Constraints on Europa's water group torus from HST/COS observations

In-situ plasma measurements as well as remote mapping of energetic neutral atoms around Jupiter provide indirect evidence that an enhancement of neutral gas is present near the orbit of the moon Europa. Simulations suggest that such a neutral gas torus can be sustained by escape from Europa's atmosphere and consists primarily of molecular hydrogen, but the neutral gas torus has not yet been measured directly through emissions or in-situ. Here we present observations by the Cosmic Origins Spectrograph of the Hubble Space Telescope (HST/COS) from 2020 and 2021, which scanned the equatorial plane between 8 and 10 planetary radii west of Jupiter. No neutral gas emissions are detected. We derive upper limits on the emissions and compare these to modelled emissions from electron impact and resonant scattering using a Europa torus Monte Carlo model for the neutral gases. The comparison supports the previous findings that the torus is dilute and primarily consists of molecular hydrogen. A detection of sulfur ion emissions radially inward of the Europa orbit is consistent with emissions from the extended Io torus and with sulfur ion fractional abundances as previously detected

Communications Biophysics

Contains reports on six research projects.National Institutes of Health (Grant 2 P01 GM-14940-01)Joint Services Electronics Programs (U. S. Army, U.S. Navy, and U.S. Air Force) under Contract DA 28-043-AMC-02536(E)National Aeronautics and Space Administration (Grant NsG-496)National Institutes of Health (Grant 2 ROl NB-05462-03

Rosetta-Alice Observations of Exospheric Hydrogen and Oxygen on Mars

The European Space Agency's Rosetta spacecraft, en route to a 2014 encounter with comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, made a gravity assist swing-by of Mars on 25 February 2007, closest approach being at 01:54UT. The Alice instrument on board Rosetta, a lightweight far-ultraviolet imaging spectrograph optimized for in situ cometary spectroscopy in the 750-2000 A spectral band, was used to study the daytime Mars upper atmosphere including emissions from exospheric hydrogen and oxygen. Offset pointing, obtained five hours before closest approach, enabled us to detect and map the HI Lyman-alpha and Lyman-beta emissions from exospheric hydrogen out beyond 30,000 km from the planet's center. These data are fit with a Chamberlain exospheric model from which we derive the hydrogen density at the 200 km exobase and the H escape flux. The results are comparable to those found from the the Ultraviolet Spectrometer experiment on the Mariner 6 and 7 fly-bys of Mars in 1969. Atomic oxygen emission at 1304 A is detected at altitudes of 400 to 1000 km above the limb during limb scans shortly after closest approach. However, the derived oxygen scale height is not consistent with recent models of oxygen escape based on the production of suprathermal oxygen atoms by the dissociative recombination of O2+.Comment: 17 pages, 8 figures, accepted for publication in Icaru

Submillimeter-resolution radiography of shielded structures with laser-accelerated electron beams

We investigate the use of energetic electron beams for high-resolution radiography of flaws embedded in thick solid objects. A bright, monoenergetic electron beam (with energy \u3e100 MeV) was generated by the process of laser-wakefield acceleration through the interaction of 50-TW, 30-fs laser pulses with a supersonic helium jet. The high energy, low divergence, and small source size of these beams make them ideal for high-resolution radiographic studies of cracks or voids embedded in dense materials that are placed at a large distance from the source. We report radiographic imaging of steel with submillimeter resolution

A Pulsed, Precessing Jet in Cepheus A

We present near-infrared H2, radio CO, and thermal infrared observations of the nearby massive star-forming region Cepheus A (Cep A). From H2 bow shocks arranged along four distinct jet axes, we infer that the massive protostellar source HW2 drives a pulsed, precessing jet that has changed its orientation by about 45 degrees in roughly 104 years. The current HW2 radio jet represents the most recent event in this time series of eruptions. This scenario is consistent with the recent discovery of a disk around HW2, perpendicular to the current jet orientation, and with the presence of companions at projected distances comparable to the disk radius. We propose that the Cep A system formed by the disk-assisted capture of a sibling star by HW2. We present a numerical model of a 15 M_sun star with a circumstellar disk, orbited by a companion in an inclined, eccentric orbit. Close passages of the companion through or near the disk result in periods of enhanced accretion and mass loss, as well as forced precession of the disk and associated orientation changes in the jet. The observations reveal a second powerful outflow that emerges from radio source HW3c or HW3d. This flow is associated with blueshifted CO emission and a faint H2 bow shock to the east, and with HH 168 to the west. A collision between the flows from HW2 and HW3c/d may be responsible for X-ray and radio continuum emission in Cep A West.Comment: 12 pages, to be published in Ap

Communications Biophysics

COntains reports on six research projects.National Institutes of Health (Grant 2 P01 MH-04737-06)National Institutes of Health (Grant 5 ROl NB-05462-02)Joint Services Electronics Programs (U. S. Army, U. S. Navy, and U. S. Air Force) under Contract DA 36-039-AMC-03200(E)National Science Foundation (Grant GK-835)National Aeronautics and Space Administration (Grant NsG-496

MCE domain proteins::conserved inner membrane lipid-binding proteins required for outer membrane homeostasis

AbstractBacterial proteins with MCE domains were first described as being important for Mammalian Cell Entry. More recent evidence suggests they are components of lipid ABC transporters. In Escherichia coli, the single-domain protein MlaD is known to be part of an inner membrane transporter that is important for maintenance of outer membrane lipid asymmetry. Here we describe two multi MCE domain-containing proteins in Escherichia coli, PqiB and YebT, the latter of which is an orthologue of MAM-7 that was previously reported to be an outer membrane protein. We show that all three MCE domain-containing proteins localise to the inner membrane. Bioinformatic analyses revealed that MCE domains are widely distributed across bacterial phyla but multi MCE domain-containing proteins evolved in Proteobacteria from single-domain proteins. Mutants defective in mlaD, pqiAB and yebST were shown to have distinct but partially overlapping phenotypes, but the primary functions of PqiB and YebT differ from MlaD. Complementing our previous findings that all three proteins bind phospholipids, results presented here indicate that multi-domain proteins evolved in Proteobacteria for specific functions in maintaining cell envelope homeostasis.</jats:p