Spectral evidence of size dependent space weathering processes on asteroid surfaces

Most compositional characterizations of the minor planets are derived from analysis of visible and near-infrared reflectance spectra. However, such spectra are derived from light which has only interacted with a very thin surface layer. Although regolith processes are assumed to mix all near-surface lithologic units into this layer, it has been proposed that space weathering processes can alter this surface layer to obscure the spectral signature of the bedrock lithology. It has been proposed that these spectral alteration processes are much less pronounced on asteroid surfaces than on the lunar surface, but the possibility of major spectral alteration of asteroidal optical surfaces has been invoked to reconcile S-asteroids with ordinary chondrites. The reflectance spectra of a large subset of the S-asteroid population have been analyzed in a systematic investigation of the mineralogical diversity within the S-class. In this sample, absorption band depth is a strong function of asteroid diameter. The S-asteroid band depths are relatively constant for objects larger than 100 km and increase linearly by factor of two toward smaller sizes (approximately 40 km). Although the S-asteroid surface materials includes a diverse variety of silicate assemblages, ranging from dunites to basalts, all compositional subtypes of the S-asteroids conform to this trend. The A-, R-, and V-type asteroids which are primarily silicate assemblages (as opposed to the metal-silicate mixtures of most S-asteroids) follow a parallel but displaced trend. Some sort of textural or regolith equilibrium appears to have been attained in the optical surfaces of asteroids larger than about 100 km diameter but not on bodies below this size. The relationships between absorption band depth, spectral slope, surface albedo and body size provide an intriguing insight into the nature of the optical surfaces of the S-asteroids and space weathering on these objects

Life in the Atacama — Year 2: Geologic reconnaissance through long-range roving and implications on the search for life

The Life in the Atacama-2004 project, which included geological, morphological, and mineralogical mapping through combined satellite, field-based, and microscopic perspectives and long-range roving, led to the localization of potential habitats

Clustering and Sharing Incentives in BitTorrent Systems

Peer-to-peer protocols play an increasingly instrumental role in Internet content distribution. Consequently, it is important to gain a full understanding of how these protocols behave in practice and how their parameters impact overall performance. We present the first experimental investigation of the peer selection strategy of the popular BitTorrent protocol in an instrumented private torrent. By observing the decisions of more than 40 nodes, we validate three BitTorrent properties that, though widely believed to hold, have not been demonstrated experimentally. These include the clustering of similar-bandwidth peers, the effectiveness of BitTorrent's sharing incentives, and the peers' high average upload utilization. In addition, our results show that BitTorrent's new choking algorithm in seed state provides uniform service to all peers, and that an underprovisioned initial seed leads to the absence of peer clustering and less effective sharing incentives. Based on our observations, we provide guidelines for seed provisioning by content providers, and discuss a tracker protocol extension that addresses an identified limitation of the protocol

Milky Way potentials in CDM and MOND. Is the Large Magellanic Cloud on a bound orbit?

We compute the Milky Way potential in different cold dark matter (CDM) based models, and compare these with the modified Newtonian dynamics (MOND) framework. We calculate the axis ratio of the potential in various models, and find that isopotentials are less spherical in MOND than in CDM potentials. As an application of these models, we predict the escape velocity as a function of the position in the Galaxy. This could be useful in comparing with future data from planned or already-underway kinematic surveys (RAVE, SDSS, SEGUE, SIM, GAIA or the hypervelocity stars survey). In addition, the predicted escape velocity is compared with the recently measured high proper motion velocity of the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC). To bind the LMC to the Galaxy in a MOND model, while still being compatible with the RAVE-measured local escape speed at the Sun's position, we show that an external field modulus of less than $0.03 a_0$ is needed.Comment: Accepted for publication in MNRAS, 13 pages, 7 figures, 3 table

Spectroscopic results from the Life in the Atacama (LITA) project 2004 field season

Analysis of spectroscopy datasets from rover field tests in the Atacama Desert (Chile), focusing on the composition of the surface and identification of potential habitats for life

Searching for life with rovers: exploration methods and science results from the 2004 field campaign of the “Life in the Atacama” project and applications to future Mars Missions

LITA develops and field tests a long-range automated rover and a science payload to search for microbial life in the Atacama. The Atacama's evolution provides a unique training ground for designing and testing exploration strategies and life detection methods for the search for life on Mars

