zoomies: A Tool to Infer Stellar Age from Vertical Action in Gaia Data
Stellar age measurements are fundamental to understanding a wide range of astronomical processes, including Galactic dynamics, stellar evolution, and planetary system formation. However, extracting age information from main-sequence stars is complicated, with techniques often relying on age proxies...
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IOP Publishing
2024-01-01
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| Series: | The Astrophysical Journal |
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| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4357/ad8b26 |
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| author | Sheila Sagear Adrian M. Price-Whelan Sarah Ballard Yuxi (Lucy) Lu Ruth Angus David W. Hogg |
| author_facet | Sheila Sagear Adrian M. Price-Whelan Sarah Ballard Yuxi (Lucy) Lu Ruth Angus David W. Hogg |
| author_sort | Sheila Sagear |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Stellar age measurements are fundamental to understanding a wide range of astronomical processes, including Galactic dynamics, stellar evolution, and planetary system formation. However, extracting age information from main-sequence stars is complicated, with techniques often relying on age proxies in the absence of direct measurements. The Gaia data releases have enabled detailed studies of the dynamical properties of stars within the Milky Way, offering new opportunities to understand the relationship between stellar age and dynamics. In this study, we leverage high-precision astrometric data from Gaia DR3 to construct a stellar age prediction model based only on stellar dynamical properties, namely the vertical action. We calibrate two distinct, hierarchical stellar age–vertical action relations, first employing asteroseismic ages for red-giant-branch stars, then isochrone ages for main-sequence turn-off stars. We describe a framework called zoomies based on this calibration, by which we can infer ages for any star given its vertical action. This tool is open-source and intended for community use. We compare dynamical age estimates from zoomies with age measurements from open clusters and asteroseismology. We use zoomies to generate and compare dynamical age estimates for stars from the Kepler, K2, and TESS exoplanet transit surveys. While dynamical age relations are associated with large uncertainty, they are generally mass independent and depend on homogeneously measured astrometric data. These age predictions are uniquely useful for large-scale demographic investigations, especially in disentangling the relationship between planet occurrence, metallicity, and age for low-mass stars. |
| format | Article |
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| institution | OA Journals |
| issn | 1538-4357 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2024-01-01 |
| publisher | IOP Publishing |
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| series | The Astrophysical Journal |
| spelling | doaj-art-6afc0106c1de4162a7fb29972bbf73fa2025-08-20T02:38:25ZengIOP PublishingThe Astrophysical Journal1538-43572024-01-0197714910.3847/1538-4357/ad8b26zoomies: A Tool to Infer Stellar Age from Vertical Action in Gaia DataSheila Sagear0https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3022-6858Adrian M. Price-Whelan1https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0872-7098Sarah Ballard2https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3247-5081Yuxi (Lucy) Lu3https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4769-3273Ruth Angus4https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4540-5661David W. Hogg5https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2866-9403Center for Computational Astrophysics, Flatiron Institute , 162 5th Ave., New York, NY 10010, USA; Department of Astronomy, University of Florida , 211 Bryant Space Science Center, Gainesville, FL 32611, USACenter for Computational Astrophysics, Flatiron Institute , 162 5th Ave., New York, NY 10010, USADepartment of Astronomy, University of Florida , 211 Bryant Space Science Center, Gainesville, FL 32611, USAAstrophysics Department, American Museum of Natural History, 200 Central Park West , New York, NY 10024, USACenter for Computational Astrophysics, Flatiron Institute , 162 5th Ave., New York, NY 10010, USA; Astrophysics Department, American Museum of Natural History, 200 Central Park West , New York, NY 10024, USACenter for Computational Astrophysics, Flatiron Institute , 162 5th Ave., New York, NY 10010, USA; Center for Cosmology and Particle Physics, Department of Physics, New York University , 726 Broadway, New York, NY 10003, USA; Max-Planck-Institut für Astronomie , Königstuhl 17, D-69117 Heidelberg, GermanyStellar age measurements are fundamental to understanding a wide range of astronomical processes, including Galactic dynamics, stellar evolution, and planetary system formation. However, extracting age information from main-sequence stars is complicated, with techniques often relying on age proxies in the absence of direct measurements. The Gaia data releases have enabled detailed studies of the dynamical properties of stars within the Milky Way, offering new opportunities to understand the relationship between stellar age and dynamics. In this study, we leverage high-precision astrometric data from Gaia DR3 to construct a stellar age prediction model based only on stellar dynamical properties, namely the vertical action. We calibrate two distinct, hierarchical stellar age–vertical action relations, first employing asteroseismic ages for red-giant-branch stars, then isochrone ages for main-sequence turn-off stars. We describe a framework called zoomies based on this calibration, by which we can infer ages for any star given its vertical action. This tool is open-source and intended for community use. We compare dynamical age estimates from zoomies with age measurements from open clusters and asteroseismology. We use zoomies to generate and compare dynamical age estimates for stars from the Kepler, K2, and TESS exoplanet transit surveys. While dynamical age relations are associated with large uncertainty, they are generally mass independent and depend on homogeneously measured astrometric data. These age predictions are uniquely useful for large-scale demographic investigations, especially in disentangling the relationship between planet occurrence, metallicity, and age for low-mass stars.https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4357/ad8b26Stellar kinematicsStellar agesMilky Way dynamicsExoplanets |
| spellingShingle | Sheila Sagear Adrian M. Price-Whelan Sarah Ballard Yuxi (Lucy) Lu Ruth Angus David W. Hogg zoomies: A Tool to Infer Stellar Age from Vertical Action in Gaia Data The Astrophysical Journal Stellar kinematics Stellar ages Milky Way dynamics Exoplanets |
| title | zoomies: A Tool to Infer Stellar Age from Vertical Action in Gaia Data |
| title_full | zoomies: A Tool to Infer Stellar Age from Vertical Action in Gaia Data |
| title_fullStr | zoomies: A Tool to Infer Stellar Age from Vertical Action in Gaia Data |
| title_full_unstemmed | zoomies: A Tool to Infer Stellar Age from Vertical Action in Gaia Data |
| title_short | zoomies: A Tool to Infer Stellar Age from Vertical Action in Gaia Data |
| title_sort | zoomies a tool to infer stellar age from vertical action in gaia data |
| topic | Stellar kinematics Stellar ages Milky Way dynamics Exoplanets |
| url | https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4357/ad8b26 |
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