1,179 research outputs found

    Autonomous on-board data processing and instrument calibration software for the SO/PHI

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    The extension of on-board data processing capabilities is an attractive option to reduce telemetry for scientific instruments on deep space missions. The challenges that this presents, however, require a comprehensive software system, which operates on the limited resources a data processing unit in space allows. We implemented such a system for the Polarimetric and Helioseismic Imager (PHI) on-board the Solar Orbiter (SO) spacecraft. It ensures autonomous operation to handle long command-response times, easy changing of the processes after new lessons have been learned and meticulous book-keeping of all operations to ensure scientific accuracy. This contribution presents the requirements and main aspects of the software implementation, followed by an example of a task implemented in the software frame, and results from running it on SO/PHI. The presented example shows that the different parts of the software framework work well together, and that the system processes data as we expect. The flexibility of the framework makes it possible to use it as a baseline for future applications with similar needs and limitations as SO/PHI.Comment: Conference: SPIE Astronomical Telescopes + Instrumentatio, Software and Cyberinfrastructure for Astronomy

    The First Dynamical Mass Measurement in the HR 8799 System

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    HR 8799 hosts four directly imaged giant planets, but none has a mass measured from first principles. We present the first dynamical mass measurement in this planetary system, finding that the innermost planet HR~8799~e has a mass of 9.61.8+1.9MJup9.6^{+1.9}_{-1.8} \, M_{\rm Jup}. This mass results from combining the well-characterized orbits of all four planets with a new astrometric acceleration detection (5σ\sigma) from the Gaia EDR3 version of the Hipparcos-Gaia Catalog of Accelerations. We find with 95\% confidence that HR~8799~e is below 13MJup13\, M_{\rm Jup}, the deuterium-fusing mass limit. We derive a hot-start cooling age of 4216+2442^{+24}_{-16}\,Myr for HR~8799~e that agrees well with its hypothesized membership in the Columba association but is also consistent with an alternative suggested membership in the β\beta~Pictoris moving group. We exclude the presence of any additional \gtrsim5-MJupM_{\rm Jup} planets interior to HR~8799~e with semi-major axes between \approx3-16\,au. We provide proper motion anomalies and a matrix equation to solve for the mass of any of the planets of HR~8799 using only mass ratios between the planets.Comment: Accepted to ApJ Letter
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