Mutual occultations and eclipses of the Galilean satellites of Jupiter in 1997: Astrometric results of observations

In 2006, a complete database of the international campaign on photometric observations of the Galilean satellites of Jupiter in the 1997 epoch of mutual occultations and eclipses was published. Only two thirds of the observations were considered by other authors beforehand. In this study, we have processed the whole observational database with an original technique in order to obtain the astrometric data. We determined 301 relative positions of the satellites from photometric observations performed at 50 observatories around the world. The results are put into a common database of all observations of the natural planetary satellites called the Natural Satellites Data Center (NSDC) available on the Internet site http://www.sai.msu.ru/neb/nss/index.htm. The influence of random and systematic errors on the accuracy of determining the coordinates of satellites has been analyzed. It has been shown that the largest systematic errors are caused by inaccurate elimination of the background of the photometric measurements and by the erroneous data on the albedo of satellites. The actual accuracy of astrometric results is 0.05″ and 0.07″ in right ascension and declination, respectively. New recommendations for photometric observations of satellites during the considered phenomena have been developed in order to avoid the systematic errors.     

Evolution of orbits and encounters of distant planetary satellites. Study tools and examples

This study of the orbital evolution and encounters of distant satellites of planets is aimed at determining their origin. It is also important for understanding the distribution of matter in the early stages of evolution of the Solar System. The mutual encounter of satellites is very weak because of their small sizes and masses. However, at very large time intervals, mutual encounter can be quite close to significantly changing the orbits of satellites. In order to study these factors, we have developed a special method and computer programs. For 107 distant satellites of Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune, motion parameters have been determined using observational data. On the basis of these parameters, a numerical integration of the equations of motion of the satellites has been carried out in time intervals of several thousand years. Using the original method of frequency analysis, we found rather simple analytical functions that correspond to the results of the numerical integration and make it possible to calculate orbital parameters at any time during a long interval. These tools make it possible to conduct extensive studies of changes in the form and relative position in space of the orbits of distant satellites of Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune. Several examples illustrate the possibilities offered by these tools. The computer software in the form of a service ephemeris of satellite orbits over a long interval of time is available via the Internet (http://www.sai.msu.ru/neb/nss/evolu0e.htm) on the website of the State Astronomical Institute of the Moscow State University.     

Astrometric results of observations at Russian observatories of mutual occultations and eclipses of Jupiter’s Galilean satellites in 2009

In 2009, in five Russian observatories photometric observations of Jupiter’s Galilean satellites during their mutual occultations and eclipses were carried out. Based on these observations, an original method was used to ascertain astrometric results such as the difference between the coordinates of pairs of satellites. Fifty-three phenomena were successfully observed. A total of 94 light curves of satellites were measured. The error in the coordinates of satellites due to random errors in photometry, calculated on all data obtained, was 0.041″ in right ascension and 0.046″ in declination. The discrepancies between the theory and observations in these coordinates was found to be 0.060″ and 0.057″, respectively. The results were uploaded to the common database for all observations of natural satellites of planets at the Natural Satellites Data Center (NSDC), which is available online at http://www.sai.msu.ru/neb/nss/index.htm. For the first time in the practice of photometric observations of satellites in epochs of mutual occultations and eclipses a new method of observation was tested, which eliminates from astrometric results the major systematic errors caused by an inaccurate account of the background level. The tests were conducted in the Terskol Observatory and the observatory of the Crimean laboratory of the Sternberg State Astronomical Institute of the Moscow State University. The application of the new method showed that the elimination of the background level at these observatories was carried out correctly.     

