1,438 research outputs found
Infrared continuum observations of the solar atmosphere
The far-infrared wavelengths (10 microns to 1 mm) were used to study the spatial and temporal structure of the solar atmosphere. Observational results were obtained on flares, faculae, sunspots, and on the center-to-limb intensity distribution, as well as on time variability within these regions. A program of precise monitoring of slow variations in the integrated solar luminosity was shown to be feasible, and initial steps to implement observations were completed
Exploring the Cosmic Evolution of Habitability with Galaxy Merger Trees
We combine inferred galaxy properties from a semi-analytic galaxy evolution
model incorporating dark matter halo merger trees with new estimates of
supernova and gamma ray burst rates as a function of metallicity from stellar
population synthesis models incorporating binary interactions. We use these to
explore the stellar mass fraction of galaxies irradiated by energetic
astrophysical transients and its evolution over cosmic time, and thus the
fraction which is potentially habitable by life like our own. We find that 18
per cent of the stellar mass in the Universe is likely to have been irradiated
within the last 260 Myr, with GRBs dominating that fraction. We do not see a
strong dependence of irradiated stellar mass fraction on stellar mass or
richness of the galaxy environment. We consider a representative merger tree as
a Local Group analogue, and find that there are galaxies at all masses which
have retained a high habitable fraction (>40 per cent) over the last 6 Gyr, but
also that there are galaxies at all masses where the merger history and
associated star formation have rendered galaxies effectively uninhabitable.
This illustrates the need to consider detailed merger trees when evaluating the
cosmic evolution of habitability.Comment: 11 page, 10 figures. MNRAS accepted 13th Dec 2017. Updated to match
accepted version, with additional discussion of metallicity effect
The Distance to NGC 4993: The Host Galaxy of the Gravitational-wave Event GW170817
The historic detection of gravitational waves from a binary neutron star
merger (GW170817) and its electromagnetic counterpart led to the first accurate
(sub-arcsecond) localization of a gravitational-wave event. The transient was
found to be 10" from the nucleus of the S0 galaxy NGC 4993. We report
here the luminosity distance to this galaxy using two independent methods. (1)
Based on our MUSE/VLT measurement of the heliocentric redshift () we infer the systemic recession velocity of the
NGC 4993 group of galaxies in the cosmic microwave background (CMB) frame to be
km s. Using constrained cosmological
simulations we estimate the line-of-sight peculiar velocity to be km s, resulting in a cosmic velocity of km s () and a
distance of Mpc assuming a local Hubble constant of
km s Mpc. (2) Using Hubble Space Telescope
measurements of the effective radius (15.5" 1.5") and contained intensity
and MUSE/VLT measurements of the velocity dispersion, we place NGC 4993 on the
Fundamental Plane (FP) of E and S0 galaxies. Comparing to a frame of 10
clusters containing 226 galaxies, this yields a distance estimate of Mpc. The combined redshift and FP distance is Mpc. This 'electromagnetic' distance estimate is consistent
with the independent measurement of the distance to GW170817 as obtained from
the gravitational-wave signal ( Mpc) and
confirms that GW170817 occurred in NGC 4993.Comment: 9 pages, 5 figure
Effective viscosity of microswimmer suspensions
The measurement of a quantitative and macroscopic parameter to estimate the
global motility of a large population of swimming biological cells is a
challenge Experiments on the rheology of active suspensions have been
performed. Effective viscosity of sheared suspensions of live unicellular
motile micro-algae (\textit{Chlamydomonas Reinhardtii}) is far greater than for
suspensions containing the same volume fraction of dead cells and suspensions
show shear thinning behaviour. We relate these macroscopic measurements to the
orientation of individual swimming cells under flow and discuss our results in
the light of several existing models
GRB 070201: A possible Soft Gamma Ray Repeater in M31
The gamma-ray burst (GRB) 070201 was a bright short-duration hard-spectrum
GRB detected by the Inter-Planetary Network (IPN). Its error quadrilateral,
which has an area of 0.124 sq. deg, intersects some prominent spiral arms of
the nearby M31 (Andromeda) galaxy. Given the properties of this GRB, along with
the fact that LIGO data argues against a compact binary merger origin in M31,
this GRB is an excellent candidate for an extragalactic Soft Gamma-ray Repeater
(SGR) giant flare, with energy of 1.4x10^45 erg. Analysis of ROTSE-IIIb visible
light observations of M31, taken 10.6 hours after the burst and covering 42% of
the GRB error region, did not reveal any optical transient down to a limiting
magnitude of 17.1. We inspected archival and proprietary XMM-Newton X-ray
observations of the intersection of the GRB error quadrilateral and M31,
obtained about four weeks prior to the outburst, in order to look for periodic
variable X-ray sources. No SGR or Anomalous X-ray Pulsar (AXP) candidates
(periods in range 1 to 20 s) were detected. We discuss the possibility of
detecting extragalactic SGRs/AXPs by identifying their periodic X-ray light
curves. Our simulations suggest that the probability of detecting the periodic
