974 research outputs found
Corrugations and eccentric spirals in Saturn's D ring: New insights into what happened at Saturn in 1983
Previous investigations of Saturn's outer D ring (73,200-74,000 km from
Saturn's center) identified periodic brightness variations whose radial
wavenumber increased linearly over time. This pattern was attributed to a
vertical corrugation, and its temporal variability implied that some event
--possibly an impact with interplanetary debris-- caused the ring to become
tilted out the planet's equatorial plane in 1983. This work examines these
patterns in greater detail using a more extensive set of Cassini images in
order to obtain additional insights into the 1983 event. These additional data
reveal that the D ring is not only corrugated, but also contains a
time-variable periodic modulation in its optical depth that probably represents
organized eccentric motions of the D-ring's particles. This second pattern
suggests that whatever event tilted the rings also disturbed the radial or
azimuthal velocities of the ring particles. Furthermore, the relative
amplitudes of the two patterns indicate that the vertical motions induced by
the 1983 event were 2.3+/-0.5 times larger than the corresponding in-plane
motions. If these structures were indeed produced by an impact, material would
need to strike the ring at a steep angle (more than 60 degrees from the ring
plane) to produce such motions. Meanwhile, the corrugation wavelengths in the D
ring are about 0.7% shorter than one would predict based on extrapolations from
similar structures in the nearby C ring. This could indicate that the D-ring
was tilted/disturbed about 60 days before the C ring. Such a timing difference
could be explained if the material that struck the ring was derived from debris
released when some object broke up near Saturn some months earlier. This debris
would need to have a substantial initial velocity dispersion and have its
orbital properties perturbed by solar tides prior to its collision with the
rings.Comment: 53 Pages, 11 Figures, Accepted for publication in Icarus, Includes
small corrections found in the proof stag
Validity of the Brunet-Derrida formula for the speed of pulled fronts with a cutoff
We establish rigorous upper and lower bounds for the speed of pulled fronts
with a cutoff. We show that the Brunet-Derrida formula corresponds to the
leading order expansion in the cut-off parameter of both the upper and lower
bounds. For sufficiently large cut-off parameter the Brunet-Derrida formula
lies outside the allowed band determined from the bounds. If nonlinearities are
neglected the upper and lower bounds coincide and are the exact linear speed
for all values of the cut-off parameter.Comment: 8 pages, 3 figure
A Survey for Outer Satellites of Mars: Limits to Completeness
We surveyed the Hill sphere of Mars for irregular satellites. Our search
covered nearly the entire Hill Sphere, but scattered light from Mars excluded
the inner few arcminutes where the satellites Phobos and Deimos reside. No new
satellites were found to an apparent limiting red magnitude of 23.5, which
corresponds to radii of about 0.09 km using an albedo of 0.07.Comment: 5 figures (1 color), 2 Tables, to appear in AJ Nov. 200
On a Conjecture of Goriely for the Speed of Fronts of the Reaction--Diffusion Equation
In a recent paper Goriely considers the one--dimensional scalar
reaction--diffusion equation with a polynomial reaction
term and conjectures the existence of a relation between a global
resonance of the hamiltonian system and the asymptotic
speed of propagation of fronts of the reaction diffusion equation. Based on
this conjecture an explicit expression for the speed of the front is given. We
give a counterexample to this conjecture and conclude that additional
restrictions should be placed on the reaction terms for which it may hold.Comment: 9 pages Revtex plus 4 postcript figure
The observation of long-range three-body Coloumb effects in the decay of 16Ne
The interaction of an =57.6-MeV Ne beam with a Be target was used
to populate levels in Ne following neutron knockout reactions. The decay
of Ne states into the three-body O++ continuum was observed
in the High Resolution Array (HiRA). For the first time for a 2p emitter,
correlations between the momenta of the three decay products were measured with
sufficient resolution and statistics to allow for an unambiguous demonstration
of their dependence on the long-range nature of the Coulomb interaction.
Contrary to previous experiments, the intrinsic decay width of the Ne
ground state was found to be narrow (~keV), consistent with
theoretical estimates.Comment: 6 pages, 5 figure
Effect of Residue Management, Row Spacing, and Seeding Rate on Winter Canola Establishment, Winter Survival, and Yield
Winter survival of canola (Brassica napus L.) is a challenge for producers using high-residue, no-tillage, or reduced-tillage systems. An innovative residue management system being developed by AGCO Corporation was compared to cooperating canola producers’ residue management and planting methods in wheat stubble. This series of on-farm experiments was conducted in 2014-2015 and 2015-2016 at ten locations in central and south-central Kansas. The AGCO treatments were 20- or 30-in. row spacing and three seeding rates (100,000, 150,000, and 200,000 seeds/a) for a total of six treatments. The producer treatment at each location included row spacing, seeding rate, and residue management practices preferred by that producer. Due to winter stand loss, only one of the six experiments planted in the fall of 2014 was harvested for yield in 2015. All four experiments planted in fall 2015 were harvested for yield in 2016. Fall stands usually differed in response to seeding rate and often were greater in 20-in. rows than in 30-in. rows. Spring stands were not as tightly correlated with seeding rate, but were consistently greater in narrow rows, regardless of seeding rate and residue management practices. Winter survival increased with reductions in seeding rate at most locations and was greater in 20-in. rows than in 30-in. rows at three of the five harvested locations. Yields were not affected by residue management, row spacing, or seeding rate at two of the five locations, including the location with yields surpassing 60 bu/a. At the other three locations, yields with the AGCO residue management system equaled or exceeded yields obtained with cooperator practices that typically included much greater seeding rates. Yields seldom responded to seeding rate, but when they did, yields tended to increase as seeding rate decreased
Sea-ice microbial communities in the Central Arctic Ocean: Limited responses to short-term pCO(2) perturbations
The Arctic Ocean is more susceptible to ocean acidification than other marine environments due to its weaker buffering capacity, while its cold surface water with relatively low salinity promotes atmospheric CO 2 uptake. We studied how sea-ice microbial communities in the central Arctic Ocean may be affected by changes in the carbonate system expected as a consequence of ocean acidification. In a series of four experiments during late summer 2018 aboard the icebreaker Oden, we addressed microbial growth, production of dissolved organic carbon (DOC) and extra- cellular polymeric substances (EPS), photosynthetic activity, and bacterial assemblage structure as sea-ice microbial communities were exposed to elevated partial pressures of CO 2 (pCO 2 ). We incubated intact, bottom ice-core sections and dislodged, under-ice algal aggregates (dominated by Melosira arctica) in separate experiments under approximately 400, 650, 1000, and 2000 micro atm pCO 2 for 10 d under different nutrient regimes. The results indicate that the growth of sea-ice algae and bacteria was unaffected by these higher pCO 2 levels, and concentrations of DOC and EPS were unaffected by a shifted inorganic C/N balance, resulting from the CO 2 enrichment. These central Arctic sea-ice microbial communities thus appear to be largely insensitive to short-term pCO 2 perturbations. Given the natural, seasonally driven fluctuations in the carbonate system of sea ice, its resident microorganisms may be sufficiently tolerant of large variations in pCO 2 and thus less vulnerable than pelagic communities to the impacts of ocean acidification, increasing the ecological importance of sea-ice microorganisms even as the loss of Arctic sea ice continue
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