2,658 research outputs found
The Interiors of Giant Planets: Models and Outstanding Questions
We know that giant planets played a crucial role in the making of our Solar
System. The discovery of giant planets orbiting other stars is a formidable
opportunity to learn more about these objects, what is their composition, how
various processes influence their structure and evolution, and most importantly
how they form. Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune can be studied in detail,
mostly from close spacecraft flybys. We can infer that they are all enriched in
heavy elements compared to the Sun, with the relative global enrichments
increasing with distance to the Sun. We can also infer that they possess dense
cores of varied masses. The intercomparison of presently caracterised
extrasolar giant planets show that they are also mainly made of hydrogen and
helium, but that they either have significantly different amounts of heavy
elements, or have had different orbital evolutions, or both. Hence, many
questions remain and are to be answered for significant progresses on the
origins of planets.Comment: 43 pages, 11 figures, 3 tables. To appear in Annual Review of Earth
and Planetary Sciences, vol 33, (2005
Modeling Pressure-Ionization of Hydrogen in the Context of Astrophysics
The recent development of techniques for laser-driven shock compression of
hydrogen has opened the door to the experimental determination of its behavior
under conditions characteristic of stellar and planetary interiors. The new
data probe the equation of state (EOS) of dense hydrogen in the complex regime
of pressure ionization. The structure and evolution of dense astrophysical
bodies depend on whether the pressure ionization of hydrogen occurs
continuously or through a ``plasma phase transition'' (PPT) between a molecular
state and a plasma state. For the first time, the new experiments constrain
predictions for the PPT. We show here that the EOS model developed by Saumon
and Chabrier can successfully account for the data, and we propose an
experiment that should provide a definitive test of the predicted PPT of
hydrogen. The usefulness of the chemical picture for computing astrophysical
EOS and in modeling pressure ionization is discussed.Comment: 16 pages + 4 figures, to appear in High Pressure Researc
Polybenzoxazole-filled nitrile butadiene rubber compositions
An insulation composition that comprises at least one nitrile butadiene rubber (NBR) having an acrylonitrile content that ranges from approximately 26% by weight to approximately 35% by weight and polybenzoxazole (PBO) fibers. The NBR may be a copolymer of acrylonitrile and butadiene and may be present in the insulation composition in a range of from approximately 45% by weight to approximately 56% by weight of a total weight of the insulation composition. The PBO fibers may be present in a range of from approximately 3% by weight to approximately 10% by weight of a total weight of the insulation composition. A rocket motor including the insulation composition and a method of insulating a rocket motor are also disclosed
EPDM rocket motor insulation
A novel and improved EPDM formulation for a solid propellant rocket motor is described wherein hexadiene EPDM monomer components are replaced by alkylidene norbornene components and with appropriate adjustment of curing and other additives functionally-required rheological and physical characteristics are achieved with the desired compatibility with any one of a plurality of solid filler materials, e.g. powder silica, carbon fibers or aramid fibers, and with appropriate adhesion and extended storage or shelf life characteristics
Structure and evolution of the first CoRoT exoplanets: Probing the Brown Dwarf/Planet overlapping mass regime
We present detailed structure and evolution calculations for the first
transiting extrasolar planets discovered by the space-based CoRoT mission.
Comparisons between theoretical and observed radii provide information on the
internal composition of the CoRoT objects. We distinguish three different
categories of planets emerging from these discoveries and from previous
ground-based surveys: (i) planets explained by standard planetary models
including irradiation, (ii) abnormally bloated planets and (iii) massive
objects belonging to the overlapping mass regime between planets and brown
dwarfs. For the second category, we show that tidal heating can explain the
relevant CoRoT objects, providing non-zero eccentricities. We stress that the
usual assumption of a quick circularization of the orbit by tides, as usually
done in transit light curve analysis, is not justified a priori, as suggested
recently by Levrard et al. (2009), and that eccentricity analysis should be
carefully redone for some observations. Finally, special attention is devoted
to CoRoT-3b and to the identification of its very nature: giant planet or brown
dwarf ? The radius determination of this object confirms the theoretical
mass-radius predictions for gaseous bodies in the substellar regime but, given
the present observational uncertainties, does not allow an unambiguous
identification of its very nature. This opens the avenue, however, to an
observational identification of these two distinct astrophysical populations,
brown dwarfs and giant planets, in their overlapping mass range, as done for
the case of the 8 Jupiter-mass object Hat-P-2b. (abridged)Comment: 6 pages, 5 figures, accepted for publication in Astronomy and
Astrophysic
On the Age of Stars Harboring Transiting Planets
Results of photometric surveys have brought to light the existence of a
population of giant planets orbiting their host stars even closer than the hot
Jupiters (HJ), with orbital periods below 3 days. The reason why radial
velocity surveys were not able to detect these very-hot Jupiters (VHJ) is under
discussion. A possible explanation is that these close-in planets are
short-lived, being evaporated on short time-scales due to UV flux of their host
stars. In this case, stars hosting transiting VHJ planets would be
systematically younger than those in the radial velocity sample. We have used
the UVES spectrograph (VLT-UT2 telescope) to obtain high resolution spectra of
5 faint stars hosting transiting planets, namely, OGLE-TR-10, 56, 111, 113 and
TrES-1. Previously obtained CORALIE spectra of HD189733, and published data on
the other transiting planet-hosts were also used. The immediate objective is to
estimate ages via Li abundances, using the Ca II activity-age relation, and
from the analysis of the stellar rotational velocity. For the stars for which
we have spectra, Li abundances were computed as in Israelian et al. (2004)
using the stellar parameters derived in Santos et al. (2006). The chromospheric
activity index was built as the ratio of the flux within the core of
the Ca II H & K lines and the flux in two nearby continuum regions. The index
was calibrated to Mount Wilson index allowing the computation
of the Ca II H & K corrected for the photospheric contribution. These values
were then used to derive the ages by means of the Henry et al. (1996)
activity-age relation. Bearing in mind the limitations of the ages derived by
Li abundances, chromospheric activity, and stellar rotational velocities, none
of the stars studied in this paper seem to be younger than 0.5 Gyr.Comment: Accepted for publication in A&
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