Photographic observations of Saturn’s moons at the MAO NAS of Ukraine in 1961–1990

A catalog of 1385 astrometric positions of Saturn’s moons S2–S9 has been compiled with Tycho-2 as a reference frame from photographic observations obtained at the Main Astronomical Observatory, National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, in 1961–1990. Astronegatives have been digitized with an Epson Expression 10000XL commercial scanner in 16-bit grayscale with a resolution of 1200 dpi. Reduction has been performed in the LINUX-MIDAS-ROMAFOT software supplemented with additional modules. The internal positional accuracy of the reduction is 0.09…0.23′′ for both coordinates and 0.27…0.37^m for the photographic magnitudes of the Tycho-2 catalog. The calculated topocentric positions of the moons are compared online with the IMCCE ephemeris data (DE405 + TASS1,7). Moon-minus-moon differential coordinates are found for most of the moons and compared with theoretical data (http://lnfm1.sai.msu.ru/neb/nss/nssephmr.htm).     

Inclined asymmetric librations in exterior resonances

Librational motion in Celestial Mechanics is generally associated with the existence of stable resonant configurations and signified by the existence of stable periodic solutions and oscillation of critical (resonant) angles. When such an oscillation takes place around a value different than 0 or \(\pi \), the libration is called asymmetric. In the context of the planar circular restricted three-body problem, asymmetric librations have been identified for the exterior mean motion resonances (MMRs) 1:2, 1:3, etc., as well as for co-orbital motion (1:1). In exterior MMRs the massless body is the outer one. In this paper, we study asymmetric librations in the three-dimensional space. We employ the computational approach of Markellos (Mon Not R Astron Soc 184:273–281,  https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/184.2.273, 1978) and compute families of asymmetric periodic orbits and their stability. Stable asymmetric periodic orbits are surrounded in phase space by domains of initial conditions which correspond to stable evolution and librating resonant angles. Our computations were focused on the spatial circular restricted three-body model of the Sun–Neptune–TNO system (TNO = trans-Neptunian object). We compare our results with numerical integrations of observed TNOs, which reveal that some of them perform 1:2 resonant, inclined asymmetric librations. For the stable 1:2 TNO librators, we find that their libration seems to be related to the vertically stable planar asymmetric orbits of our model, rather than the three-dimensional ones found in the present study.     

Reduction of photographic observations of asteroids to the reference frame of a single catalog

In 2000, the last international program of photographic observations of selected asteroids aimed at the determination of the mutual orientation of the dynamic and stellar coordinate systems came to an end. The Institute of Applied Astronomy of the Russian Academy of Sciences collected more than 25 000 observations for 15 asteroids spanning from 1949 through 1995. These observations were reduced to the reference frame of the Hipparcos catalog using dependencies published along with observations. The accuracy of observations of selected asteroids was 0.30 arcsec, which is comparable to that of modern CCD observations of minor planets. The observations are available at ftp://quasar.ipa.nw.ru/pub/SMP. An important advantage of these observations is that they are already reduced to the reference frame of a single catalog. Our criteria for the quality of the reduction methods and the accuracy of the observations are based on estimating the parameters of the orientation of the reference frames of the PPM and Hipparcos catalogs with respect to DE200/LE200. The most reliable results are those obtained when reducing old optical observations along with modern ground-based and space-borne observations.     

Pulkovo astrometric observations of bodies in the Solar system from 1898 to 2005: Observational database

We provide an overview of the main results obtained as part of the programs for astrometric observations of bodies in the Solar system at the Pulkovo Observatory over the period 1898–2005. We summarize the results of photographic observations and show new possibilities for astrometric observations in connection with the transition to CCD detectors on Pulkovo instruments. Observing and data reduction techniques are considered. A database with Pulkovo observations of bodies in the Solar system has been created and opened to users. The database is accessible at http://www.puldb.ru.     

