Book Reviews

Book reviewed in this article: Rocks from Space: Meteorites and Meteorite Hunters by O. R. Norton Geochemical Reference Material Compositions by P. J. Potts, A. G. Tindle and P. C. Webb Crystallography in Modern Chemistry: A Resource Book of Crystal Structures by Thomas C. W. Mak and Gong-Du Zhou Stardust to Planets: A Geological Tour of the Solar System by H. Y. McSween     

Book and Multimedia Reviews

Book reviewed in this article: Encyclopedia of Mineral Names by William H. Blackburn and William H. Dennen. Radiogenic Isotope Geology by A. P. Dickin Evolution of Hydrothermal Ecosystems on Earth (and Mars?) edited by Gregory R. Bock and Jamie A. Goode The Strange Case of Mrs. Hudson's Cat: And Other Science Mysteries Solved by Sherlock Holmes by Colin Bruce Astrophysical Implications of the Laboratory Study of PreSolar Materials edited by Thomas Bernatowicz and Ernst Zinner     

Sun,Solar System,Stars, Interstellar Matter,Galaxy, Extragalactic Systems,Instruments, History of Astronomy

P01 Calibrations on DSS‐II Plates P02 High‐Resolution Near‐Infrared Speckle Interferometry and Radiative Transfer Modeling of the OH/IR star OH 26.5 + 0.6 P03 Mid‐infrared long‐baseline interferometry of the symbiotic Mira star RX Pup with the VLTI/MIDI instrument P04 N₂D⁺ abundance in high mass star forming regions P05Causal Viscosity in Accretion Disc Boundary layers P06 Planetesimals in protoplanetary disks P07 Star Clusters in the Large Magellanic Cloud P08 Is there a universal mass function? P09 On CO cooling in dense molecular clouds P10 An unbiased search for molecular clumpuscules P11 Vertical structure of accretion disks P12 A New Data Acquisition System and User Control Program for CCD Cameras at “Hoher List” Observatory P13 Tracing the Photon Dominated Region around DR21 with CO, CI, CII, and OI emission P14 Time resolved spectroscopy of CI Aql P15 Empirical Color Transformations between SDSS Photometry and Other Photometric Systems P16 V4332 Sgr P17 Low rotation velocities of white dwarfs from the CaII K line P18 E‐Learning in Astronomy P19 RR Lyrae stars: Kinematics, orbits and z‐distribution P20 New developments on the field of chemically peculiar stars in the milky way and the LMC P21 Large‐scale CO Mapping of the CEPHEUS Giant Molecular Cloud using KOSMA P22 HoLiCS II – The “Hoher List Control System” II P23 88 GHz “Holotransmitter” for the Nanten2 Telescope P24 Comet Astrometry – Tracing the last witnesses of the solar system's childhood P25 Considerations on the spectral appearance of M‐type brown dwarfs P26 Photon Dominated Region Modelling of Barnard 68 P27 A New Versatile Multichannel CCD‐Controller for BUSCA P28 High Precision “Bonn Shutters” for the largest CCD Mosaic Cameras P29 High‐Resolution Near‐Infrared Speckle Interferometry and Radiative Transfer Modeling of the OH/IR star OH 104.9 + 2.4 P30 A new Doppler image of the weak‐line T Tauri star V410 Tauri P31 Improving our knowledge on open cluster radial velocities P32 The Distribution of MSX Infrared Dark Clouds in the inner Milky Way P33 Was the Early Earth shielded from UV by Ozone produced from the Smog Mechanism? P34 Structure Analysis of the CO data in the Perseus clouds P35 Evidence for Turbulence in the Velocity Fields of Perseus Cores P36 Dust‐driven Winds and Their Resulting Mass Loss at Subsolar Metallicity P37 Two adjacent gigantic (∼9°) IRAS filaments of bipolar morphology: An almost invisible pair P38 A new optical filament of the Monogem Ring P39 The Far Ultraviolet Spectroscopic Explorer Survey of OVI Emission in the Milky Way     

The Mark IV Nançay radioheliograph

A multi-frequency capability has been added to the north-south array of the Nançay Radioheliograph, providing observations at up to five frequencies between 150 and 450 MHz with time resolution 0.1 s. The projected position, brightness and dimension of sources in the solar corona can thus be studied as a function of height. Two-dimensional information is obtained at 164 MHz using the east-west and north-south arrays. In addition, the quiescent corona can be mapped in two dimensions at all observed frequencies by earth rotation synthesis. The paper describes the new aspects of the antennae, the receiver frontend, the data acquisition and the calibration procedure. The performances of the instrument are illustrated with multi-frequency observations of solar fast-drift bursts, continuum emission and maps of the quiet corona.Meudon: Y. Avignon, J. Bonmartin, A. Bouteille, B. Clavelier, E. Hulot, M. P. Issartel, A. Kerdraon, K.-L. Klein, P. Lantos, C. Mercier, M. Pick, A. Raoult, D. Rigaud, G. Trottet, N. Vilmer. Nançay: C. Chantelat, M. Chapuis, Y. Chapuis, A. Coffre, C. Couteret, B. Darchy, P. Guéniau, D. Lalardie, P. Picard, R. Tocqueville.     

