银河系光行差及其对天文参考架的影响

银河系光行差,或称为长期光行差漂移,是由于太阳系质心绕着银河系中心做轨道运动的加速度引起的视自行效应,量级大约为5μas·yr~(-1).在21世纪之前,由于观测精度尚未达到如此高的程度,人们很少讨论银河系光行差效应.随着甚长基线干涉(Very Long Baseline Interferometer,VLBI)在基本天文学中的广泛应用和欧洲空间局(European Space Agency,ESA)的第2代微角秒天体测量卫星Gaia的问世,该效应显得逐渐重要.由于河外源的分布不均匀,银河系光行差效应会使得河外源天球参考架缓慢旋转,进而需要修正地球岁差参数,其中岁差速率的改正值大约为1μas·yr~(-1).对于微角秒精度的VLBI和Gaia参考架,银河系光行差将会引起框架扭曲,在两者的连接过程中,也是必须考虑的系统效应.     

VLBI at the Hartebeesthoek radio astronomy Observatory

The Hartebeesthoek Radio Astronomy Observatory has played a key role in the development of very long baseline interferometry (VLBI) in the southern hemisphere since 1971. This paper describes how the VLBI programme evolved and the instrumentation used. Contributions to high resolution mapping of compact radio sources are described, for both the Southern Hemisphere VLBI Experiment, SHEVE, and for Global networks, where HartRAO has made significant improvements in the N-S resolution. The unique geographical location of the telescope has been used to establish the terrestrial reference frame in the southern hemisphere and to measure tectonic motions over the past nine years. The Observatory has also been a fundamental station in extending the celestial reference frame defined by extragalactic radio sources to the southern hemisphere, and results of these programmes are given.     

天球参考系实现中的问题评述

本文评述了在建立历表参考架和恒星参考架过程中所面临的问题和困难，回顾了建立河外射电天球参考架的发展历史，并介绍了其目前状况，讨论了河外射电天球参考架在与其他天球参考架连接过程中所遇到的问题及其可能的解决途径。     

Potential of the VLTI for linking stellar frames to ICRF

The question of positioning the optical counterparts of the ICRF quasars is outlined in the perspective of future space astrometry missions, which ultimately will bring a new realization of the ICRS in the optical range. Ground-based interferometry with a dual-field observing mode (PRIMA/VLTI),together with the missions DIVA and FAME, will have a key role in building an extragalactic reference frame in the optical/near-IR range with about the same accuracy as that of the present (VLBI) primary frame. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

The extragalactic neutrino background radiations from blazars and cosmic rays

Blazar emission of gamma rays and cosmic ray production of gamma rays in gas-rich clusters have been proposed recently as alternative sources of the high energy extragalactic diffuse gamma ray background radiation. We show that these sources also produce very different high energy extragalactic diffuse neutrino background radiations. An extragalactic neutrino background radiation may be detected by the new generation of large neutrino telescopes under construction and may be used to trace the origin of the extragalactic gamma radiation.     

Long Range Science Perspectives for the VLTI

VLTI interferometry will allow imaging of galactic and extragalactic sources with milliarcsecond angular resolution. For moderately bright sources the spectral resolution will be of the order of 10000. These capabilities will allow detailed studies of solar system objects, stars, proto-planetary systems and the detection of hot extra-solar planets. The observations of galactic nuclei will allow unprecedented measurements of physical parameters in these systems. VLTI will be a prime instrument to study the immediate environment of the massive black hole at the center of the Milky Way. With the exception of a few `self-referencing' sources the observations of extragalactic nuclei will benefit from an extended capability for simultaneous measurements of nearby reference sources for fringe tracking. With beam combination instruments like AMBER, MIDI, PRIMA, and GENIE the VLTI will reach full maturity at a time when other interferometric instruments at different wavelengths will be fully operational. Most important are ALMA (in the mm- and sub-mm-domain), LOFAR and SKA (in the radio meter to centimeter domain) and of course VLB-networks in the radio, and other – at that time –well developed interferometers in the optical. A major scientific potential of future scientific VLTI programs will lie in an efficient combination of these high angular resolution capabilities. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