Study and application of the resonant secular dynamics beyond Neptune

We use a secular representation to describe the long-term dynamics of transneptunian objects in mean-motion resonance with Neptune. The model applied is thoroughly described in Saillenfest et al. (Celest Mech Dyn Astron, doi: 10.1007/s10569-016-9700-5, 2016). The parameter space is systematically explored, showing that the secular trajectories depend little on the resonance order. High-amplitude oscillations of the perihelion distance are reported and localised in the space of the orbital parameters. In particular, we show that a large perihelion distance is not a sufficient criterion to declare that an object is detached from the planets. Such a mechanism, though, is found unable to explain the orbits of Sedna or \(2012\text {VP}_{113}\), which are insufficiently inclined (considering their high perihelion distance) to be possibly driven by such a resonant dynamics. The secular representation highlights the existence of a high-perihelion accumulation zone due to resonances of type 1:k with Neptune. That region is found to be located roughly at \(a\in [100;300]\) AU, \(q\in [50;70]\) AU and \(I\in [30;50]^{\circ }\). In addition to the flux of objects directly coming from the Scattered Disc, numerical simulations show that the Oort Cloud is also a substantial source for such objects. Naturally, as that mechanism relies on fragile captures in high-order resonances, our conclusions break down in the case of a significant external perturber. The detection of such a reservoir could thus be an observational constraint to probe the external Solar System.     

The status of spectroscopic data for the exoplanet characterisation missions

The status of laboratory spectroscopic data for exoplanet characterisation missions such as EChO is reviewed. For many molecules (eg H ₂O, CO, CO ₂, H\(_{3}^{+}\), O ₂, O ₃) the data are already available. For the other species work is actively in progress constructing this data. Much of the is work is being undertaken by ExoMol project (www.?exomol.?com). This information can be used to construct a mission-specific spectroscopic database.     

GOCK-2005: Catalog of positions and orbital elements of geosynchronous space objects

We describe the GOCK-2005 catalog (Geosynchronous Objects Catalog: Kyiv) which contains the topocentric equatorial coordinates and orbital elements of geosynchronous satellites obtained by the photographic technique at the Main Astronomical Observatory NASU in 2002 (http://www.mao.kiev.ua/ast/astron.htm). On the whole, there are 176 observations of 57 objects, among which 20 objects were identified from 98 observations.     

Validation of the CME Geomagnetic Forecast Alerts Under the COMESEP Alert System

Under the European Union 7th Framework Programme (EU FP7) project Coronal Mass Ejections and Solar Energetic Particles (COMESEP, http://comesep.aeronomy.be ), an automated space weather alert system has been developed to forecast solar energetic particles (SEP) and coronal mass ejection (CME) risk levels at Earth. The COMESEP alert system uses the automated detection tool called Computer Aided CME Tracking (CACTus) to detect potentially threatening CMEs, a drag-based model (DBM) to predict their arrival, and a CME geoeffectiveness tool (CGFT) to predict their geomagnetic impact. Whenever CACTus detects a halo or partial halo CME and issues an alert, the DBM calculates its arrival time at Earth and the CGFT calculates its geomagnetic risk level. The geomagnetic risk level is calculated based on an estimation of the CME arrival probability and its likely geoeffectiveness, as well as an estimate of the geomagnetic storm duration. We present the evaluation of the CME risk level forecast with the COMESEP alert system based on a study of geoeffective CMEs observed during 2014. The validation of the forecast tool is made by comparing the forecasts with observations. In addition, we test the success rate of the automatic forecasts (without human intervention) against the forecasts with human intervention using advanced versions of the DBM and CGFT (independent tools available at the Hvar Observatory website, http://oh.geof.unizg.hr ). The results indicate that the success rate of the forecast in its current form is unacceptably low for a realistic operation system. Human intervention improves the forecast, but the false-alarm rate remains unacceptably high. We discuss these results and their implications for possible improvement of the COMESEP alert system.     

<Emphasis Type="SmallCaps">pacce</Emphasis>: Perl algorithm to compute continuum and equivalent widths

We present Perl Algorithm to Compute continuum and Equivalent Widths (pacce). We describe the methods used in the computations and the requirements for its usage. We compare the measurements made with pacce and “manual” ones made using iraf splot task. These tests show that for synthetic simple stellar population (SSP) models the equivalent widths strengths are very similar (differences ?0.2 Å) for both measurements. In real stellar spectra, the correlation between both values is still very good, but with differences of up to 0.5 Å. pacce is also able to determine mean continuum and continuum at line center values, which are helpful in stellar population studies. In addition, it is also able to compute the uncertainties in the equivalent widths using photon statistics. The code is made available for the community through the web at http://www.if.ufrgs.br/~riffel/software.html.     

