948 research outputs found
Possibility for albedo estimation of exomoons: Why should we care about M dwarfs?
Occultation light curves of exomoons may give information on their albedo and
hence indicate the presence of ice cover on the surface. Icy moons might have
subsurface oceans thus these may potentially be habitable. The objective of our
paper is to determine whether next generation telescopes will be capable of
albedo estimations for icy exomoons using their occultation light curves. The
success of the measurements depends on the depth of the moon's occultation in
the light curve and on the sensitivity of the used instruments. We applied
simple calculations for different stellar masses in the V and J photometric
bands, and compared the flux drop caused by the moon's occultation and the
estimated photon noise of next generation missions with 5 confidence.
We found that albedo estimation by this method is not feasible for moons of
solar-like stars, but small M dwarfs are better candidates for such
measurements. Our calculations in the J photometric band show that E-ELT
MICADO's photon noise is just about 4 ppm greater than the flux difference
caused by a 2 Earth-radii icy satellite in a circular orbit at the snowline of
an 0.1 stellar mass star. However, considering only photon noise underestimates
the real expected noise, because other noise sources, such as CCD read-out and
dark signal become significant in the near infrared measurements. Hence we
conclude that occultation measurements with next generation missions are far
too challenging, even in the case of large, icy moons at the snowline of small
M dwarfs. We also discuss the role of the parameters that were neglected in the
calculations, e.g. inclination, eccentricity, orbiting direction of the moon.
We predict that the first albedo estimations of exomoons will probably be made
for large icy moons around the snowline of M4 -- M9 type main sequence stars.Comment: 13 pages, 6 figures, accepted for publication in A&
Pushing the limits, episode 2: K2 observations of extragalactic RR Lyrae stars in the dwarf galaxy Leo IV
We present the first observations of extragalactic pulsating stars in the K2
ecliptic survey of the Kepler space telescope. Variability of all three RR
Lyrae stars in the dwarf spheroidal galaxy Leo IV were successfully detected,
at a brightness of Kp~21.5 mag, from data collected during Campaign 1. We
identified one modulated star and another likely Blazhko candidate with periods
of 29.8+-0.9 d and more than 80 d, respectively. EPIC 210282473 represents the
first star beyond the Magellanic Clouds for which the Blazhko period and
cycle-to-cycle variations in the modulation were unambiguously measured.The
photometric [Fe/H] indices of the stars agree with earlier results that Leo IV
is a very metal-poor galaxy. Two out of three stars blend with brighter
background galaxies in the K2 frames. We demonstrate that image subtraction can
be reliably used to extract photometry from faint confused sources that will be
crucial not only for the K2 mission but for future space photometric missions
as well.Comment: 8 pages, 6 figures, accepted for publication in the Astrophysical
Journal. Light curves can be downloaded from http://konkoly.hu/KIK/data.htm
Pushing the limits: K2 observations of the trans-Neptunian objects 2002 GV31 and (278361) 2007 JJ43
We present the first photometric observations of trans-Neptunian objects
(TNOs) taken with the Kepler space telescope, obtained in the course of the K2
ecliptic survey. Two faint objects have been monitored in specifically designed
pixel masks that were centered on the stationary points of the objects, when
their daily motion was the slowest. In the design of the experiment, only the
apparent path of these objects were retrieved from the detectors, i.e. the
costs in terms of Kepler pixels were minimized. Because of the faintness of the
targets we employ specific reduction techniques and co-added images. We measure
rotational periods and amplitudes in the unfiltered Kepler band as follows: for
(278361) 2007 JJ43 and 2002 GV31 we get P_rot=12.097 h and P_rot=29.2 h while
0.10 and 0.35 mag for the total amplitudes, respectively. Future space
missions, like TESS and PLATO are not well suited to this kind of observations.
Therefore, we encourage to include the brightest TNOs around their stationary
points in each observing campaign to exploit this unique capability of the K2
Mission -- and therefore to provide unbiased rotational, shape and albedo
characteristics of many objects.Comment: Accepted for publication in ApJ Letters, 5.2 pages in emulateapj
style, misspelled 2007 JJ43 designation correcte
Two-Group Theory of the Feynman-Alpha Method for Reactivity Measurement in ADS
The theory of the Feynman-alpha method, which is used to determine the subcritical reactivity of systems driven by an external source such as an ADS, is extended to two energy groups with the inclusion of delayed neutrons. This paper presents a full derivation of the variance to mean formula with the inclusion of two energy groups and delayed neutrons. The results are illustrated quantitatively and discussed in physical terms
Transport on randomly evolving trees
The time process of transport on randomly evolving trees is investigated. By
introducing the notions of living and dead nodes a model of random tree
evolution is constructed which describes the spreading in time of objects
corresponding to nodes. By using the method of the age-dependent branching
processes we derive the joint distribution function of the number of living and
dead nodes, and determine the correlation between these node numbers as a
function of time. Also analyzed are the stochastic properties of the end-nodes;
and the correlation between the numbers of living and dead end-nodes is shown
to change its character suddenly at the very beginning of the evolution
process. The survival probability of random trees is investigated and
expressions are derived for this probability.Comment: 16 pages, 8 figures, published in Phys. Rev. E 72, 051101 (2005
Evidence for fresh frost layer on the bare nucleus of comet Hale--Bopp at 32 AU distance
Here we report that the activity of comet Hale--Bopp ceased between late 2007
and March, 2009, at about 28 AU distance from the Sun. At that time the comet
resided at a distance from the Sun that exceeded the freeze-out distance of
regular comets by an order of magnitude. A Herschel Space Observatory PACS scan
was taken in mid-2010, in the already inactive state of the nucleus. The albedo
has been found to be surprisingly large (8.10.9%{}), which exceeds the
value known for any other comets. With re-reduction of archive HST images from
1995 and 1996, we confirm that the pre-perihelion albedo resembled that of an
ordinary comet, and was smaller by a factor of two than the post-activity
albedo. Our further observations with the Very Large Telescope (VLT) also
confirmed that the albedo increased significantly by the end of the activity.
We explain these observations by proposing gravitational redeposition of icy
grains towards the end of the activity. This is plausible for such a massive
body in a cold environment, where gas velocity is lowered to the range of the
escape velocity. These observations also show that giant comets are not just
the upscaled versions of the comets we know but can be affected by processes
that are yet to be fully identified.Comment: 7 pages, 6 figures, accepted for publication in Ap
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