691 research outputs found
Removal of spacecraft-surface particulate contaminants by simulated micrometeoroid impacts
A series of hypervelocity impacts has been conducted in an exploding lithium-wire accelerator to examine with a far-field holographic system the removal of particulate contaminants from external spacecraft surfaces subjected to micrometeoroid bombardment. The impacting projectiles used to simulate the micrometeoroids were glass spheres nominally 37 microns in diameter, having velocities between 4 and 17 km/sec. The particulates were glass spheres nominally 25, 50, and 75 microns in diameter which were placed on aluminum targets. For these test, particulates detached had velocities that were log-normally distributed. The significance of the log-normal behavior of the ejected-particulate velocity distribution is that the geometric mean velocity and the geometric standard deviation are the only two parameters needed to model completely the process of particles removed or ejected from a spacecraft surface by a micrometeoroid impact
New insights into ultraluminous X-ray sources from deep XMM-Newton observations
The controversy over whether ultraluminous X-ray sources (ULXs) contain a new
intermediate-mass class of black holes (IMBHs) remains unresolved. We present
new analyses of the deepest XMM-Newton observations of ULXs that address their
underlying nature. We examine both empirical and physical modelling of the
X-ray spectra of a sample of thirteen of the highest quality ULX datasets, and
find that there are anomalies in modelling ULXs as accreting IMBHs with
properties simply scaled-up from Galactic black holes. Most notably, spectral
curvature above 2 keV in several sources implies the presence of an
optically-thick, cool corona. We also present a new analysis of a 100 ks
observation of Holmberg II X-1, in which a rigorous analysis of the temporal
data limits the mass of its black hole to no more than 100 solar masses. We
argue that a combination of these results points towards many (though not
necessarily all) ULXs containing black holes that are at most a few 10s of
solar mass in size.Comment: 5 pages, 2 figures, to appear in the proceedings of "The X-ray
Universe 2005", San Lorenzo de El Escorial (Spain), 26-30 September 200
A universal GRB photon energy-peak luminosity relation
The energetics and emission mechanism of GRBs are not well understood. Here
we demonstrate that the instantaneous peak flux or equivalent isotropic peak
luminosity, L_iso ergs s^-1, rather than the integrated fluence or equivalent
isotropic energy, E_iso ergs, underpins the known high-energy correlations.
Using new spectral/temporal parameters calculated for 101 bursts with redshifts
from BATSE, BeppoSAX, HETE-II and Swift we describe a parameter space which
characterises the apparently diverse properties of the prompt emission. We show
that a source frame characteristic-photon-energy/peak luminosity ratio, K_z,
can be constructed which is constant within a factor of 2 for all bursts
whatever their duration, spectrum, luminosity and the instrumentation used to
detect them. The new parameterization embodies the Amati relation but indicates
that some correlation between E_peak and E_iso follows as a direct mathematical
inference from the Band function and that a simple transformation of E_iso to
L_iso yields a universal high energy correlation for GRBs. The existence of K_z
indicates that the mechanism responsible for the prompt emission from all GRBs
is probably predominantly thermal.Comment: Submitted to Ap
Does Every Quasar Harbor A Blazar?
Assuming there is a blazar type continuum in every radio-loud quasar, we find
that the free-free heating due to the beamed infrared continuum can greatly
enhance collisionally excited lines, and thus explain the stronger CIV
1549 line emission observed in radio loud quasars. We further predict
that the CIV line should show variability {\it not} associated with observed
continuum or Ly variability.Comment: 15 pages, 3 figures; to appear in Astrophys. J. Let
Locally Optimally Emitting Clouds and the Origin of Quasar Emission Lines
The similarity of quasar line spectra has been taken as an indication that
the emission line clouds have preferred parameters, suggesting that the
environment is subject to a fine tuning process. We show here that the observed
spectrum is a natural consequence of powerful selection effects. We computed a
large grid of photoionization models covering the widest possible range of
cloud gas density and distance from the central continuum source. For each line
only a narrow range of density and distance from the continuum source results
in maximum reprocessing efficiency, corresponding to ``locally
optimally-emitting clouds'' (LOC). These parameters depend on the ionization
and excitation potentials of the line, and its thermalization density. The mean
QSO line spectrum can be reproduced by simply adding together the full family
of clouds, with an appropriate covering fraction distribution. The observed
quasar spectrum is a natural consequence of the ability of various clouds to
reprocess the underlying continuum, and can arise in a chaotic environment with
no preferred pressure, gas density, or ionization parameter.Comment: 9 pages including 1 ps figure. LaTeX format using aaspp4.st
Accurate early positions for Swift GRBS: enhancing X-ray positions with UVOT astrometry
Here we describe an autonomous way of producing more accurate prompt XRT
positions for Swift-detected GRBs and their afterglows, based on UVOT
astrometry and a detailed mapping between the XRT and UVOT detectors. The
latter significantly reduces the dominant systematic error -- the star-tracker
solution to the World Coordinate System. This technique, which is limited to
times when there is significant overlap between UVOT and XRT PC-mode data,
provides a factor of 2 improvement in the localisation of XRT refined positions
on timescales of less than a few hours. Furthermore, the accuracy achieved is
superior to astrometrically corrected XRT PC mode images at early times (for up
to 24 hours), for the majority of bursts, and is comparable to the accuracy
achieved by astrometrically corrected X-ray positions based on deep XRT PC-mode
imaging at later times (abridged).Comment: 12 pages, 8 figures, 1 table, submitted to Astronomy and
Astrophysics, August 7th 200
Testing the standard fireball model of GRBs using late X-ray afterglows measured by Swift
We show that all X-ray decay curves of GRBs measured by Swift can be fitted
using one or two components both of which have exactly the same functional form
comprised of an early falling exponential phase followed by a power law decay.
The 1st component contains the prompt gamma-ray emission and the initial X-ray
decay. The 2nd component appears later, has a much longer duration and is
present for ~80% of GRBs. It most likely arises from the external shock which
eventually develops into the X-ray afterglow. In the remaining ~20% of GRBs the
initial X-ray decay of the 1st component fades more slowly than the 2nd and
dominates at late times to form an afterglow but it is not clear what the
origin of this emission is.
The temporal decay parameters and gamma/X-ray spectral indices derived for
107 GRBs are compared to the expectations of the standard fireball model
including a search for possible "jet breaks". For ~50% of GRBs the observed
afterglow is in accord with the model but for the rest the temporal and
spectral indices do not conform to the expected closure relations and are
suggestive of continued, late, energy injection. We identify a few possible jet
breaks but there are many examples where such breaks are predicted but are
absent.
The time, T_a, at which the exponential phase of the 2nd component changes to
a final powerlaw decay afterglow is correlated with the peak of the gamma-ray
spectrum, E_peak. This is analogous to the Ghirlanda relation, indicating that
this time is in some way related to optically observed break times measured for
pre-Swift bursts.Comment: submitted to Ap
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