870 research outputs found
Accretion onto the Companion of Eta Carinae During the Spectroscopic Event: III. the He II 4686 Line
We continue to explore the accretion model of the massive binary system eta
Carinae by studying the anomalously high He II 4686 line. The line appears just
before periastron and disappears immediately thereafter. Based on the He II
4686 line emission from O-stars and their modeling in the literature, we
postulate that the He II 4686 line comes from the acceleration zone of the
secondary stellar wind. We attribute the large increase in the line intensity
to a slight increase in the density of the secondary stellar wind in its
acceleration zone. The increase in density could be due to the ionization and
subsequent deceleration of the wind by the enhanced X-ray emission arising from
the shocked secondary wind further downstream or to accretion of the primary
stellar wind. Accretion around the secondary equatorial plane gives rise to
collimation of the secondary wind, which increases its density, hence enhancing
the He II 4686 emission line. In contrast with previous explanations, the
presently proposed model does not require a prohibitively high X-ray flux to
directly photoionize the He.Comment: ApJ, in pres
On the photometric variability of blue supergiants in NGC 300 and its impact on the Flux-weighted Gravity-Luminosity Relationship
We present a study of the photometric variability of spectroscopically
confirmed supergiants in NGC 300, comprising 28 epochs extending over a period
of five months. We find 15 clearly photometrically variable blue supergiants in
a sample of nearly 70 such stars, showing maximum light amplitudes ranging from
0.08 to 0.23 magnitudes in the V band, and one variable red supergiant. We show
their light curves, and determine semi-periods for two A2 Ia stars. Assuming
that the observed changes correspond to similar variations in the bolometric
luminosity, we test for the influence of this variability on the Flux-weighted
Gravity--Luminosity Relationship and find a negligible effect, showing that the
calibration of this relationship, which has the potential to measure
extragalactic distances at the Cepheid accuracy level, is not affected by the
stellar photometric variability in any significant way.Comment: 9 pages, 3 figures, 3 tables. Accepted for publication in the
Astrophysical Journa
Accretion onto the Companion of Eta Carinae During the Spectroscopic Event. IV. the Disappearance of Highly Ionized Lines
We show that the rapid and large decrease in the intensity of high-ionization
emission lines from the Eta Carinae massive binary system can be explained by
the accretion model. These emission lines are emitted by material in the nebula
around the binary system that is being ionized by radiation from the hot
secondary star. The emission lines suffer three months long deep fading every
5.54 year, assumed to be the orbital period of the binary system. In the
accretion model, for ~70 day the less massive secondary star is accreting mass
from the primary wind instead of blowing its fast wind. The accretion event has
two effects that substantially reduce the high-energy ionizing radiation flux
from the secondary star. (1) The accreted mass absorbs a larger fraction of the
ionizing flux. (2) The accreted mass forms a temporarily blanked around the
secondary star that increases its effective radius, hence lowering its
effective temperature and the flux of high energy photons. This explanation is
compatible with the fading of the emission lines at the same time the X-ray is
declining to its minimum, and with the fading being less pronounced in the
polar directions.Comment: ApJ, in pres
Organic Compounds and Genotoxicity in Drinking Water
Until recently only lipophilic compounds were analysed in any research on the occurrence of mutanogenic and carcinogenic compounds in water. They were isolated using XAD-resins. They contain approximately half of the total organic material present in water. A clear mutanogenic effect was demonstrated for these compounds using Amestest. The hydrophilic fraction of the organic material was difficult to investigate because of problems with isolation and analysis caused by its high solubility. The high solubility means in practice that the hydrophilic compounds are mobile in conventional treatment systems and in soil and can easily penetrate into drinking water. A method was developed to isolate hydrophilic compounds using a combination of ion exchange and a clean-up with a XAD-resin. The isolated compounds were examined with the Amestest for the presence of mutanogenic compounds. For some tested water types a mutanogenic effect was found in the lipophilic material. Due to oxidation with ozone, mutanogenic compounds can be formed from (non-mutanogenic) industrial pollutions. No mutanogenic activity was found in the hydrophilic organic material of all examined water types, even after ozone oxidation or chlorination. It was hypothesized that hydrophilic compounds can not reach the DNA of the cell, thus they do not play any (geno) toxicological role
The Purple Haze of Eta Carinae: Binary-Induced Variability?
