solares, E.; Hodgkin, S. T.; Lewis, J. R.; Cross, N.; Ivanov, V. D.; Kerins, E.; Emerson, J. P.; Soto, M.; Amores, E. B.; Gurovich, S.; Dekany, I.; Angeloni, R.; Beamin, J. C.; Catelan, M.; Padilla, N.; Zoccali, M.; Pietrukowicz, P.; Bidin, C. Moni; Mauro, F.; Geisler, D.; Folkes, S. L.; Sale, S. E.; Borissova, J.; Kurtev, R.; Ahumada, A. V.; Alonso, M. V.; Adamson, A.; Arias, J. I.; Bandyopadhyay, R. M.; Barba, R. H.; Barbuy, B.; Baume, G. L.; Bedin, L. R.; Bellini, A.; Benjamin, R.; Bica, E.; Bonatto, C.; Bronfman, L.; Carraro, G.; Chene, A. N.; Claria, J. J.; Clarke, J. R. A.; Contreras, C.; Corvillon, A.; de Grijs, R.; Dias, B.; Drew, J. E.; Farina, C.; Feinstein, C.; Fernandez Lajus, E.; Gamen, R. C.; Gieren, W.; Goldman, B.; Gonzalez Fernandez, C.; Grand, R. J. J.; Gunthardt, G.; Hambly, N. C.; Hanson, M. M.; Helminiak, K. G.; Hoare, M. G.; Huckvale, L.; Jordan, A.; Kinemuchi, K.; Longmore, A.; Lopez Corredoira, M.; Maccarone, T.; Majaess, D.; Martin, E. L.; Masetti, N.; Mennickent, R. E.; Mirabel, I. F.; Monaco, L.; Morelli, L.; Motta, V.; Palma, T.; Parisi, M. C.; Parker, Q.; Penaloza, F.; Pietrzynski, G.; Pignata, G.; Popescu, B.; Read, M. A.; Rojas, A.; Roman Lopes, A.; Ruiz, M. T.; Saviane, I.; Schreiber, M. R.; Schroeder, A. C.; Sharma, S.; Smith, M. D.; Sodre, L., Jr.; Stead, J.; Stephens, A. W.; Tamura, M.; Tappert, C.; Thompson, M. A.; Valenti, E.; Vanzi, L.; Walton, N. A.; Weidmann, W.; Zijlstra, A.
    Context. The ESO public survey VISTA variables in the Via Lactea (VVV) started in 2010. VVV targets 562 sq. deg in the Galactic bulge and an adjacent plane region and is expected to run for about five years.