Kavli Affiliate: Andrew M. Vanderburg
| First 5 Authors: Lizhou Sha, Andrew M. Vanderburg, Luke G. Bouma, Chelsea X. Huang,
| Summary:
Blanco 1 is an $approx 130,mathrm{Myr}$ open cluster located 240 pc from
the Sun below the Galactic plane. Recent studies have reported the existence of
diffuse tidal tails extending 50-60 pc from the cluster center based on the
positions and velocities measured by Gaia. To independently assess the reality
and extent of this structure, we used light curves generated from TESS
full-frame images to search for photometric rotation periods of stars in and
around Blanco 1. We detected rotation periods down to a stellar effective
temperature of $approx 3100,mathrm{K}$ in 347 of the 603 cluster member
candidates for which we have light curves. For cluster members in the core and
candidate members in the tidal tails, both within a temperature range of 4400
to 6200 K, 74% and 72% of the rotation periods are consistent with the
single-star gyrochronological sequence, respectively. In contrast, a comparison
sample of field stars yielded gyrochrone-consistent rotation periods for only
8.5% of stars. The tidal tail candidates’ overall conformance to the core
members’ gyrochrone sequence implies that their contamination ratio is
consistent with zero and < 0.33 at the $2sigma$ level. This result confirms
the existence of Blanco 1 tidal tails and doubles the number of Blanco 1
members for which there are both spatio-kinematic and rotation-based cluster
membership verification. Extending the strategy of using TESS light curves for
gyrochronology to other nearby young open clusters and stellar associations may
provide a viable strategy for mapping out their dissolution and broadening the
search for young exoplanets.
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