Asymmetric variability in ultraviolet images of the Homunculus obtained with
the Advanced Camera for Surveys/High Resolution Camera on the Hubble Space
Telescope suggests that Eta Carinae is indeed a binary system. Images obtained
before, during, and after the recent ``spectroscopic event'' in 2003.5 show
alternating patterns of bright spots and shadows on opposite sides of the star
before and after the event, providing a strong geometric argument for an
azimuthally-evolving, asymmetric UV radiation field as one might predict in
some binary models. The simplest interpretation of these UV images, where
excess UV escapes from the secondary star in the direction away from the
primary, places the major axis of the eccentric orbit roughly perpendicular to
our line of sight, sharing the same equatorial plane as the Homunculus, and
with apastron for the hot secondary star oriented toward the southwest of the
primary. However, other orbital orientations may be allowed with more
complicated geometries. Selective UV illumination of the wind and ejecta may be
partly responsible for line profile variations seen in spectra. The brightness
asymmetries cannot be explained plausibly with delays due to light travel time
alone, so a single-star model would require a seriously asymmetric shell
ejection.Comment: 8 pages, fig 1 in color, accepted by ApJ Letter
Recht en web 2.0
De klassieke afnemers van internetdiensten zijn leveranciers geworden. Tekst, beeld en geluid wordt door gebruikers geplaatst op Twitter, Youtube, LinkedIn, Hyves, The Pirate Bay, etc. Iedereen is overal bereikbaar, anyone, anytime, anywhere. Door het gebruik van overvloedig beschikbare persoonlijke data verstevigt de overheid zijn governance en bedrijven hun marktpositie. We zijn hulpeloos zonder mobiel en internet. Onze vrienden zijn te vinden op sociale netwerken en je wordt gealarmeerd als bepaalde personen - mobieltjes- zich in je omgeving bevinden. De apparatuur wordt steeds slimmer en de controle door natuurlijke personen vervaagt. We hebben geen inzicht in alle (rechts)gevolgen van wat er gebeurt, door wat en door wie. Is dat de toekomst? Lees, verheugt u of vrees
On the nature of the prototype LBV AG Carinae I. Fundamental parameters during visual minimum phases and changes in the bolometric luminosity during the S-Dor cycle
We present a detailed spectroscopic analysis of the luminous blue variable AG
Carinae during the last two visual minimum phases of its S-Dor cycle (1985-1990
and 2000-2003). The analysis reveals an overabundance of He, N, and Na, and a
depletion of H, C, and O, on the surface of AG Car, indicating the presence of
CNO-processed material. Furthermore, the ratio N/O is higher on the stellar
surface than in the nebula. We found that the minimum phases of AG Car are not
equal to each other, since we derived a noticeable difference between the
maximum effective temperature achieved during 1985-1990 (22,800 K) and
2000-2001 (17,000 K). While the wind terminal velocity was 300 km/s in
1985-1990, it was as low as 105 km/s in 2001. The mass-loss rate, however, was
lower from 1985-1990 (1.5 x 10^(-5) Msun/yr) than from 2000-2001 (3.7 x 10^(-5)
Msun/yr). We found that the wind of AG Car is significantly clumped (f=0.10 -
0.25) and that clumps must be formed deep in the wind. We derived a bolometric
luminosity of 1.5 x 10^6 Lsun during both minimum phases which, contrary to the
common assumption, decreases to 1.0 x 10^6 Lsun as the star moves towards
maximum flux in the V band. Assuming that the decrease in the bolometric
luminosity of AG Car is due to the energy used to expand the outer layers of
the star (Lamers 1995), we found that the expanding layers contain roughly 0.6
- 2 Msun. Such an amount of mass is an order of magnitude lower than the
nebular mass around AG Car, but is comparable to the nebular mass found around
lower-luminosity LBVs and to that of the Little Homunculus of Eta Car. If such
a large amount of mass is indeed involved in the S Dor-type variability, we
speculate that such instability could be a failed Giant Eruption, with several
solar masses never becoming unbound from the star.(abridged)Comment: 22 pages, 13 figures, ApJ in press. A high-resolution PDF version is
also available at http://www.mpifr-bonn.mpg.de/staff/jgroh/agcar.htm
Instability of LBV-stars against radial oscillations
In this study we consider the nonlinear radial oscillations exciting in
LBV--stars with effective temperatures 1.5e4 K <= Teff <= 3e4 K, bolometric
luminosities 1.2e6 L_odot <= L <= 1.9e6 L_odot and masses 35.7 M_odot <= M <=
49.1 M_odot. Hydrodynamic computations were carried out with initial conditions
obtained from evolutionary sequences of population I stars (X=0.7, Z=0.02) with
initial masses from 70M_odot to 90 M_odot. All hydrodynamical models show
instability against radial oscillations with amplitude growth time comparable
with dynamical time scale of the star. Radial oscillations exist in the form of
nonlinear running waves propagating from the boundary of the compact core to
the upper boundary of the hydrodynamical model. The velocity amplitude of outer
layers is of several hundreds of km/s while the bolometric light amplitude does
not exceed 0.2 mag. Stellar oscillations are not driven by the kappa-mechanism
and are due to the instability of the gas with adiabatic exponent close to the
critical value Gamma_1 = 4/3 due to the large contribution of radiation in the
total pressure. The range of the light variation periods (6 day <= P <= 31 day)
of hydrodynamical models agrees with periods of microvariability observed in
LBV--stars.Comment: 14 pages, 5 figures, submitted to Astronomy Letter
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