The ACS Virgo Cluster Survey. VIII. The Nuclei of Early-Type Galaxies

(Abridged) The ACS Virgo Cluster Survey is an HST program to obtain high-resolution, g and z-band images for 100 early-type members of the Virgo Cluster, spanning a range of ~460 in blue luminosity. Based on this large, homogeneous dataset, we present a sharp upward revision in the frequency of nucleation in early-type galaxies brighter than M_B ~ -15 (66 < f_n < 82%), and find no evidence for nucleated dwarfs to be more concentrated to the center of Virgo than their non-nucleated counterparts. Resolved stellar nuclei are not present in galaxies brighter than M_B ~ -20.5, however, there is no clear evidence from the properties of the nuclei, or from the overall incidence of nucleation, for a change at M_B ~ -17.6, the traditional dividing point between dwarf and giant galaxies. On average, nuclei are ~3.5 mag brighter than a typical globular cluster and have a median half-light radius ~4.2 pc. Nuclear luminosities correlate with nuclear sizes and, in galaxies fainter than M_B ~ -17.6, nuclear colors. Comparing the nuclei to the "nuclear clusters" found in late-type spiral galaxies reveals a close match in terms of size, luminosity and overall frequency, pointing to a formation mechanism that is rather insensitive to the detailed properties of the host galaxy. The mean nuclear-to-galaxy luminosity ratio is indistinguishable from the mean SBH-to-bulge mass ratio, calculated in early-type galaxies with detected supermassive black holes (SBHs). We argue that compact stellar nuclei might be the low-mass counterparts of the SBHs detected in the bright galaxies, and that one should think in terms of "Central Massive Objects" -- either SBHs or compact stellar nuclei -- that accompany the formation of almost all early-type galaxies and contain a mean fraction ~0.3% of the total bulge mass.Comment: ApJ Supplements, accepted. Updated references. The manuscript is 61 pages, including 6 tables and 28 figures. Figures included in this submission are low resolution; a version of the paper containing high-resolution color figures can be downloaded from the ACSVCS website: http://www.cadc.hia.nrc.gc.ca/community/ACSVCS/publications.html#acsvcs

Superconducting phase in the layered dichalcogenide 1T-TaS_{2} upon inhibition of the metal-insulator transition

When a Mott metal-insulator transition is inhibited by a small amount of disorder in the layered dichalcogenide 1T-TaS2, an inhomogeneous superconducting state arises below T=2.1 K and coexists with a nearly commensurate charge-density wave. By angle-resolved photoelectron spectroscopy, we show that it emerges from a bad metal state with strongly damped quasiparticles. Superconductivity is almost entirely suppressed by an external magnetic field of 0.1 T

Properties and Origin of the High-Velocity Gas Toward the Large Magellanic Cloud

In the spectra of 139 early-type Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) stars observed with FUSE and with deep radio Parkes HI 21-cm observations along those stars, we search for and analyze the absorption and emission from high-velocity gas at +90<v<+175 km/s. The HI column density of the high-velocity clouds (HVCs) along these sightlines ranges from <10^18.4 to 10^19.2 cm^-2. The incidence of the HVC metal absorption is 70%, significantly higher than the HI emission occurrence of 32%. We find that the mean metallicity of the HVC is [OI/HI] = -0.51 (+0.12,-0.16). There is no strong evidence for a large variation in the HVC metallicity, implying that thes e HVCs have a similar origin and are part of the same complex. The mean and scatter of the HVC metallicities are more consistent with the present-day LMC oxygen abundance than that of the Small Magellanic Cloud or the Milky Way. We find that on average [SiII/OI] = +0.48 (+0.15,- 0.25) and [FeII/OI] = +0.33 (+0.14,-0.21), implying that the HVC complex is dominantly ionized. The HVC complex has a multiphase structure with a neutral (OI, FeII), weakly ionized (FeII, NII), and highly ionized (OVI) components, and has evidence of dust but no molecules. All the observed properties of the HVC can be explained by an energetic outflow from the LMC. This is the first example of a large (>10^6 M_sun) HVC complex that is linked to stellar feedback occurring in a dwarf spiral galaxy.Comment: Accepted for publication in the Ap

Low-temperature spin dynamics of a valence bond glass in Ba<sub style="font-size: smaller; vertical-align: baseline; position: relative; top: 0.25em;">2YMoO<sub style="font-size: smaller; vertical-align: baseline; position: relative; top: 0.25em;">6</sub></sub>

We carried out AC magnetic susceptibility measurements and muon spin relaxation spectroscopy on the cubic double perovskite Ba2YMoO6, down to 50 mK. Below ~1 K the muon relaxation is typical of a magnetic insulator with a spin-liquid type ground state, i.e. without broken symmetries or frozen moments. However, the AC susceptibility revealed a dilute-spin-glass like transition below ~ 1 K. Antiferromagnetically coupled Mo5+ 4d1 electrons in triply degenerate t2g orbitals are in this material arranged in a geometrically frustrated fcc lattice. Bulk magnetic susceptibility data has previously been interpreted in terms of a freezing to a heterogeneous state with non-magnetic sites where 4d^1 electrons have paired in spin-singlets dimers, and residual unpaired Mo5+ 4d1 electrons. Based on the magnetic heat capacity data it has been suggested that this heterogeneity is the result of kinetic constraints intrinsic to the physics of the pure system (possibly due to topological overprotection), leading to a self-induced glass of valence bonds between neighbouring 4d1 electrons. The muSR relaxation unambiguously points to a static heterogeneous state with a static arrangement of unpaired electrons isolated by spin-singlet (valence bond) dimers between the majority of Mo5+ 4d electrons. The AC susceptibility data indicate that the residual magnetic moments freeze into a dilute-spin-glass-like state. This is in apparent contradiction with the muon-spin decoupling at 50 mK in fields up to 200 mT, which indicates that, remarkably, the time scale of the field fluctuations from the residual moments is ~ 5 ns. Comparable behaviour has been observed in other geometrically frustrated magnets with spin-liquid-like behaviour and the implications of our observations on Ba2YMoO6 are discussed in this context.Comment: 11 pages, 3 Figures. Published in New Journal of Physic