2012/01/25 by F. Jiménez-Esteban, F. M. Jiménez-Esteban, J. A. Caballero +4 · 1 citation
Physics and Astronomy · #Astronomy and Astrophysical Research #Gamma-ray bursts and supernovae #Stellar, planetary, and galactic studies #astro-ph.SR
paper · pdf · doi:10.1051/0004-6361/201118375
Accepted in Astronomy & Astrophysics
arxiv created 2012/01/25 · openalex publication_date 2012/01/26 · arxiv updated 2015/06/03 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/01
Aims: With available Virtual Observatory tools, we looked for new M dwarfs in the solar neighbourhood and M giants with high tangential velocities. Methods: From an all-sky cross-match between the optical Tycho-2 and the near-infrared 2MASS catalogues, we selected objects with proper motions >50mas/yr and very red V-Ks colours. For the most interesting targets, we collected multi-wavelength photometry, constructed spectral energy distributions, estimated effective temperatures and surface gravities from fits to atmospheric models, performed time-series analysis of ASAS V-band light curves, and assigned spectral types from low-resolution spectroscopy obtained with CAFOS at the 2.2m Calar Alto telescope. Results: We got a sample of 59 bright red high proper-motion objects, including fifty red giants, four red dwarfs, and five objects reported in this work for the first time. The five new stars have magnitudes V~10.8-11.3mag, reduced proper motions midway between known dwarfs and giants, near-infrared colours typical of giants, and effective temperatures Teff~2900-3400K. From our time-series analysis, we discovered a long secondary period in Ruber 4 and an extremely long primary period in Ruber 6. With the CAFOS spectra, we confirmed the red giant nature of Ruber 7 and 8, the last of which seems to be one of the brightest metal-poor M giants ever identified.