Catalogue of BRITE-Constellation targets I. Fields 1 to 14 (November 2013 - April 2016)

• Published in: arXiv.org
• Main Authors: Zwintz, K, Pigulski, A, Kuschnig, R, Wade, G A, Doherty, G, Earl, M, Lovekin, C, Muellner, M, Piché-Perrier, S, Steindl, T, Beck, P G, Bicz, K, Bowman, D M, Handler, G, Pablo, B, Popowicz, A, Rozanski, T, Mikołajczyk, P, Baade, D, Koudelka, O, Moffat, A F J, Neiner, C, Orleanski, P, Smolec, R, N St Louis, Weiss, W W, Wenger, M, Zoclonska, E
• Format: Paper
• Language: English
• Published: Ithaca Cornell University Library, arXiv.org 30.11.2023
• Subjects: Astronomy; Data acquisition; Data centers; Light curve; Nanosatellites; Satellite constellations; Satellite observation; Statistical analysis; Stellar structure; Variable stars
• ISSN: 2331-8422

The BRIght Target Explorer (BRITE) mission collects photometric time series in two passbands aiming to investigate stellar structure and evolution. Since their launches in the years 2013 and 2014, the constellation of five BRITE nano-satellites has observed a total of more than 700 individual bright stars in 64 fields. Some targets have been observed multiple times. Thus, the total time base of the data sets acquired for those stars can be as long as nine years. Our aim is to provide a complete description of ready-to-use BRITE data, to show the scientific potential of the BRITE-Constellation data by identifying the most interesting targets, and to demonstrate and encourage how scientists can use these data in their research. We apply a decorrelation process to the automatically reduced BRITE-Constellation data to correct for instrumental effects. We perform a statistical analysis of the light curves obtained for the 300 stars observed in the first 14 fields during the first ~2.5 years of the mission. We also perform cross-identification with the International Variable Star Index. We present the data obtained by the BRITE-Constellation mission in the first 14 fields it observed from November 2013 to April 2016. We also describe the properties of the data for these fields and the 300 stars observed in them. Using these data, we detected variability in 64% of the presented sample of stars. Sixty-four stars or 21.3% of the sample have not yet been identified as variable in the literature and their data have not been analysed in detail. They can therefore provide valuable scientific material for further research. All data are made publicly available through the BRITE Public Data Archive and the Canadian Astronomy Data Centre.