Book and Multimedia Reviews

Book reviewed in this article: Geochronology and Thermochronology by the ⁴⁰Ar/³⁹Ar Method: Second Edition by Ian McDougall and T. Mark Harrison. Protostars and Planets IV edited by V. Mannings, A. P. Boss, and S. S. Russell. The Star Formation Newsletter edited by Bo Reipurth. Astronomical Origins of Life: Steps Towards Panspermia by F. Hoyle and N. C. Wickramasinghe. Here Be Dragons: The Scientific Quest for Extraterrestrial Life by David Koerner and Simon LeVay.     

Book Reviews

Book reviewed in this article: Discovering the Secrets of the Sun by Rudolf Kippenhahn. Protostars and Planets III (eds. E. Levy, J. I. Lunine and M. S. Matthews). Nobel Prize Women in Science: Their Lives, Struggles and Momentous Discoveries by Sharon Bertsch McGrayne. WinMetCat (V. 1.0) Electronic Catalogue of Meteorites and Meteorite Craters by B. Booz, B. Pauli, and R. W. Bühler. Swiss Meteorite Laboratory, P. O. Box 126, CH-8750, Glarus, Switzerland, 1994, sfr 490 (update: sfr 90). MetBase (V. 1.0), Meteorite Data Retrieval Program by J. Koblitz Asteroids, Comets, Meteors 1993: Proceedings of the 160th Symposium of the International Astronomical Union (eds. A. Milani, M. Di Martino and A. Cellino).     

PREDICTING MARTIAN AND VENUSIAN METEOR SHOWER ACTIVITY

Based on the number of planet-approaching cometary orbits at Mars and Venus relative to the Earth, there should be ample opportunities for observing meteor activity at those two planets. The ratio of planet-approaching Jupiter family comets (JFCs) at Mars, Earth, and Venus is 4:2:1 indicating that JFC-related outbursts would be more frequent at Mars than the Earth. The relative numbers of planet-approaching Halley-type comets (HTCs) implies that the respective levels of annual meteor activity at those three planets are similar. We identify several instances where near-comet outbursts (Jenniskens, P.: 1995, Astron. Astrophys. 295, 206–235) may occur. A possible double outburst of this type at Venus related to 45P/Honda-Mrkos-Padjusakova may be observable by the ESA Venus Express spacecraft in the summer of 2006. Similarly, the Japanese Planet-C Venus orbiter may observe an outburst related to 27P/Crommelin’s perihelion passage in July 2011. Several additional opportunities exist to observe such outbursts at Mars from 2019 to 2026 associated with comets 38P/Stephan-Oterma, 13P/Olbers and 114P/Wiseman-Skiff.     

Secular light curve of Comet 28P/Neujmin 1 and of spacecraft target Comets 1P/Halley, 9P/Tempel 1, 19P/Borrelly, 21P/Giacobinni-Zinner, 26P/Grigg-Skjellerup, 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, and 81P/Wild 2

We present the secular light curves of eight comets listed in the title. Two plots per comet are needed to study these objects: a reduced magnitude (to Δ=1 AU = geocentric distance) vs time, and a reduced magnitude vs LogR (R=heliocentric distance). A total of over 16 new parameters, are measured from both plots, and give an unprecedented amount of information to characterize these objects: the onset of sublimation (RON), the offset of sublimation (ROFF), the time lag at perihelion (LAG), the absolute magnitude (m(1,1)), the maximum magnitude at perihelion (mMAX(1,LAG)), the nuclear magnitudes (VN), the amplitude of the secular light curve (ASEC), plus several others, and the photometric functions needed to describe the envelope. The most significant findings of this investigation are: (a) The envelope of the observations is the best representation of the secular light curve. (b) The H10 photometric system is unable to explain the curves and a new set of photometric rules and functions is used. (c) Only four comets exhibit power laws in their secular light curves, and only partially: 1P, 19P, 21P, and 81P. All others have to be described by more complex functions. Of the four, three exhibit a break of the power law, requiring two laws pre-perihelion and one post-perihelion. The reason for this behavior is not understood. (d) We predict the existence of a photometric anomaly in the secular light curve of 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, evidenced by a region of diminished activity from −119 to −6 days before perihelion, that might be interpreted as a topographic effect or the turn off of an active region. (e) We define a photometric parameter (P-AGE) that attempts to measure the relative age of a comet through the activity exhibited in the secular light curve. 81P/Wild 2 (a comet that has recently entered the inner Solar System) is confirmed as a young object, while 28P/Neujmin 1 is confirmed as a very old comet. (f) Arranging the comets by P-AGE also classifies them by shape. A preliminary classification is achieved. (g) The old controversy of what is a nuclear magnitude is clearly resolved.     

