The OGLE Collection of Variable Stars: Nearly 66,000 Mira Stars in the Milky Way
Abstract
We present a collection of 65,981 Mira-type variable stars found in the Optical Gravitational Lensing Experiment (OGLE) project database. Two-thirds of our sample (40,356 objects) are located in the Galactic bulge fields, whereas 25,625 stars are in the Galactic disk. The vast majority of the collection (47,532 objects) comprises new discoveries. We provide basic observational parameters of the Mira variables: equatorial coordinates, pulsation periods, I-band and V-band mean magnitudes, I-band brightness amplitudes, and identifications in other catalogs of variable stars. We also provide the I-band and V-band time-series photometry collected since 1997 during the OGLE-II, OGLE-III, and OGLE-IV phases. The classical selection process, i.e., being mostly based on the visual inspection of light curves by experienced astronomers, has led to the high purity of the catalog. As a result, this collection can be used as a training set for machine-learning classification algorithms. Using overlapping areas of adjacent OGLE fields, we estimate the completeness of the catalog to be about 96%. We compare and discuss the statistical features of Miras located in different regions of the Milky Way. We show examples of stars that change their type over time, from a semiregular variable to Mira and vice versa. This data set is perfectly suited to studying the three-dimensional structure of the Milky Way, and it may help to explain the puzzle of the X-shaped bulge.
- Publication:
-
The Astrophysical Journal Supplement Series
- Pub Date:
- June 2022
- DOI:
- arXiv:
- arXiv:2203.16552
- Bibcode:
- 2022ApJS..260...46I
- Keywords:
-
- Asymptotic giant branch stars;
- Carbon stars;
- Mira variable stars;
- Long period variable stars;
- Time series analysis;
- Astrographic catalogs;
- Catalogs;
- Sky surveys;
- Galactic bulge;
- Galactic center;
- Milky Way Galaxy;
- Milky Way disk;
- 2100;
- 199;
- 1066;
- 935;
- 1916;
- 77;
- 205;
- 1464;
- 2041;
- 565;
- 1054;
- 1050;
- Astrophysics - Solar and Stellar Astrophysics;
- Astrophysics - Astrophysics of Galaxies
- E-Print:
- Accepted for publication in The Astrophysical Journal Supplement Series. 18 pages, 8 figures, 3 tables. The OGLE Collection of Miras in the Milky Way is publicly available through http://www.astrouw.edu.pl/ogle/ogle4/OCVS/blg/lpv/ for Miras located in the Galactic bulge fields, and http://www.astrouw.edu.pl/ogle/ogle4/OCVS/gd/lpv/ for Miras located in the Galactic disk fields