Associations between coronal mass ejections and interplanetary shocks

Nearly continuous complementary coronal observations and interplanetary plasma measurements for the years 1979-1982 are compared. It is shown that almost all low latitude high speed coronal mass ejections (CME's) were associated with shocks at HELIOS 1. Some suitably directed low speed CME's were clearly associated with shocks while others may have been associated with disturbed plasma (such as NCDE's) without shocks. A few opposite hemisphere CME's associated with great flares seem to be associated with shocks at HELIOS

Magnetic fields and flows between 1 AU and 0.3 AU during the primary mission of HELIOS 1

The recurrent flow and field patterns observed by HELIOS 1, and the relation between these patterns and coronal holes are discussed. Four types of recurrent patterns were observed: a large recurrent stream, a recurrent slow (quiet) flow, a rapidly evolving flow, and a recurrent compound stream. There recurrent streams were not stationary, for although the sources recurred at approximately the same longitudes on successive rotations, the shapes and latitudinal patterns changed from one rotation to the next. A type of magnetic field and plasma structure characterized by a low ion temperature and a high magnetic field intensity is described as well as the structures of stream boundaries between the sun at approximately 0.3 AU

Beagle 2: Mission to Mars — current status

Beagle 2, developed in the UK, was launched on June 2, 2003. It landed on Mars on December 25th, 2003 in Isidis Planitia, a large sedimentary basin. To date, the team is awaiting signals from the Beagle 2 lander. Current status of the mission will be reported

Quark-Nova

We explore the scenario where the core of a neutron star (having experienced a transition to an up and down quark phase) shrinks into the equilibrated quark object after reaching strange quark matter saturation density (where a composition of up, down and strange quarks is the favored state of matter). The overlaying (envelope) material free-falls following the core contraction releasing upto 10^{53} {\rm ergs} in energy as radiation, partly as a result of the conversion of envelope material to quarks. This phenomena, we named Quark-Nova, leads to a wide variety of ejectae ranging form the Newtonian, "dirty" to the ultra-relativistic fireball. The mass range of the corresponding compact remnant (the quark star) ranges from less than 0.3M_{\odot} up to a solar mass. We discuss the connection between Quark-Novae and Gamma ray bursts and suggest the recently studied GRB011211 event as a plausible Quark-Nova candidate.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figures, shortened title. Major changes in the text, version to appear in Astronomy&Astrophysic

GaMin’11 – an International Inter-laboratory Comparison for Geochemical CO2 - Saline Fluid - Mineral Interaction Experiments

Due to the strong interest in geochemical CO2-fluid-rock interaction in the context of geological storage of CO2 a growing number of research groups have used a variety of different experimental ways to identify important geochemical dissolution or precipitation reactions and – if possible – quantify the rates and extent of mineral or rock alteration. In this inter-laboratory comparison the gas-fluid-mineral reactions of three samples of rock-forming minerals have been investigated by 11 experimental labs. The reported results point to robust identification of the major processes in the experiments by most groups. The dissolution rates derived from the changes in composition of the aqueous phase are consistent overall, but the variation could be reduced by using similar corrections for changing parameters in the reaction cells over time. The comparison of experimental setups and procedures as well as of data corrections identified potential improvements for future gas-fluid-rock studies

Macondo-1 well oil-derived polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons

Mesozooplankton (>200 mm) collected in August and September of 2010 from the northern Gulf of Mexico show evidence of exposure to polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs). Multivariate statistical analysis revealed that distributions of PAHs extracted from mesozooplankton were related to the oil released from the ruptured British Petroleum Macondo-1 (M-1) well associated with the R/V Deepwater Horizon blowout. Mesozooplankton contained 0.03–97.9 ng g 1 of total PAHs and ratios of fluoranthene to fluoranthene + pyrene less than 0.44, indicating a liquid fossil fuel source. The distribution of PAHs isolated from mesozooplankton extracted in this study shows that the 2010 Deepwater Horizon spill may have contributed to contamination in the northern Gulf of Mexico ecosystem

Differential (2+1) Jet Event Rates and Determination of alpha_s in Deep Inelastic Scattering at HERA

Events with a (2+1) jet topology in deep-inelastic scattering at HERA are studied in the kinematic range 200 < Q^2< 10,000 GeV^2. The rate of (2+1) jet events has been determined with the modified JADE jet algorithm as a function of the jet resolution parameter and is compared with the predictions of Monte Carlo models. In addition, the event rate is corrected for both hadronization and detector effects and is compared with next-to-leading order QCD calculations. A value of the strong coupling constant of alpha_s(M_Z^2)= 0.118+- 0.002 (stat.)^(+0.007)_(-0.008) (syst.)^(+0.007)_(-0.006) (theory) is extracted. The systematic error includes uncertainties in the calorimeter energy calibration, in the description of the data by current Monte Carlo models, and in the knowledge of the parton densities. The theoretical error is dominated by the renormalization scale ambiguity.Comment: 25 pages, 6 figures, 3 tables, submitted to Eur. Phys.

Multiplicity Structure of the Hadronic Final State in Diffractive Deep-Inelastic Scattering at HERA

The multiplicity structure of the hadronic system X produced in deep-inelastic processes at HERA of the type ep -> eXY, where Y is a hadronic system with mass M_Y< 1.6 GeV and where the squared momentum transfer at the pY vertex, t, is limited to |t|<1 GeV^2, is studied as a function of the invariant mass M_X of the system X. Results are presented on multiplicity distributions and multiplicity moments, rapidity spectra and forward-backward correlations in the centre-of-mass system of X. The data are compared to results in e+e- annihilation, fixed-target lepton-nucleon collisions, hadro-produced diffractive final states and to non-diffractive hadron-hadron collisions. The comparison suggests a production mechanism of virtual photon dissociation which involves a mixture of partonic states and a significant gluon content. The data are well described by a model, based on a QCD-Regge analysis of the diffractive structure function, which assumes a large hard gluonic component of the colourless exchange at low Q^2. A model with soft colour interactions is also successful.Comment: 22 pages, 4 figures, submitted to Eur. Phys. J., error in first submission - omitted bibliograph