河外H2O超脉泽源及与其相关的分子谱线的观测和研究

自从在活动星系核NGC4945的视线方向上发现第一个河外H2O超脉泽源以来，迄今为止已发现了19个河外H2O超脉泽源，对与活动星系核成协和河外H2O超脉泽源及分子谱线的观测和研究是探测和研究活动星系核核区中央源，拱核气体和尘埃环性质的非常有效的工具，主要评述对河外H2O超脉泽源及与其相关分子谱线的搜索，观测和理论研究现状。     

Interstellar scintillation of compact extragalactic radio sources

The recent discovery of radio variability of a quasar on short time-scales (hours) prompts us to examine what is expected in respect of the interstellar scintillation of very compact, extragalactic radio sources. We find that large-amplitude, rapid, variability is predicted at commonly observed radio frequencies (1–20 GHz) over the vast majority of the extragalactic sky. As a guide to assist observers in understanding their data, we demonstrate simple techniques for predicting the effects of interstellar scintillation on any extragalactic source.     

Intraday polarization variability outside the VLBI core of the active galactic nucleus 0716+714

Rapid ('intraday') cm-wavelength variations in both total and polarized flux density have been observed in a number of strong extragalactic radio sources. It is difficult to explain these variations purely as propagation effects, but if they are intrinsic to the sources, implausibly high brightness temperatures are required. We discuss here rapid polarization variability during our λ =6 cm global very long-baseline interferometry (VLBI) observations of the active galactic nucleus 0716+714. Measurements made with the Very Large Array (VLA) during the VLBI observations indicate a ≃50° swing in the position angle χ of the VLA core polarization in 12 hours. Corresponding variations were observed only for short VLBI baselines, so that they could not have occurred in the VLBI core (the only feature detected in our VLBI polarization map). The fact that the variations appear both in the VLA data and in the VLBI data for short baselines makes it difficult to explain them as instrumental effects. This leads us to conclude that the rapid variations occurred outside the area covered by our VLBI map; we estimate that the variability occurred in some compact feature roughly 25 milliarcseconds from the nucleus. It is clear that compact structures on a wide range of scales must be taken into account in studies of intraday variability in AGN.     

Using nicmos arrays to study galaxies

The 256×256 HgCdTe arrays developed for the NICMOS (Near-Infrared Camera and Multi-object Spectrometer) project have proven to be very capable devices for extragalactic imaging. This paper describes a sampling of extragalactic results from NICMOS arrays. A brief summary of the history of the development of these arrays, and their outstanding performance characteristics is also given.     

Extragalactic source counts and contributions to the anisotropies of the cosmic microwave background: predictions for the Planck Surveyor mission

We present predictions for the counts of extragalactic sources, the contributions to fluctuations and their angular power spectrum in each channel foreseen for the Planck Surveyor (formerly COBRAS/SAMBA ) mission. The contribution to fluctuations owing to clustering of both radio and far-IR sources is found to be generally small in comparison with the Poisson term; however the relative importance of the clustering contribution increases and may eventually become dominant if sources are identified and subtracted down to faint flux limits. The central Planck frequency bands are expected to be 'clean': at high galactic latitude (| b | > 20°), where the reduced galactic noise does not prevent the detection of the extragalactic signal, only a tiny fraction of pixels is found to be contaminated by discrete extragalactic sources. Moreover, the 'flat' angular power spectrum of fluctuations resulting from extragalactic sources substantially differs from that of primordial fluctuations; therefore, the removal of contaminating signals is eased even at frequencies where point sources give a sizeable contribution to the foreground noise.     

Extragalactic Cepheid database

We present in this paper an exhaustive compilation of all published data of extragalactic Cepheids. We have checked every light curve in order to characterize the different types of Cepheid and detect potential overtone pulsators, or to estimate the quality of the data. This compilation of about 3000 photometric measurements will constitute a very useful tool for astronomers involved for instance in the extragalactic distance scale.     

