4,386 research outputs found
Carinae's Dusty Homunculus Nebula from Near-Infrared to Submillimeter Wavelengths: Mass, Composition, and Evidence for Fading Opacity
Infrared observations of the dusty, massive Homunculus Nebula around the
luminous blue variable Carinae are crucial to characterize the mass-loss
history and help constrain the mechanisms leading to the Great Eruption. We
present the 2.4 - 670 m spectral energy distribution, constructed from
legacy ISO observations and new spectroscopy obtained with the {\em{Herschel
Space Observatory}}. Using radiative transfer modeling, we find that the two
best-fit dust models yield compositions which are consistent with CNO-processed
material, with iron, pyroxene and other metal-rich silicates, corundum, and
magnesium-iron sulfide in common. Spherical corundum grains are supported by
the good match to a narrow 20.2 m feature. Our preferred model contains
nitrides AlN and SiN in low abundances. Dust masses range from 0.25 to
0.44 but 45 in both cases due to an
expected high Fe gas-to-dust ratio. The bulk of dust is within a 5
7 central region. An additional compact feature is detected at 390 m.
We obtain = 2.96 10 , a 25\% decline from
an average of mid-IR photometric levels observed in 1971-1977. This indicates a
reduction in circumstellar extinction in conjunction with an increase in visual
brightness, allowing 25-40\% of optical and UV radiation to escape from the
central source. We also present an analysis of CO and CO through lines, showing that the abundances are consistent with
expectations for CNO-processed material. The [C~{\sc{ii}}] line is
detected in absorption, which we suspect originates in foreground material at
very low excitation temperatures.Comment: Accepted in Ap
Development of the Renewal on the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation Project
On the Ground•The Standing Rock Sioux Reservation comprises 2.3 million acres, primarily rangeland, straddling the North Dakota–South Dakota border.•Natural resource management is economically and culturally important to the Standing Rock community.•Respecting traditional ways of thinking and placing stakeholders and their needs at the center are key aspects of project development.•Native Americans were the original natural resource managers on our rangelands, and their thoughts and expertise can provide guidance to rangeland managers now and in the future
Students’ Use of Symmetry with Gauss’s Law
To study introductory student difficulties with electrostatics, we compared student techniques when finding the electric field for spherically symmetric and non-spherically symmetric charged conductors. We used short interviews to design a free-response and multiple-choice-multiple-response survey that was administered to students in introductory calculus-based courses. We present the survey results and discuss them in light of Singh\u27s results for Gauss\u27s Law, Collins and Ferguson\u27s epistemic forms and games, and Tuminaro\u27s extension of games and frames
Note and Comment
Waiver of the Statutory Protection to the confidential Relation of Physician and Patient; Inter-State Rendition; When a Public Officer Misappropriating Public Funds is Not an Embezzler; When a Discharged Teacher May Resort to the Courts
Primordial Star Formation under Far-ultraviolet radiation
Thermal and chemical evolution of primordial gas clouds irradiated with
far-ultraviolet (FUV; < 13.6 eV) radiation is investigated. In clouds
irradiated by intense FUV radiation, sufficient hydrogen molecules to be
important for cooling are never formed. However, even without molecular
hydrogen, if the clouds are massive enough, they start collapsing via atomic
hydrogen line cooling. Such clouds continue to collapse almost isothermally
owing to successive cooling by H^{-} free-bound emission up to the number
density of 10^{16} cm^{-3}. Inside the clouds, the Jeans mass eventually falls
well below a solar mass. This indicates that hydrogen molecules are dispensable
for low-mass primordial star formation, provided fragmentation of the clouds
occurs at sufficiently high density.Comment: 32 pages and 9 figures. ApJ, in pres
A burst chasing x-ray polarimeter
Gamma-ray bursts are one of the most powerful explosions in the universe and have been detected out to distances of almost 13 billion light years. The exact origin of these energetic explosions is still unknown but the resulting huge release of energy is thought to create a highly relativistic jet of material and a power-law distribution of electrons. There are several theories describing the origin of the prompt GRB emission that currently cannot be distinguished. Measurements of the linear polarization would provide unique and important constraints on the mechanisms thought to drive these powerful explosions. We present the design of a sensitive, and extremely versatile gamma-ray burst polarimeter. The instrument is a photoelectric polarimeter based on a time-projection chamber. The photoelectric time-projection technique combines high sensitivity with broad band-pass and is potentially the most powerful method between 2 and 100 keV where the photoelectric effect is the dominant interaction process. We present measurements of polarized and unpolarized X-rays obtained with a prototype detector and describe the two mission concepts; the Gamma-Ray Burst Polarimeter (GRBP) for the U.S. Naval Academy satellite MidSTAR-2, and the Low Energy Polarimeter (LEP) onboard POET, a broadband polarimetry concept for a small explorer mission
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