152 research outputs found
High Resolution Infrared Imaging and Spectroscopy of the Pistol Nebula: Evidence for Ejection
We present new NICMOS/HST infrared images and CGS4/UKIRT Br-alpha (4.05 um)
spectroscopy of the Pistol Star and its associated nebula, finding strong
evidence to support the hypothesis that the Pistol Nebula was ejected from the
Pistol Star. The Pa-alpha NICMOS image shows that the nebula completely
surrounds the Pistol Star, although the line intensity is much stronger on its
northern and western edges. The Br-alpha spectra show the classical ring-like
signature of quasi-spherical expansion, with weak blueshifted emission (V_max
approx -60 km/s) and strong redshifted emission (V_max approx +10 km/s), where
the velocities are with respect to the velocity of the Pistol Star; further,
the redshifted emission appears to be "flattened" in the position-velocity
diagram. These data suggest that the nebula was ejected from the star several
thousand years ago, with a velocity between the current terminal velocity of
the stellar wind (95 km/s) and the present expansion velocity of gas in the
outer shell of the nebula (60 km/s). The Pa-alpha image reveals several
emission-line stars in the region, including two newly-identified emission-line
stars north of the Pistol Star with spectral types earlier than WC8 (T_eff >
50,000 K). The presence of these stars, the morphology of the Pa-alpha
emission, and the velocity field in the gas suggest that the side of the nebula
furthest from us is approaching, and being ionized by, the hot stars of the
Quintuplet, and that the highest velocity redshifted gas has been decelerated
by winds from the Quintuplet stars. We also discuss the possibility that the
nebular gas might be magnetically confined by the ambient magnetic field
delineated by the nearby nonthermal filaments.Comment: Figure 1 is included as a JPG file. Figure 1 and 2 also available at
ftp://quintup.astro.ucla.edu/pistol2
Simultaneous high resolution meausurement of phonons and ionization created by particle interactions in a 60 g germanium crystal at 25 mK
We demonstrate simultaneous high energy resolution (rms≊800 eV) measurements of ionization and phonons created by particle interactions in a semiconductor crystal of macroscopic size (60 g germanium) at 25 mK. We present first studies of charge collection at biases below 1 V/cm, and find that, contrary to commonly held opinion, the full recoil energy of particle interactions is recovered as phonons when charge trapping is negligible. We also report an unanticipated correlation between charge collection and phonon energy at very low bias, and discuss this effect in terms of charge trapping
Measurement of ionization and phonon production by nuclear recoils in a 60 g crystal of germanium at 25 mK
We report on the first measurement of the absolute phonon energy and the amount of ionization produced by the recoil of nuclei and electrons in a 60 g germanium cyrstal at a temperature of ≊25 mK. We find good agreement between our results and previous measurements of ionization yield from nuclear recoils in germanium. Our device achieves 10:1 discrimination between neutrons and photons in the few keV energy range, demonstrating the feasibility of this technique for large reductions of background in searches for direct interactions of weakly interacting massive particle dark matter
A C19MC-LIN28A-MYCN Oncogenic Circuit Driven by Hijacked Super-enhancers Is a Distinct Therapeutic Vulnerability in ETMRs: A Lethal Brain Tumor
© 2019 Elsevier Inc. Embryonal tumors with multilayered rosettes (ETMRs) are highly lethal infant brain cancers with characteristic amplification of Chr19q13.41 miRNA cluster (C19MC) and enrichment of pluripotency factor LIN28A. Here we investigated C19MC oncogenic mechanisms and discovered a C19MC-LIN28A-MYCN circuit fueled by multiple complex regulatory loops including an MYCN core transcriptional network and super-enhancers resulting from long-range MYCN DNA interactions and C19MC gene fusions. Our data show that this powerful oncogenic circuit, which entraps an early neural lineage network, is potently abrogated by bromodomain inhibitor JQ1, leading to ETMR cell death. Sin-Chan et al. uncover a C19MC-LIN28A-MYCN super-enhancer-dependent oncogenic circuit in embryonal tumors with multilayered rosettes (ETMRs). The circuit entraps an early neural lineage network to sustain embryonic epigenetic programming and is vulnerable to bromodomain inhibition, which promotes ETMR cell death
SUBARU Near-Infrared Imaging Polarimetry of Misaligned Disks Around The SR24 Hierarchical Triple System
The SR24 multi-star system hosts both circumprimary and circumsecondary
disks, which are strongly misaligned from each other. The circumsecondary disk
is circumbinary in nature. Interestingly, both disks are interacting, and they
possibly rotate in opposite directions. To investigate the nature of this
unique twin disk system, we present 0.''1 resolution near-infrared polarized
intensity images of the circumstellar structures around SR24, obtained with
HiCIAO mounted on the Subaru 8.2 m telescope. Both the circumprimary disk and
the circumsecondary disk are resolved and have elongated features. While the
position angle of the major axis and radius of the NIR polarization disk around
SR24S are 55 and 137 au, respectively, those around SR24N are
110 and 34 au, respectively. With regard to overall morphology, the
circumprimary disk around SR24S shows strong asymmetry, whereas the
circumsecondary disk around SR24N shows relatively strong symmetry. Our NIR
observations confirm the previous claim that the circumprimary and
circumsecondary disks are misaligned from each other. Both the circumprimary
and circumsecondary disks show similar structures in CO observations in
terms of its size and elongation direction. This consistency is because both
NIR and CO are tracing surface layers of the flared disks. As the radius
of the polarization disk around SR24N is roughly consistent with the size of
the outer Roche lobe, it is natural to interpret the polarization disk around
SR24N as a circumbinary disk surrounding the SR24Nb-Nc system.Comment: 14 pages, 5 figures, accepted for publication in A
The James Webb Space Telescope Mission: Optical Telescope Element Design, Development, and Performance
The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) is a large, infrared space telescope
that has recently started its science program which will enable breakthroughs
in astrophysics and planetary science. Notably, JWST will provide the very
first observations of the earliest luminous objects in the Universe and start a
new era of exoplanet atmospheric characterization. This transformative science
is enabled by a 6.6 m telescope that is passively cooled with a 5-layer
sunshield. The primary mirror is comprised of 18 controllable, low areal
density hexagonal segments, that were aligned and phased relative to each other
in orbit using innovative image-based wavefront sensing and control algorithms.
This revolutionary telescope took more than two decades to develop with a
widely distributed team across engineering disciplines. We present an overview
of the telescope requirements, architecture, development, superb on-orbit
performance, and lessons learned. JWST successfully demonstrates a segmented
aperture space telescope and establishes a path to building even larger space
telescopes.Comment: accepted by PASP for JWST Overview Special Issue; 34 pages, 25
figure
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