X-ray signal of one of the known Galactic SGRs/AXPs, if placed in M31, is about
10% (50%), using 50 ks (2 Ms) XMM-Newton exposures.Comment: 7 pages, submitted to ApJ (Fig. 2 resolution reduced
Simulation and Optimization of Vacuum Swing Adsorption Units for Spacesuit Carbon Dioxide and Humidity Control
Controlling carbon dioxide (CO2) and humidity levels in a spacesuit is critical to ensuring both the safety and comfort of an astronaut during extra-vehicular activity (EVA). Traditionally, this has been accomplished utilizing non-regenerative lithium hydroxide (LiOH) or regenerative metal oxide (MetOx) canisters which pose a significant weight burden. Although such technology enables air revitalization, the volume requirements to store the waste canisters as well as the mass to transport multiple units become prohibitive as mission durations increase. Consequently, motivation exists toward developing a fully regenerative technology for environmental control. The application of solid amine materials with vacuum swing adsorption technology has shown the capacity to control CO2 and concomitantly manage humidity levels through a fully regenerative cycle eliminating mission constraints imposed with non-regenerative technologies. Experimental results for full-size and sub-scale test articles have been collected and are described herein. In order to accelerate the developmental efforts, an axially-dispersed plug ow model with an accompanying energy balance has been established and correlated with the experimental data. The experimental and simulation results display good agreement for a variety of ow rates (110-170 SLM), replicated metabolic challenges (100-590 Watts), and atmosphere pressures under consideration for the spacesuit (248 and 760 mm Hg). The relationship between swing adsorption cycles for an outlet criterion of 6.0 mm Hg of CO2 partial pressure has been established for each metabolic challenge. In addition, variable metabolic profiles were imposed on the test articles in order to assess the ability of the technology to transition to new operational constraints. The advent of the model provides the capacity to apply computer-aided engineering practices to support the ongoing efforts to optimize and mature this technology for future application to space exploration
Discovery of the Near-IR Afterglow and of the Host of GRB 030528
The rapid dissemination of an arcmin-sized HETE-2 localization of the long-duration X-ray flash GRB 030528 led to a ground-based multi-observatory follow-up campaign. We report the discovery of the near-IR afterglow, and also describe the detection of the underlying host galaxy in the optical and near-IR bands. The afterglow is classified as “optically dark” as it was not detected in the optical band. The K-band photometry presented here suggests that the lack of optical detection was simply the result of observational limitations (lack of rapid and deep observations plus high foreground extinction). Simple power law fits to the afterglow in the K-band suggest a typically decay with a slope of α=1.2. The properties of the host are consistent with the idea that GRB hosts are star forming blue galaxies. The redshift of GRB 030528 can not be determined accurately, but the data favour redshifts less than unity. In addition, we present an optical and near-IR analysis of the X-ray source CXOU J170354.0–223654 from the vicinity of GRB 030528
VLT/X-shooter spectroscopy of the afterglow of the Swift GRB 130606A: Chemical abundances and reionisation at
The reionisation of the Universe is thought to have ended around z~6, as
inferred from spectroscopy of distant bright background sources, such as
quasars (QSO) and gamma-ray burst (GRB) afterglows. Furthermore, spectroscopy
of a GRB afterglow provides insight in its host galaxy, which is often too dim
and distant to study otherwise. We present the high S/N VLT/X-shooter spectrum
of GRB130606A at z=5.913. We aim to measure the degree of ionisation of the IGM
between 5.02<z<5.84 and to study the chemical abundance pattern and dust
content of its host galaxy. We measured the flux decrement due to absorption at
Ly, and wavelength regions. The hydrogen and metal
absorption lines formed in the host galaxy were fitted with Voigt profiles to
obtain column densities. Our measurements of the Ly-forest optical
depth are consistent with previous measurements of QSOs, but have a much
smaller uncertainty. The analysis of the red damping wing yields a neutral
fraction (3). We obtain column density measurements of
several elements. The ionisation corrections due to the GRB is estimated to be
negligible (<0.03 dex), but larger corrections may apply due to the
pre-existing radiation field (up to 0.4 dex based on sub-DLA studies). Our
measurements confirm that the Universe is already predominantly ionised over
the redshift range probed in this work, but was slightly more neutral at z>5.6.
GRBs are useful probes of the ionisation state of the IGM in the early
Universe, but because of internal scatter we need a larger statistical sample
to draw robust conclusions. The high [Si/Fe] in the host can be due to dust
depletion, alpha-element enhancement, or a combination of both. The very high
value of [Al/Fe]=2.40+/-0.78 might connected to the stellar population history.
We estimate the host metallicity to be -1.7<[M/H]<-0.9 (2%-13% of solar).
(trunc.)Comment: 15 pages, 12 figure
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