THE KEPLER CLUSTER STUDY: STELLAR ROTATION IN NGC 6811

Journal Article · Fri May 20 00:00:00 EDT 2011 · Astrophysical Journal Letters

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1088/2041-8205/733/1/L9· OSTI ID:21562670

Meibom, Soeren; Latham, David W; Dupree, Andrea K; Furesz, Gabor; Szentgyorgyi, Andrew H; Buchhave, Lars A ^[1]; Barnes, Sydney A ^[2]; Batalha, Natalie; Borucki, William J; Koch, David G; Jenkins, Jon; Van Cleve, Jeffrey; Haas, Michael R; Bryson, Stephen T ^[3]; Basri, Gibor; Walkowicz, Lucianne M ^[4]; Janes, Kenneth A ^[5]; Clarke, Bruce D; Twicken, Joseph D; Quintana, Elisa V ^[6]

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1. Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, Cambridge, MA 02138 (United States)
2. Lowell Observatory, Flagstaff, AZ 86001 (United States)
3. NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, CA 94035 (United States)
4. Astronomy Department, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720 (United States)
5. Department of Astronomy, Boston University, Boston, MA 02215 (United States)
6. SETI Institute, Mountain View, CA 94043 (United States)

We present rotation periods for 71 single dwarf members of the open cluster NGC 6811 determined using photometry from NASA's Kepler mission. The results are the first from The Kepler Cluster Study, which combines Kepler's photometry with ground-based spectroscopy for cluster membership and binarity. The rotation periods delineate a tight sequence in the NGC 6811 color-period diagram from {approx}1 day at mid-F to {approx}11 days at early-K spectral type. This result extends to 1 Gyr similar prior results in the {approx}600 Myr Hyades and Praesepe clusters, suggesting that rotation periods for cool dwarf stars delineate a well-defined surface in the three-dimensional space of color (mass), rotation, and age. It implies that reliable ages can be derived for field dwarf stars with measured colors and rotation periods, and it promises to enable further understanding of various aspects of stellar rotation and activity for cool stars.

• OSTI ID: 21562670
• Journal Information: Astrophysical Journal Letters, Vol. 733, Issue 1; Other Information: DOI: 10.1088/2041-8205/733/1/L9; ISSN 2041-8205
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

79 ASTROPHYSICS
COSMOLOGY AND ASTRONOMY
COLOR
DWARF STARS
MASS
ROTATION
THREE-DIMENSIONAL CALCULATIONS
MOTION
OPTICAL PROPERTIES
ORGANOLEPTIC PROPERTIES
PHYSICAL PROPERTIES
STARS