H_2O Megamasers: Accretion Disks, Jet Interaction, Outflows or Massive Star Formation?

The 25 years following the serendipitous discovery of megamasers have seen tremendous progress in the study of luminous extragalactic H₂O emission. Single-dish monitoring and high-resolution interferometry have been used to identify sites of massive star formation, to study the interaction of nuclear jets with dense molecular gas and to investigate the circumnuclear environment of active galactic nuclei (AGN). Accretion disks with radii of 0.1–3 pc were mapped and masses of nuclear engines of order 10⁶–10⁸ M were determined. So far, 50 extragalactic H₂O maser sources have been detected, but few have been studied in detail.     

Detection of an intergalactic meteor particle with the 6-m telescope

On July 28, 2006 the 6-m telescope of the Special Astrophysical Observatory of the Russian Academy of Sciences recorded the spectrum of a faint meteor. We confidently identify the lines of FeI and MgI, OI, NI and molecular-nitrogen (N₂) bands. The entry velocity of the meteor body into the Earth’s atmosphere estimated from radial velocity is equal to 300 km/s. The body was several tens of a millimeter in size, like chondrules in carbon chondrites. The radiant of the meteor trajectory coincides with the sky position of the apex of the motion of the Solar system toward the centroid of the Local Group of galaxies. Observations of faint sporadic meteors with FAVOR TV CCD camera confirmed the radiant at a higher than 96% confidence level. We conclude that this meteor particle is likely to be of extragalactic origin. The following important questions remain open: (1) How metal-rich dust particles came to be in the extragalactic space? (2) Why are the sizes of extragalactic particles larger by two orders of magnitude (and their masses greater by six orders of magnitude) than common interstellar dust grains in our Galaxy? (3) If extragalactic dust surrounds galaxies in the form of dust (or gas-and-dust) aureoles, can such formations now be observed using other observational techniques (IR observations aboard Spitzer satellite, etc.)? (4) If inhomogeneous extragalactic dust medium with the parameters mentioned above actually exists, does it show up in the form of irregularities on the cosmic microwave background (WMAP etc.)?     

Galactic PeV neutrinos

The IceCube experiment has detected two neutrinos with energies between 1 and 10 PeV. They might have originated from Galactic or extragalactic sources of cosmic rays. In the present work we consider hadronic interactions of the diffuse very high energy cosmic rays with the interstellar matter within our Galaxy to explain the PeV neutrino events detected in IceCube. We also expect PeV gamma ray events along with the PeV neutrino events if the observed PeV neutrinos were produced within our Galaxy in hadronic interactions. PeV gamma rays are unlikely to reach us from sources outside our Galaxy due to pair production with cosmic background radiation fields. We suggest that in future with simultaneous detections of PeV gamma rays and neutrinos it would be possible to distinguish between Galactic and extragalactic origins of very high energy neutrinos.     

An observational program for a unified optical-radio reference frame

An observational pilot program is described which provides a first step towards the construction of an inertial extragalactic reference frame from optical and radio measurements. Candidate objects will be selected from extragalactic compact radio sources which display optical counterparts. Galactic radio stars will be secondary reference objects. The reference frame will be defined by the radio positions of the extragalactic objects. Based on a coordinated effort in both hemispheres, a global homogeneous net of about 400 quasars and 100 radio stars is expected to result from a five year campaign.     

Unidentified EGRET sources and the extragalactic gamma-ray background

The large majority of EGRET point sources remain to this day without an identified low-energy counterpart. Whatever the nature of the EGRET unidentified sources, faint unresolved objects of the same class must have a contribution to the diffuse gamma-ray background: if most unidentified objects are extragalactic, faint unresolved sources of the same class contribute to the background, as a distinct extragalactic population; on the other hand, if most unidentified sources are Galactic, their counterparts in external galaxies will contribute to the unresolved emission from these systems. Understanding this component of the gamma-ray background, along with other guaranteed contributions from known sources, is essential in any attempt to use gamma-ray observations to constrain exotic high-energy physics. Here, we follow an empirical approach to estimate whether a potential contribution of unidentified sources to the extragalactic gamma-ray background is likely to be important, and we find that it is. Additionally, we comment on how the anticipated GLAST measurement of the diffuse gamma-ray background will change, depending on the nature of the majority of these sources.     

