StarCatalog

The star catalog modules are intended to be primarily static, providing only an interface between external catalog data and EXOSIMS standards. Any processing or augmentation of catalog data should be done in the TargetList module.

StarCatalog objects must contain equally sized arrays of stellar attributes (stored as numpy.ndarray attributes, or astropy.units.quantity.Quantity arrays, as appropriate). The prototype will generate dummy values for all attributes, with the catalog size set by input ntargs.

While different catalogs may contain different information, the TargetList will impose a minimum set of attributes (those listed in the target list’s required_catalog_atts attribute). The contents of this list will vary depending on the particular implementation, but, for the prototype, include:

  • Name: The star’s name (must be unique). For Hipparcos strings referring to multiple stars, the component letter should be appended (as in CCDM, WDS, or SIMBAD).

  • Vmag: Johnson V-band apparent magnitude

  • BV: Johnson B-V color

  • MV: Johnson V-band absolute magnitude

  • BC: Bolometric correction

  • L: Luminosity in solar luminosities

    Important

    This must be the actual luinosity. Not \(\log(L)\)!

  • coords: Target coordinates, encoded as a astropy.coordinates.SkyCoord array

  • dist: Distances

  • parx: Parallaxes

  • pmra: Proper motions in RA

  • pmdec: Proper motions in DEC

  • rv: Proper motions along the line of sight

  • Binary_Cut: Boolean array. True indicates that there is a star within 10 arcsec of the target.

  • Spec: Spectral type string. Must be parsable by MeanStars.

In addition to these attributes, the prototype will also generate (all-zero) arrays for other band magnitudes. All of these have the same form as Vmag (e.g. Imag and Bmag) and include the UBRIJHK bands.