Impact cratering and the Oort cloud

We calculate the expected flux profile of comets into the planetary system from the Oort cloud arising from Galactic tides and encounters with molecular clouds. We find that both periodic and sporadic bombardment episodes, with amplitudes an order of magnitude above background, occur on characteristic timescales ~25-35 Myr. Bombardment episodes occurring preferentially during spiral arm crossings may be responsible both for mass extinctions of life and the transfer of viable microorganisms from the bombarded Earth into the disturbing nebulae. Good agreement is found between the theoretical expectations and the age distribution of large, well-dated terrestrial impact craters of the past 250 million years. A weak periodicity of ~36 Myr in the cratering record is consistent with the Sun's recent passage through the Galactic plane, and implies a central plane density ~0.15 M_Sun pc^(-3). This leaves little room for a significant dark matter component in the disc

On the investigations of galaxy redshift periodicity

In this article we present a historical review of study of the redshift periodicity of galaxies, starting from the first works performed in the seventies of the twentieth century until the present day. We discuss the observational data and methods used, showing in which cases the discretization of redshifts was observed. We conclude that galaxy redshift periodisation is an effect which can really exist. We also discussed the redshift discretization in two different structures: the Local Group of galaxies and the Hercules Supercluster. Contrary to the previous studies we consider all galaxies which can be regarded as a structure member disregarding the accuracy of velocity measurements. We applied the power spectrum analysis using the Hann function for weighting, together with the jackknife error estimator. In both the structures we found weak effects of redshift periodisation.Comment: 10 pages, 4 figures, to be published in Part. and Nucl. Lett. 200

Radio Observations of SN 1980K: Evidence for Rapid Presupernova Evolution

New observations of SN 1980K made with the VLA at 20 and 6 cm from 1994 April through 1996 October show that the supernova (SN) has undergone a significant change in its radio emission evolution, dropping by a factor of ~2 below the flux density S \propto t^{-0.73} power-law decline with time t observed earlier. However, although S at all observed frequencies has decreased significantly, its current spectral index of \alpha= -0.42\pm0.15 (S \propto \nu^{+\alpha}) is consistent with the previous spectral index of \alpha=-0.60_{-0.07}^{+0.04}. It is suggested that this decrease in emission may be due to the SN shock entering a new region of the circumstellar material which has a lower density than that expected for a constant speed (w), constant mass-loss rate (Mdot) wind from the progenitor. If such an interpretation is correct, the difference in wind and shock speeds appears to indicate a significant evolution in the mass-loss history of the SN progenitor ~10^4 years before explosion, with a change in circumstellar density (\propto Mdot/w) occurring over a time span of \lesssim 4 kyr. Such features could be explained in terms of a fast ``blue-loop'' evolutionary phase of a relatively massive pre-SN progenitor star. If so, we may, for the first time, provide a stringent constraint on the mass of the SN progenitor based solely on the SN's radio emission.Comment: 22 pages, 3 figures, to appear in Ap

Palaeolithic extinctions and the Taurid Complex

Intersection with the debris of a large (50-100 km) short-period comet during the Upper Palaeolithic provides a satisfactory explanation for the catastrophe of celestial origin which has been postulated to have occurred around 12900 BP, and which presaged a return to ice age conditions of duration ~1300 years. The Taurid Complex appears to be the debris of this erstwhile comet; it includes at least 19 of the brightest near-Earth objects. Sub-kilometre bodies in meteor streams may present the greatest regional impact hazard on timescales of human concern.Comment: 7 pages, 3 figures; accepted for Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society (definitive version will be available at www.blackwell-synergy.com

Enriched Dietary Saturated Fatty Acids Induce Trained Immunity via Ceramide Production that Enhances Severity of Endotoxemia and clearance of infection

Trained immunity is an innate immune memory response that is induced by a primary inflammatory stimulus that sensitizes monocytes and macrophages to a secondary pathogenic challenge, reprogramming the host response to infection and inflammatory disease. Dietary fatty acids can act as inflammatory stimuli, but it is unknown if they can act as the primary stimuli to induce trained immunity. Here we find mice fed a diet enriched exclusively in saturated fatty acids (ketogenic diet; KD) confer a hyper-inflammatory response to systemic lipopolysaccharide (LPS) and increased mortality, independent of diet-induced microbiome and hyperglycemia. We find KD alters the composition of the hematopoietic stem cell compartment and enhances the response of bone marrow macrophages, monocytes, and splenocytes to secondary LPS challenge. Lipidomics identified enhanced free palmitic acid (PA) and PA-associated lipids in KD-fed mice serum. We found pre-treatment with physiologically relevant concentrations of PA induces a hyper-inflammatory response to LPS in macrophages, and this was dependent on the synthesis of ceramide. In vivo, we found systemic PA confers enhanced inflammation and mortality in response to systemic LPS, and this phenotype was not reversible for up to 7 days post-PA-exposure. Conversely, we find PA exposure enhanced clearance of Candida albicans in Rag1-/- mice. Lastly, we show that oleic acid, which depletes intracellular ceramide, reverses PA-induced hyper-inflammation in macrophages and enhanced mortality in response to LPS. These implicate enriched dietary SFAs, and specifically PA, in the induction of long-lived innate immune memory and highlight the plasticity of this innate immune reprogramming by dietary constituents

A Search for Molecular Gas in GHz Peaked Spectrum Radio Sources

We present searches for molecular gas (CO, OH, CS, and Ammonia) in six GHz Peaked Spectrum (GPS) radio sources. We do not detect gas in any source and place upper limits on the mass of molecular gas which are generally in the range 1E9 to a few times 1E10 solar masses. These limits are consistent with the following interpretations: (1) GPS sources do not require very dense gas in their hosts, and (2) The GPS sources are unlikely to be confined by dense gas and will evolve to become larger radio sources