A method for a short-term forecast of the absorbed dose accumulation dynamics on the international space station based on radiation monitoring system data

Many papers are devoted to the prediction of radiation conditions on board of a spacecraft (Pichkhadze et al., 2004; Khamidullina et al., 2008; 2012), and a number of software systems for corresponding calculations have been developed: the US information system CREME96 (https://creme.isde.vander-bilt.edu/); European SPENVIS (http://www.spenvis.oma.be/intro.php); Russian SEREIS (Kuznetsov et al., 2001; Model’ kosmosa, 2007) and COSRAD (http://cosrad.sinp.msu.ru/manual.html; Kuznetsov et al., 2011) based on the models of the radiation environment in near-Earth space (Bashkirov et al., 1998; Nymmik, 2004; Model’ kosmosa, 2007; Kuznetsov et al., 2011). In this paper we propose a simple calculation algorithm of short-term (for a few days) forecasting of dynamics of the radiation dose on the International Space Station (ISS) in radiation environment undisturbed by solar proton events. This algorithm does not use radiation environment models and detailed ballistic calculations, while it uses data of the onboard radiation monitoring system (RMS) and empirical relations, obtained for ISS orbital motion.     

Atronomical CCD observations of the main Saturn’s satellites at Pulkovo Observatory in 2004–2007

The results of astrometric observations of Saturn’s satellites (S1–S8) obtained using a 26-inch refractor and a normal astrograph at Pulkovo Observatory in 2004–2007 are given. High-accuracy equatorial coordinates of Saturn’s satellites in the system of the UCAC2 reference catalog and the relative “satellite-satellite” positions suitable for specifying their motion theories are obtained. The observations are compared with the DE405 + TASS1.7 and INPOP06 + TASS1.7 theories of motion. The root-mean-square errors of the obtained satellite positions lie within the range of 10–50 mas, as far as the intrinsic convergence is concerned, and 20–70 mas, as far as the extrinsic one is concerned. The observation results are included into the astrometrical database of the Pulkovo Observatory (www.puldb.ru).     

The peculiar cluster MACS J0417.5-1154 in the C and X-bands

We present 5.5 and 9.0 GHz Australia Telescope Compact Array (ATCA) observations of the cluster MACSJ0417.5-1154, one of the most massive galaxy clusters and one of the brightest in X-ray in the Massive Cluster Survey (MACS). We estimate diffuse emission at 5.5 and 9.0 GHz from our ATCA observations, and compare the results with the 235 MHz and 610 MHz GMRT observations and 1575 MHz VLA observations. We also estimate the diffuse emission at low frequencies from existing GLEAM survey data (using the MWA telescope (http://www.mwatelescope.org)), and find that the steepening reported in earlier studies may have been an artefact of underestimates of diffuse emission at low frequencies. High-frequency radio observations of galaxy cluster mergers therefore provide an important complement to low-frequency observations, not only for a probing the ‘on’ and ‘off’ state of radio halos in these mergers, but also to constrain energetics of cluster mergers. We comment on the future directions that further studies of this cluster can take.     

The two-body interaction potential in the STF tensor formalism: an application to binary asteroids

The symmetric trace free (STF) tensor formalism, developed by Hartmann et al. (Celest Mech Dyn Astron 60:139–159. doi:10.1007/BF00693097, 1994), is a nice tool, not much used in Celestial Mechanics. It is fully equivalent to the usual spherical harmonics but permits more elegant and compact formulations. The coupling between the gravitational fields of extended bodies with this formalism has been used in Mathis and Le Poncin-Lafitte (Astron Astrophys 497:889–910. doi:10.1051/0004-6361/20079054, 2009) for binary stars or planetary systems, but not yet applied to binary asteroids. However, binary asteroids are common in the Solar System and usually their study requires a full two rigid body approach. The formulation of the two-body interaction potential in the STF formalism in the full two rigid body problem is detailed and completed in this article. An application to the binary asteroid (66391) 1999 KW4 is presented with a comparison of our results with other results of the literature for validation.     

