High Energy Astrophysics Program (HEAP)

This report reviews activities performed by members of the USRA contract team during the six months of the reporting period and projected activities during the coming six months. Activities take place at the Goddard Space Flight Center, within the Laboratory for High Energy Astrophysics. Developments concern instrumentation, observation, data analysis, and theoretical work in Astrophysics Missions supported include: Advanced Satellite for Cosmology and Astrophysics (ASCA), X-ray Timing Experiment (XTE), X-ray Spectrometer (XRS), Astro-E, High Energy Astrophysics Science Archive Research Center (HEASARC), and others

Spectral and timing evolution of the black hole transient MAXI J1727-203 with NICER

MAXI J1727-203 is a new X-ray transient discovered on 5 June 2018. A hard-to-soft state transition at the beginning of the outburst led to the identification as a black hole candidate. MAXI J1727-203 was monitored with the Neutron Star Interior Composition Explorer (NICER) on an almost daily basis from the beginning of the outburst. We present a spectral and timing analysis of the full outburst of the source, which lasted approximately four months. A preliminary spectral analysis suggest that the accretion disk component can was detected throughout the entire outburst, with temperatures ranging from ~0.4 keV (in the soft state), down to ~0.2 keV near the end of the outburst when the source was in the hard state. The power spectrum in the hard state shows broadband noise up to 10 Hz, with no detection of any quasi-periodic oscillations. We argue that the system's characteristics are not consistent with those expected for a neutron star and that they are particularly reminiscent of the black hole X-ray binaries XTE J1118+480 and Cyg X-1

GSFC Heliophysics Science Division 2008 Science Highlights

This report is intended to record and communicate to our colleagues, stakeholders, and the public at large about heliophysics scientific and flight program achievements and milestones for 2008, for which NASA Goddard Space Flight Center's Heliophysics Science Division (HSD) made important contributions. HSD comprises approximately 261 scientists, technologists, and administrative personnel dedicated to the goal of advancing our knowledge and understanding of the Sun and the wide variety of domains that its variability influences. Our activities include Lead science investigations involving flight hardware, theory, and data analysis and modeling that will answer the strategic questions posed in the Heliophysics Roadmap; Lead the development of new solar and space physics mission concepts and support their implementation as Project Scientists; Provide access to measurements from the Heliophysics Great Observatory through our Science Information Systems, and Communicate science results to the public and inspire the next generation of scientists and explorers

GSFC Heliophysics Science Division 2009 Science Highlights

This report is intended to record and communicate to our colleagues, stakeholders, and the public at large about heliophysics scientific and flight program achievements and milestones for 2009, for which NASA Goddard Space Flight Center's Heliophysics Science Division (HSD) made important contributions. HSD comprises approximately 299 scientists, technologists, and administrative personnel dedicated to the goal of advancing our knowledge and understanding of the Sun and the wide variety of domains that its variability influences. Our activities include: Leading science investigations involving flight hardware, theory, and data analysis and modeling that will answer the strategic questions posed in the Heliophysics Roadmap; Leading the development of new solar and space physics mission concepts and support their implementation as Project Scientists; Providing access to measurements from the Heliophysics Great Observatory through our Science Information Systems; and Communicating science results to the public and inspiring the next generation of scientists and explorers

The energy-dependent temporal variation of the ROSAT PSPC gain

The existence of systematic spectral-fit residuals in ROSAT PSPC spectra, and their dependence on time, is by now a well established fact. This paper describes how those residuals may be related to second order variations of the gain of the PSPC as a function of energy and time. As a result, the energy scale used for the interpretation of PSPC spectra can be incorrect producing significant systematic effects, in particular at energies where the effective area of the instrument changes rapidly. A monotonic gain decay of #approx# 1% per year is measured at 1 keV. A quantitative description of the PSPC gain-time variation as a function of energy is provided. The functional dependence of this variation is found to be well represented by a second order polynomial. (orig.)Available from TIB Hannover: RN 9303(355) / FIZ - Fachinformationszzentrum Karlsruhe / TIB - Technische InformationsbibliothekSIGLEDEGerman