2,347 research outputs found
Mony a mickle maks a muckle: minor body observations with optical telescopes of all sizes
I review the current capabilities of small, medium and large telescopes in the study of minor bodies of the Solar System (MBOSS), with the goal of identifying those areas where the next generation of Extremely Large Telescopes (ELTs) are required to progress. This also leads to a discussion of the synergies between large and small telescopes. It is clear that the new facilities that will become available in the next decades will allow us to discover smaller and more distant objects (completing size distributions) and to characterise and even resolve larger individual bodies and multiple systems, however we must also recognise that there is still much to be learned from wide surveys that require more time on more telescopes than can ever be available on ELTs. Smaller telescopes are still required to discover and characterise large samples of MBOSS
Ground-based monitoring of comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko gas activity throughout the <i>Rosetta</i> mission
Simultaneously to the ESA Rosetta mission, a world-wide ground-based campaign provided measurements of the large scale activity of comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko through measurement of optically active gas species and imaging of the overall dust coma. We present more than two years of observations performed with the FORS2 low resolution spectrograph at the VLT, TRAPPIST, and ACAM at the WHT. We focus on the evolution of the CN production, as a tracer of the comet activity. We find that it is asymmetric with respect to perihelion and different from that of the dust. The CN emission is detected for the first time at 1.34 au pre-perihelion and production rates then increase steeply to peak about two weeks after perihelion at (1.00±0.10) ×1025 molecules s−1, while the post-perihelion decrease is more shallow. The evolution of the comet activity is strongly influenced by seasonal effects, with enhanced CN production when the Southern hemisphere is illuminated
Transboundary Movement of Atlantic Istiophorid Billfishes Among International and U.S. Domestic Management Areas Inferred from Mark-Recapture Studies
Billfish movements relative to the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas management areas, as well as U.S. domestic data collection areas within the western North Atlantic basin, were investigated with mark-recapture data from 769 blue marlin, Makaira nigricans, 961 white marlin, Tetrapturus albidus, and 1,801 sailfish, Istiophorus platypterus. Linear displacement between release and recapture locations ranged from zero (all species) to 15,744 km (mean 575, median 119, SE 44) for blue marlin, 6,523 km (mean 719, median 216, SE 33) for white marlin, and 3,845 km (mean 294, median 98, SE 13) for
sailfish. In total, 2,824 (80.0%) billfish were recaptured in the same management area of release. Days at liberty ranged from zero (all species) to 4,591 (mean 619, median
409, SE 24) for blue marlin, 5,488 (mean 692, median 448, SE 22) for white marlin, and 6,568 (mean 404, median 320, SE 11) for sailfish. The proportions (per species) of visits were highest in the Caribbean area for blue marlin and white marlin, and the Florida East Coast area for sailfish. Blue marlin and sailfish were nearly identical
when comparing the percent of individuals vs. the number of areas visited. Overall, white marlin visited more areas than either blue marlin or sailfish. Seasonality was
evident for all species, with overall results generally reflecting the efforts of the catch and release recreational fishing sector, particularly in the western North Atlantic. This information may be practical in reducing the uncertainties in billfish stock assessments
and may offer valuable insight into management consideration of time-area closure regulations to reduce bycatch mortality of Atlantic billfishes
Characterisation of candidate members of (136108) Haumea's family: II. Follow-up observations
From a dynamical analysis of the orbital elements of transneptunian objects
(TNOs), Ragozzine & Brown reported a list of candidate members of the first
collisional family found among this population, associated with (136108) Haumea
(a.k.a. 2003 EL61). We aim to distinguish the true members of the Haumea
collisional family from interlopers. We search for water ice on their surfaces,
which is a common characteristic of the known family members. The properties of
the confirmed family are used to constrain the formation mechanism of Haumea,
its satellites, and its family. Optical and near-infrared photometry is used to
identify water ice. We use in particular the CH4 filter of the Hawk-I
instrument at the European Southern Observatory Very Large Telescope as a short
H-band (Hs), the (J-Hs) colour being a sensitive measure of the water ice
absorption band at 1.6 {\mu}m. Continuing our previous study headed by
Snodgrass, we report colours for 8 candidate family members, including
near-infrared colours for 5. We confirm one object as a genuine member of the
collisional family (2003 UZ117), and reject 5 others. The lack of infrared data
for the two remaining objects prevent any conclusion from being drawn. The
total number of rejected members is therefore 17. The 11 confirmed members
represent only a third of the 36 candidates. The origin of Haumea's family is
likely to be related to an impact event. However, a scenario explaining all the
peculiarities of Haumea itself and its family remains elusive.Comment: 8 pages, 4 figures, accepted for publication in A&
Surface mucous as a source of genomic DNA from Atlantic billfishes (Istiophoridae) and swordfish (Xiphiidae)
Procedures for sampling genomic DNA from live billfishes