Galactic H i on the 50-au scale in the direction of three extragalactic sources observed with MERLIN

We present MERLIN observations of Galactic 21-cm H  i absorption at an angular resolution of  ∼0.1–0.2  arcsec and a velocity resolution of 0.5 km s⁻¹, in the direction of three moderately low latitude  (−8° < b < −12°)  extragalactic radio sources, 3C 111, 3C 123 and 3C 161, all of which are heavily reddened. H  i absorption is observed against resolved background emission sources up to ∼2 arcsec in extent and we distinguish details of the opacity distribution within 1–1.5 arcsec regions towards 3C 123 and 3C 161. This study is the second MERLIN investigation of small-scale structure in interstellar H  i (earlier work probed Galactic H  i in the directions of the compact sources 3C 138 and 3C 147). The 0.1-arcsec scale is intermediate between H  i absorption studies made with other fixed element interferometers with resolution of 1–10 arcsec and very long baseline interferometry studies with resolutions of 10–20 mas. At a scale of 1 arcsec (about 500 au), prominent changes in Galactic H  i opacity in excess of 1–1.5 are determined in the direction of 3C 161 with a signal-to-noise ratio of at least 10σ. Possible fluctuations in the H  i opacity at the level of about 1 are detected at the  2.5–3σ  level in the direction of 3C 123.     

Extragalactic cosmic rays and the galactic magnetic field

The origin and behavior of cosmic rays in the Galaxy depends crucially upon whether the galactic magnetic field has a closed topology, as does the field of Earth, or whether a major fraction of the lines of force connect into extragalactic space. If the latter, then cosmic rays could be of extragalactic origin, or they could be of galactic origin, detained in the Galaxy by the scattering offered by hydromagnetic waves, etc. If, on the other hand, the field is largely closed, then cosmic rays cannot be of extragalactic origin (at least below 10¹⁶ eV). They must be of galactic origin and escape because their collective pressure inflates the galactic field and they push their way out.This paper examines the structure of a galactic field that opens initially into intergalactic space and, with the inclusion of turbulent diffusion, finds no possibility for maintaining a significant magnetic connection with an extragalactic field. Unless some mechanism can be found, we are forced to the conclusion that the field is closed, that cosmic rays are of galactic origin, and that cosmic rays escape from the Galaxy only by pushing their way out.     

Spectral measurements of galactic and extragalactic sources in the hard X-ray region of 20-200 keV using balloon borne telescope

The spectral and temporal measurements in the hard X-ray region between 20-200 keV not only determines the extended behaviour of thermal X-ray spectrum below 10 keV but also provide a unique insight into the non-thermal processes in relativistic astrophysical plasma. From our present understanding of the X-ray sources, a significant fluxin the 20-200 keV band is expected from a variety of astrophysical phenomena, however, the available spectral data on the galactic and extragalactic X-ray source is very limited. This is mainly due to the fact that sensitivity of the detector systems used for earlier measurements was relatively poor. Since 1997, we have been carrying out a programme of hard X-ray observations galactic and extragalactic sources, in the 20-200 keV energy band using a highly sensitive balloon borne experiment. The X-ray telescope consists of three modules of large area scintillation counters specially configured in the back-to-back geometry and have a combined sensitivity of ∼ 10^-6 ph cm^-2 s^-1 keV^-1 for an on-source observations of 3 hrs. A total of 30 hours of ceiling data above an altitude of 3 mbar has been collected in 4 successful balloon flights from Hyderabad, India. Almost a dozen galactic and extragalactic X-ray sources were targeted and tracked during these observations. A positive detection was made in each case and in some cases the observed spectra extended right up to 150 keV. A brief account of the observed spectral and temporal features on some of the sources along with accurate measurement of diffuse background spectrum and a weak gamma ray burst will be presented in the paper. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.