Ammonia images near objects with class 0 spectral energy distributions

The distribution of the sources of the Gamma-Ray Bursts (GRBs) recorded by the CGRO experiment is uniform for all directions in the sky, while the behaviour of the log N-log P suggests a space distribution of the events not homogeneous. The cosmological model can explain this result, but it cannot explain the presence of cyclotron lines in the burst energy spectra that has been observed by many experiments: the soviet KONUS experiment onboard VENERA probes, the Japanese GRBM experiment onboard GINGA satellite and, for only one candidate burst fortuitously observed, by the USA experiment A4 onboard HEAO1 satellite. In order to shed more light on this problem we present a new study of the log N-log P of the Gamma-Ray Bursts of the second BATSE catalogue.     

The solar system abundances of phosphorus and titanium and the nebular volatility of phosphorus

Abstract— The bulk chemical composition of Orgueil and 25 other carbonaceous chondrites was determined by x‐ray fluorescence analysis. The sample sizes of the analyzed meteorites were in all cases 120 mg. The abundances of P and Ti in Orgueil and Ivuna were precisely determined by the standard addition method. The new P CI abundance is 926 ± 65 ppm. Excluding the low P of Ivuna and one Orgueil sample with unusual chemistry gives a CI P content of 930 ± 23 ppm. A CI abundance of 926 ppm corresponds to a P/Si wt ratio of 8.66 times 10^?3 (atomic ratio 7.85 times 10^?3). For Ti a CI content of 458 ± 18 ppm and a Ti/Si wtratio of 4.28 times 10^?3 (atomic ratio 2.51 times 10^?3) were found. A Si content of 10.69% was obtained for average CI. The new P CI abundance is 20 to 30% below earlier estimates, while the Ti CI abundance is in agreement with earlier determinations. From the results of the analyses of bulk carbonaceous chondrites it is concluded: (1) Refractory element/Mg ratios increase from CI through CM and C3O to C3V, but ratios among Al, Ca and Ti are constant, except for low Ca/Al ratios in the reduced subgroup of C3V. (2) The Si/Mg ratios are constant in all groups of carbonaceous chondrites. (3) There is a volatility related depletion of Cr and Fe, but the Cr/Fe ratios are constant. (4) The sequence of volatility related depletions of the moderately volatile elements P, Au, As, Mn, and Zn follows condensation temperatures (except for As), if in condensation calculations non‐ideal solid solution in the host phase is considered.     

Protostellar Collapse Induced by Compression

We present numerical simulations of the evolution of low-mass, isothermal, molecular cores which are subjected to an increase in external pressure. If the external pressure increases very slowly, the core approaches instability quite quasi-statically. However, for faster compressions, a compression wave is driven into the core (Hennebelle, P., Whitworth, A., Gladwin, P. and André, P.: 2003a MNRAS 340, 870). Quantitative comparisons with observational velocity and density profiles are presented. The consequences of this compression for the fragmentation of the cloud is investigated and discussed.     

A comparison between simultaneous I.P.D.P. groundbased observations and observations of energetic protons obtained by satellites

