Entry Boreholes Summary Report for the Waste Treatment Plant Seismic Boreholes Project

This report describes the 2006 fiscal year field activities associated with the installation of four cable-tool-drilled boreholes located within the boundary of the Waste Treatment Plant (WTP), DOE Hanford site, Washington. The cable-tool-drilled boreholes extend from surface to ~20 ft below the top of basalt and were utilized as cased entry holes for three deep boreholes (approximately 1400 ft) that were drilled to support the acquisition of sub-surface geophysical data, and one deep corehole (1400 ft) that was drilled to acquire continuous core samples from underlying basalt and sedimentary interbeds. The geophysical data acquired from these boreholes will be integrated into a seismic response model that will provide the basis for defining the seismic design criteria for the WTP facilities

Truly eccentric. II. When can two circular planets mimic a single eccentric orbit?

When, in the course of searching for exoplanets, sparse sampling and noisy data make it necessary to disentangle possible solutions to the observations, one must consider the possibility that what appears to be a single eccentric Keplerian signal may in reality be attributed to two planets in near-circular orbits. There is precedent in the literature for such outcomes, whereby further data or new analysis techniques reveal hitherto occulted signals. Here, we perform suites of simulations to explore the range of possible two-planet configurations that can result in such confusion. We find that a single Keplerian orbit with $e>$0.5 can virtually never be mimicked by such deceptive system architectures. This result adds credibility to the most eccentric planets that have been found to date, and suggests that it could well be worth revisiting the catalogue of moderately eccentric 'confirmed' exoplanets in the coming years, as more data become available, to determine whether any such deceptive couplets are hidden in the observational data.Comment: Accepted for publication in MNRA

Borehole Summary Report for Waste Treatment Plant Seismic Borehole C4993

A core hole (C4998) and three boreholes (C4993, C4996, and C4997) were drilled to acquire stratigraphic and downhole seismic data to model potential seismic impacts and to refine design specifications and seismic criteria for the Waste Treatment Plant (WTP) under construction on the Hanford Site. Borehole C4993 was completed through the Saddle Mountains Basalt, the upper portion of the Wanapum Basalt, and associated sedimentary interbeds, to provide a continuous record of the rock penetrated by all four holes and to provide access to the subsurface for geophysical measure¬ment. Presented and compiled in this report are field-generated records for the deep mud rotary borehole C4993 at the WTP site. Material for C4993 includes borehole logs, lithologic summary, and record of rock chip samples collected during drilling through the months of August through early October. The borehole summary report also includes documentation of the mud rotary drilling, borehole logging, and sample collection

Truly eccentric - I. Revisiting eight single-eccentric planetary systems

We examine eight known single-eccentric planetary systems in light of recently released large data archives and new analysis techniques. For four of these systems (HD 7449, HD 65216, HD 89744, HD 92788) we find evidence for additional long-period companions. HD 65216c is a Jupiter analogue, with a period of 14.7 yr, e = 0.18, and m sin i of 2MJup, while the remaining candidate companions move on as- yet-incomplete orbits. Our results highlight the importance of revisiting the analysis of known exoplanetary systems when new data become available, particularly given the possibility that poorly sampled data might previously have led to the detection of a `false-positive' single-eccentric planet, when the system in question actually contains two (or more) planets on near-circular orbits

<i>TESS</i> Spots a Compact System of Super-Earths around the Naked-eye Star HR 858

Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) observations have revealed a compact multiplanet system around the sixth-magnitude star HR 858 (TIC 178155732, TOI 396), located 32 pc away. Three planets, each about twice the size of Earth, transit this slightly evolved, late F-type star, which is also a member of a visual binary. Two of the planets may be in mean motion resonance. We analyze the TESS observations, using novel methods to model and remove instrumental systematic errors, and combine these data with follow-up observations taken from a suite of ground-based telescopes to characterize the planetary system. The HR 858 planets are enticing targets for precise radial velocity observations, secondary eclipse spectroscopy, and measurements of the Rossiter–McLaughlin effect

The GALAH+ Survey : Third Data Release

© 2021 The Author(s) Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Royal Astronomical Society. This is the accepted manuscript version of an article which has been published in final form at https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/stab1242The ensemble of chemical element abundance measurements for stars, along with precision distances and orbit properties, provides high-dimensional data to study the evolution of the Milky Way. With this third data release of the Galactic Archaeology with HERMES (GALAH) survey, we publish 678 423 spectra for 588 571 mostly nearby stars (81.2% of stars are within 75 stellar clusters. We derive stellar parameters $T_\text{eff}$, $\log g$, [Fe/H], $v_\text{mic}$, $v_\text{broad}$ & $v_\text{rad}$ using our modified version of the spectrum synthesis code Spectroscopy Made Easy (SME) and 1D MARCS model atmospheres. We break spectroscopic degeneracies in our spectrum analysis with astrometry from $Gaia$ DR2 and photometry from 2MASS. We report abundance ratios [X/Fe] for 30 different elements (11 of which are based on non-LTE computations) covering five nucleosynthetic pathways. We describe validations for accuracy and precision, flagging of peculiar stars/measurements and recommendations for using our results. Our catalogue comprises 65% dwarfs, 34% giants, and 1% other/unclassified stars. Based on unflagged chemical composition and age, we find 62% young low-$\alpha$, 9% young high-$\alpha$, 27% old high-$\alpha$, and 2% stars with $\mathrm{[Fe/H]} \leq -1$. Based on kinematics, 4% are halo stars. Several Value-Added-Catalogues, including stellar ages and dynamics, updated after $Gaia$ eDR3, accompany this release and allow chrono-chemodynamic analyses, as we showcase.Peer reviewe

A planet within the debris disk around the pre-main-sequence star AU Microscopii

AU Microscopii (AU Mic) is the second closest pre main sequence star, at a distance of 9.79 parsecs and with an age of 22 million years. AU Mic possesses a relatively rare and spatially resolved3 edge-on debris disk extending from about 35 to 210 astronomical units from the star, and with clumps exhibiting non-Keplerian motion. Detection of newly formed planets around such a star is challenged by the presence of spots, plage, flares and other manifestations of magnetic activity on the star. Here we report observations of a planet transiting AU Mic. The transiting planet, AU Mic b, has an orbital period of 8.46 days, an orbital distance of 0.07 astronomical units, a radius of 0.4 Jupiter radii, and a mass of less than 0.18 Jupiter masses at 3 sigma confidence. Our observations of a planet co-existing with a debris disk offer the opportunity to test the predictions of current models of planet formation and evolution.Comment: Nature, published June 24th [author spelling name fix