15,475 research outputs found
Comparison of Four Space Propulsion Methods for Reducing Transfer Times of Manned Mars Mission
We assess the possibility of reducing the travel time of a manned mission to
Mars by examining four different propulsion methods, and keeping the mass at
departure under 2,500 tonnes, for a fixed architecture. We evaluated
representative systems of three different state of the art technologies
(chemical, nuclear thermal, and electric), and one advance technology, the
"Pure Electro-Magnetic Thrust" (PEMT) concept (proposed by Rubbia). A mission
architecture mostly based on the Design Reference Architecture 5.0 is assumed
in order to estimate the mass budget, that influences the performance of the
propulsion system. Pareto curves of the duration of the mission and time of
flight versus mass of mission are drawn. We conclude that the ion engine
technology, combined with the classical chemical engine, yields the shortest
mission times for this architecture with the lowest mass, and that chemical
propulsion alone is the best to minimise travel time. The results obtained
using the PEMT suggest that it could be a more suitable solution for farther
destinations than Mars.Comment: Change in title, abstract and presentation so to clarify the main
results. 14 pages, 7 figures and 2 table
Polarized radio emission from the magnetar XTE J1810-197
We have used the Parkes radio telescope to study the polarized emission from
the anomalous X-ray pulsar XTE J1810-197 at frequencies of 1.4, 3.2, and 8.4
GHz. We find that the pulsed emission is nearly 100% linearly polarized. The
position angle of linear polarization varies gently across the observed pulse
profiles, varying little with observing frequency or time, even as the pulse
profiles have changed dramatically over a period of 7 months. In the context of
the standard pulsar "rotating vector model," there are two possible
interpretations of the observed position angle swing coupled with the wide
profile. In the first, the magnetic and rotation axes are substantially
misaligned and the emission originates high in the magnetosphere, as seen for
other young radio pulsars, and the beaming fraction is large. In the second
interpretation, the magnetic and rotation axes are nearly aligned and the line
of sight remains in the emission zone over almost the entire pulse phase. We
deprecate this possibility because of the observed large modulation of thermal
X-ray flux. We have also measured the Faraday rotation caused by the Galactic
magnetic field, RM = +77 rad/m^2, implying an average magnetic field component
along the line of sight of 0.5 microG.Comment: Accepted for publication in ApJ Letters. Six pages with 4 figure
Evolution and CNO yields of Z=10^-5 stars and possible effects on CEMP production
Our main goals are to get a deeper insight into the evolution and final fates
of intermediate-mass, extremely metal-poor (EMP) stars. We also aim to
investigate their C, N, and O yields. Using the Monash University Stellar
Evolution code we computed and analysed the evolution of stars of metallicity Z
= 10^-5 and masses between 4 and 9 M_sun, from their main sequence until the
late thermally pulsing (super) asymptotic giant branch, TP-(S)AGB phase. Our
model stars experience a strong C, N, and O envelope enrichment either due to
the second dredge-up, the dredge-out phenomenon, or the third dredge-up early
during the TP-(S)AGB phase. Their late evolution is therefore similar to that
of higher metallicity objects. When using a standard prescription for the mass
loss rates during the TP-(S)AGB phase, the computed stars lose most of their
envelopes before their cores reach the Chandrasekhar mass, so our standard
models do not predict the occurrence of SNI1/2 for Z = 10^-5 stars. However, we
find that the reduction of only one order of magnitude in the mass-loss rates,
which are particularly uncertain at this metallicity, would prevent the
complete ejection of the envelope, allowing the stars to either explode as an
SNI1/2 or become an electron-capture SN. Our calculations stop due to an
instability near the base of the convective envelope that hampers further
convergence and leaves remnant envelope masses between 0.25 M_sun for our 4
M_sun model and 1.5 M_sun for our 9 M_sun model. We present two sets of C, N,
and O yields derived from our full calculations and computed under two
different assumptions, namely, that the instability causes a practically
instant loss of the remnant envelope or that the stars recover and proceed with
further thermal pulses. Our results have implications for the early chemical
evolution of the Universe.Comment: 12 pages, 13 figures, accepted for publication in A&
Seeing Star Formation Regions with Gravitational Microlensing
We qualitatively study the effects of gravitational microlensing on our view
of unresolved extragalactic star formation regions. Using a general
gravitational microlensing configuration, we perform a number of simulations
that reveal that specific imprints of the star forming region are imprinted,
both photometrically and spectroscopically, upon observations. Such
observations have the potential to reveal the nature and size of these star
forming regions, through the degree of variability observed in a monitoring
campaign, and hence resolve the star formation regions in distant galaxies
which are too small to be probed via more standard techniques.Comment: 7 pages, 8 figures, ApJ accepte
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