The abundance of heavy elements (metallicity) in the photospheres of stars similar to the Sun provides a 'fossil' record of the chemical composition of the initial protoplanetary disk. Metal-rich stars are much more likely to harbour gas giant planets, supporting the model that planets form by accumulation of dust and ice particles. Recent ground-based surveys suggest that this correlation is weakened for Neptunian-sized planets. However, how the relationship between size and metallicity extends into the regime of terrestrial-sized exoplanets is unknown. Here we report spectroscopic metallicities of the host stars of 226 small exoplanet candidates discovered by NASA's Kepler mission, including objects that are comparable in size to the terrestrial planets in the Solar System. We find that planets with radii less than four Earth radii form around host stars with a wide range of metallicities (but on average a metallicity close to that of the Sun), whereas large planets preferentially form around stars with higher metallicities. This observation suggests that terrestrial planets may be widespread in the disk of the Galaxy, with no special requirement of enhanced metallicity for their formation.

We report 25,563 radial velocity measurements for 1359 single-lined stars in the Carney-Latham sample of 1464 stars selected for high proper motion. For 171 of these, we present spectroscopic orbital solutions. We find no obvious difference between the binary characteristics in the halo and the disk populations. The observed frequency is the same, and the period distributions are consistent with the hypothesis that the two sets of binaries were drawn from the same parent population. This suggests that metallicity in general, and radiative opacities in particular, have little influence over the fragmentation process that leads to short-period binaries. All the binaries with periods shorter than 10 days have nearly circular orbits, while the binaries with periods longer than 20 days exhibit a wide range of eccentricities and a median value of 0.37. For the metalpoor high-velocity halo binaries in our sample, the transition from circular to eccentric orbits appears to occur at about 20 days, supporting the conclusion that tidal circularization on the main sequence is important for the oldest binaries in the Galaxy.

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HST ACS images of the young SN remnant Cas A are used to explore the expansion and spatial distribution of its highest velocity debris. Proper motions of over 1800 outlying ejecta knots are reported. The distribution of transverse expansion velocities for these knots shows a striking bipolar asymmetry with the highest velocity knots confined to nearly opposing northeast and southwest `jets'. The jets appear kinematically and chemically distinct with respect to the remnant's highest velocity debris seen in other directions. Significant gaps in the spatial distribution of outlying ejecta lie in directions which are approximately perpendicular to the jets. Extrapolations of 9 month proper motions for all outer ejecta knots and a subsample of 72 bright and compact knots suggest explosion dates (assuming no knot deceleration) of 1662 +/- 27 and 1672 +/- 18, respectively. We find some evidence for non-uniform deceleration in different directions with knots located along the northwestern limb among the least decelerated ejecta suggesting a convergence date of 1681 +/-19. The remnant's central X-ray point source lies some $7''$ to the southeast of the estimated expansion center (PA = 169 deg) indicating a projected motion of ~350 km/s toward the middle of the broad southern outer ejecta knot gap.Comment: 13 pages, 5 figures, ApJ, in pres

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We introduce a million-second observation of the supernova remnant Cassiopeia A with the Chandra X-ray Observatory. The bipolar structure of the Si-rich ejecta (NE jet and SW counterpart) is clearly evident in the new images, and their chemical similarity is confirmed by their spectra. These are most likely due to jets of ejecta as opposed to cavities in the circumstellar medium, since we can reject simple models for the latter. The properties of these jets and the Fe-rich ejecta will provide clues to the explosion of Cas A.

We summarize 2007 radial velocity measurements of 91 metal-poor field red giants. Excluding binary systems with orbital solutions, our coverage averages 13.7 yr per star, with a maximum of 18.0 yr. We report four significant findings. (1) Sixteen stars are found to be spectroscopic binaries, and we present orbital solutions for 14 of them. The spectroscopic binary frequency of the metal-poor red giants, with [Fe/H] À1.4, for periods less than 6000 days, is 16% AE 4%, which is not significantly different from that of comparable-metallicity field dwarfs, 17% AE 2%. The two CH stars in our program, BD À1 2582 and HD 135148, are both spectroscopic binaries. (2) Velocity jitter is present among about 40% of the giants with M V À1.4. The two best-observed cases, HD 3008 and BD +22 2411, show pseudoperiodicities of 172 and 186 days, longer than any known long-period variable in metal-poor globular clusters. Photometric variability seen in HD 3008 and three other stars showing velocity jitter hints that starspots are the cause. However, the phasing of the velocity data with the photometry data from Hipparcos is not consistent with a simple starspot model for HD 3008. We argue against orbital motion effects and radial pulsation, so rotational modulation remains the best explanation. The implied rotational velocities for HD 3008 and BD +22 2411, both with M V À1.4 and R % 50 R , exceed 12 km s À1 . (3) Including HD 3008 and BD +22 2411, we have found signs of significant excess line broadening in eight of the 17 red giants with M V À1.4, which we interpret as rotation. In three cases, BD +30 2034, CD À37 14010, and HD 218732, the rotation is probably induced by tidal locking between axial rotation and the observed orbital motion with a stellar companion. But this cannot explain the other five stars in our sample that display signs of significant rotation. This high frequency of elevated rotational velocities does not appear to be caused by stellar mass transfer or mergers: there are too few main-sequence binaries with short enough periods. We also note that the lack of any noticeable increase in mean rotation at the magnitude level of the red giant branch luminosity function '' bump '' argues against the rapid rotation's being caused by the transport of internal angular momentum to the surface. Capture of a planetary-mass companion as a red giant expands in radius could explain the high rotational velocities. (4) We also find significant rotation in at least six of the roughly 15 (40%) red horizontal-branch stars in our survey. It is likely that the enhanced rotation seen among a significant fraction of both blue and red horizontal-branch stars arose when these stars were luminous red giants. Rapid rotation alone therefore appears insufficient cause to populate the blue side of the horizontal branch. While the largest projected rotational velocities seen among field blue and red horizontal-branch stars are consistent with their different sizes, neither are consistent with the large values we find for the largest red giants...

We present Hubble Space T elescope (HST) Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2 images and Faint Object Spectrograph data of two young supernova remnants in the Magellanic Clouds, N132D (LMC) and 1E 0102.2[7219 (SMC). The spectra cover essentially the entire UV/optical range available to HST and provide the Ðrst true comparison of UV/optical line intensities from astrophysical shocks that do not depend on scalings from di †erent aperture sizes or instruments. For the spectra, we isolated speciÐc knots and Ðlaments that contain fast-moving debris of nuclear-processed material that are devoid of hydrogen and appear to have originated from the cores of the progenitor stars. In N132D we also observed a knot on the outer rim of the remnant that represents a shocked interstellar cloud. In the debris from both remnants, we identify only the elements O, Ne, C, and Mg. We Ðnd no evidence for oxygen-burning products, such as S, Ca, Ar, etc., which are seen in Cas A and are expected from models of Type II supernovae. We suggest that the progenitor stars of N132D and 1E 0102.2[7219 had large, oxygen-rich mantles (perhaps Wolf-Rayet stars) and may be the products of Type Ib supernovae. Shock modeling demonstrates systematic di †erences in the relative abundances in the O-rich debris, possibly pointing to di †erent progenitor masses for these two objects. The shocked interstellar knot in N132D shows that we are probably seeing a range of conditions within the D1A aperture and that no evidence is present for enrichment by a precursor star wind.