Orbits of new outer planetary satellites based on observations

More than 70 new distant satellites of major planets have been discovered over the past five years. Until recently, the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in the USA was the only institution that modeled the motion of these satellites based on observational data and computed their ephemerides. New independent computations are needed to ensure the reliability and to assess the accuracy of satellite ephemerides. In this paper, the results of our determination of orbital parameters for 73 new distant satellites of major planets based on all available observations are reported and the adopted model of perturbing forces acting on a satellite is described. The satellite motions are computed via numerical integration. A special program—an ephemeris server—is used to compute the ephemerides of satellites, which are freely available to any user on the Internet at http://lnfm1.sai.msu.ru/neb/nss/index.htm. The server offers ample choice in terms of the form and composition of the ephemerides produced. The paper gives examples of deviations of the theory from observations and comparisons of our results with JPL ephemerides. Standard deviations of observational results from the theory are equal to 0.3–0.5 for most of the satellites. A comparison of our models of the motion of satellites with those developed at JPL shows that deviations in topocentric coordinates do not exceed 0.01 over a six-year interval.__________Translated from Astronomicheskii Vestnik, Vol. 39, No. 2, 2005, pp. 128–140.Original Russian Text Copyright © 2005 by Emelyanov, Kanter.     

The Astro-WISE approach to quality control for astronomical data

We present a novel approach to quality control during the processing of astronomical data. Quality control in the Astro-WISE Information System is integral to all aspects of data handing and provides transparent access to quality estimators for all stages of data reduction from the raw image to the final catalog. The implementation of quality control mechanisms relies on the core features in this Astro-WISE Environment (AWE): an object-oriented framework, full data lineage, and both forward and backward chaining. Quality control information can be accessed via the command-line awe-prompt and the web-based Quality-WISE service. The quality control system is described and qualified using archive data from the 8-CCD Wide Field Imager (WFI) instrument (http://www.eso.org/lasilla/instruments/wfi/) on the 2.2-m MPG/ESO telescope at La Silla and (pre-)survey data from the 32-CCD OmegaCAM instrument (http://www.astro-wise.org/~omegacam/) on the VST telescope at Paranal.     

Computation of Non-Maxwellian Electron Excitation Rates for Ions of Astrophysical Interest: Fe <Emphasis Type="SmallCaps">xv</Emphasis> – A Test Case

Dzif?áková previously developed a method for calculating the influence of nonthermal electron-velocity distributions on the intensities of spectral lines (Solar Phys. 234, 243, 2006; In: Lacoste, H., Ouwehand, L. (eds.) SOHO-17. 10 Years of SOHO and Beyond, SP-617, ESA, Noordwijk, 89, 2006). Here, we study this method in detail for the test case: Fe?xv. It involves fitting a parametric form to the electron-excitation data in the CHIANTI atomic database. We assess the reliability of these fits by comparing them with the source atomic data, both Upsilons (Maxwellian-averaged collision strengths) and the original collision strengths. An accuracy for the method of better than 15% is deduced for all transitions, with a much higher accuracy than this for the strong electric-dipole transitions. A κ-distribution, which has an increased number of electrons in the high-energy tail of the distribution, is considered as an example. The shape of the κ-distribution affects the electron-excitation rate and thus the relative intensities of the spectral lines. Since the shape of the electron distribution function also influences the ionization balance of Fe, both effects change the final intensities of the lines. Synthetic spectra for Fe?xv and Fe?xvi in the wavelength range 50?–?80 Å are presented for a κ-distribution and compared with solar observations.