involve manual restraint and tissue excision that can be difficult to carry out and may produce stresses that affect fish survival. We examined the collection of surface mucous as a less invasive alternative method for sourcing genomic DNA by comparing it to autologous muscle tissue samples
from Atlantic blue marlin (Makaira nigricans), white marlin (Tetrapturus albidus), sailfish (Istiophorus platypterus), and swordfish (Xiphias gladius). Purified DNA from mucous
was comparable to muscle and was suitable for conventional polymerase chain reaction, random amplified polymorphic
DNA analysis, and mitochondrial and nuclear locus sequencing. The nondestructive and less invasive
characteristics of surface mucous collection may promote increased survival of released specimens and may be advantageous for other marine fish genetic studies, particularly those involving large live specimens destined
for release
Behavior of an Escolar Lepidocybium flavobrunneum in the Windward Passage as Determined by Popup Satellite Archival Tagging
In June 2003, fisheries research was conducted in the Windward Passage using a chartered commercial pelagic longline vessel (Rice and Snodgrass 2003). This paper describes the habitat use by an escolar in this location tagged with a pop-up satellite archival tag (PSAT) that remained attached to the fish for 14 d. Data recovered from the PSAT were used to directly document diel vertical migration and ambient temperature range for the first time in a mesopelagic teleost
Photometry of the Oort Cloud comet C/2009 P1(Garradd): pre-perihelion observations at 5.7 and 2.5 AU
The aim of this paper is to contribute to the characterization of the general properties of the Long Period Comets (LPCs) family, and in particular to report on the dust environment of comet C/2009 P1 (Garradd).
The comet was observed at two epochs pre-perihelion, at ~6 AU and at ~2.5 AU: broad-band images have been used to investigate its coma morphology and properties and to model the dust production rate.
Comet C/2009 P1 (Garradd) is one of the most active and “dust producing” LPCs ever observed, even at the large heliocentric distance rh~6 AU. Its coma presents a complex morphology, with subtle structures underlying the classical fan-shaped tail, and, at rh~2.5 AU, also jet-like structures and spiralling outflows. In the reference aperture of radius ρ=5°×104 km, the R-Afρ is 3693±156 cm and 6368±412 cm, in August 2010 (rh~6 AU) and July 2011 (rh~2.5 AU), respectively. The application of a first order photometric model, under realistic assumptions on grain geometric albedo, power-law dust size distribution, phase darkening function and grain dust outflow velocity, yielded a measure of the dust production rate for the two epochs of observation of Qd=7.27×102 kg/s and Qd=1.37×103 kg/s, respectively, for a reference outflow dust velocity of vsmall=25 m/s for small (0.1–10 µm) grains and vlarge=1 m/s for large (10 µm–1 cm) grains.
These results suggest that comet Garradd is one of the most active minor bodies observed in recent years, highly contributing to the continuous replenishment of the Interplanetary Dust Complex also in the outer Solar System, and pose important constraints on the mechanism(s) driving the cometary activity at large heliocentric distances
A Comprehensive Survey of Brane Tilings
An infinite class of gauge theories can be engineered on
the worldvolume of D3-branes probing toric Calabi-Yau 3-folds. This kind of
setup has multiple applications, ranging from the gauge/gravity correspondence
to local model building in string phenomenology. Brane tilings fully encode the
gauge theories on the D3-branes and have substantially simplified their
connection to the probed geometries. The purpose of this paper is to push the
boundaries of computation and to produce as comprehensive a database of brane
tilings as possible. We develop efficient implementations of brane tiling tools
particularly suited for this search. We present the first complete
classification of toric Calabi-Yau 3-folds with toric diagrams up to area 8 and
the corresponding brane tilings. This classification is of interest to both
physicists and mathematicians alike.Comment: 39 pages. Link to Mathematica modules provide
Expressiveness of Temporal Query Languages: On the Modelling of Intervals, Interval Relationships and States
Storing and retrieving time-related information are important, or even critical, tasks on many areas of Computer Science (CS) and in particular for Artificial Intelligence (AI). The expressive power of temporal databases/query languages has been studied from different perspectives, but the kind of temporal information they are able to store and retrieve is not always conveniently addressed. Here we assess a number of temporal query languages with respect to the modelling of time intervals, interval relationships and states, which can be thought of as the building blocks to represent and reason about a large and important class of historic information. To survey the facilities and issues which are particular to certain temporal query languages not only gives an idea about how useful they can be in particular contexts, but also gives an interesting insight in how these issues are, in many cases, ultimately inherent to the database paradigm. While in the area of AI declarative languages are usually the preferred choice, other areas of CS heavily rely on the extended relational paradigm. This paper, then, will be concerned with the representation of historic information in two well known temporal query languages: it Templog in the context of temporal deductive databases, and it TSQL2 in the context of temporal relational databases. We hope the results highlighted here will increase cross-fertilisation between different communities. This article can be related to recent publications drawing the attention towards the different approaches followed by the Databases and AI communities when using time-related concepts
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