A study of simultaneous groundbased observations of I.P.D.P. (intervals of pulsation of diminishing period) magnetic field fluctuation events and satellite observations of energetic protons have been performed. Some of our results are as follows. (1) The region of I.P.D.P. occurrence is always located equatorward of the isotropic proton precipitation. (2) The I.P.D.P. generation is not connected with the poleward leap of the aurora and the poleward expansion of the precipitating protons. (3) In the evening to afternoon sector enhanced pitch angle scattering is found near L = 4 during I.P.D.P. events, earlier shown to be associated with ion cyclotron resonance. (4) I.P.D.P. events seem to be associated with increased fluxes of (40–60) keV protons injected during substorms near the plasmapause in the equatorial plane.In order to explain the observations we invoke the following model: at substorm onset ring current protons are injected deep into the nightside magnetosphere covering a certain region in L and L.T., with the inner edge of the proton population following McIlwain's injection boundary. The protons drift azimuthally westward and generate ion cyclotron waves in a certain L interval at or inside the plasmapause. By taking into account the shape and position of the plasmapause and the injection boundary, the exterrt and position of the wave generating region can be determined. The frequency-time dispersion of the I.P.D.P. is largely attributed to the L-dependent drift velocity of protons in a narrow energy band. The model is able to explain the observations during several individual events. Also, the model predicts the general trends that have been found by statistical analysis of I.P.D.P. events and accounts for the constant frequency observed by satellites during I.P.D.P. events.     

Dependence of DOLP on Coronal Electron Temperature,Speed, and Structure

We study the predictive capabilities of magnetic-feature properties (MF) generated by the Solar Monitor Active Region Tracker (SMART: Higgins et al. in Adv. Space Res. 47, 2105, 2011) for solar-flare forecasting from two datasets: the full dataset of SMART detections from 1996 to 2010 which has been previously studied by Ahmed et al. (Solar Phys. 283, 157, 2013) and a subset of that dataset that only includes detections that are NOAA active regions (ARs). The main contributions of this work are: we use marginal relevance as a filter feature selection method to identify the most useful SMART MF properties for separating flaring from non-flaring detections and logistic regression to derive classification rules to predict future observations. For comparison, we employ a Random Forest, Support Vector Machine, and a set of Deep Neural Network models, as well as lasso for feature selection. Using the linear model with three features we obtain significantly better results (True Skill Score: TSS = 0.84) than those reported by Ahmed et al. (Solar Phys. 283, 157, 2013) for the full dataset of SMART detections. The same model produced competitive results (TSS = 0.67) for the dataset of SMART detections that are NOAA ARs, which can be compared to a broader section of flare-forecasting literature. We show that more complex models are not required for this data.

     

On the orbits and masses of the satellites of the Pluto-Charon system

Two small satellites of Pluto, S/2005 P1 (hereafter P1) and S/2005 P2 (hereafter P2), have recently been discovered outside the orbit of Charon, and their orbits are nearly circular and nearly coplanar with that of Charon. Because the mass ratio of Charon-Pluto is ∼0.1, the orbits of P2 and P1 are significantly non-Keplerian even if P2 and P1 have negligible masses. We present an analytic theory, with P2 and P1 treated as test particles, which shows that the motion can be represented by the superposition of the circular motion of a guiding center, the forced oscillations due to the non-axisymmetric components of the potential rotating at the mean motion of Pluto-Charon, the epicyclic motion, and the vertical motion. The analytic theory shows that the azimuthal periods of P2 and P1 are shorter than the Keplerian orbital periods, and this deviation from Kepler's third law is already detected in the unperturbed Keplerian fit of Buie and coworkers. In this analytic theory, the periapse and ascending node of each of the small satellites precess at nearly equal rates in opposite directions. From direct numerical orbit integrations, we show the increasing influence of the proximity of P2 and P1 to the 3:2 mean-motion commensurability on their orbital motion as their masses increase within the ranges allowed by the albedo uncertainties. If the geometric albedos of P2 and P1 are high and of order of that of Charon, the masses of P2 and P1 are sufficiently low that their orbits are well described by the analytic theory. The variation in the orbital radius of P2 due to the forced oscillations is comparable in magnitude to that due to the best-fit Keplerian eccentricity, and there is at present no evidence that P2 has any significant epicyclic eccentricity. However, the orbit of P1 has a significant epicyclic eccentricity, and the prograde precession of its longitude of periapse with a period of 5300 days should be easily detectable. If the albedos of P2 and P1 are as low as that of comets, the large inferred masses induce significant short-term variations in the epicyclic eccentricities and/or periapse longitudes on the 400-500-day timescales due to the proximity to the 3:2 commensurability. In fact, for the maximum inferred masses, P2 and P1 may be in the 3:2 mean-motion resonance, with the resonance variable involving the periapse longitude of P1 librating. Observations that sample the orbits of P2 and P1 well on the 400-500-day timescales should provide strong constraints on the masses of P2 and P1 in the near future.     

Inhomogeneous model of the photosphere

A new method for the construction of empirical models of photosphere is developed starting with a first approximation called ‘multicolumn’. The old idea of two or three column models is thus kept but completed by the following ideas: - A good photograph of granulation is a fair representation of topological features along x and y. - Vertical distributions T(z), P(z) cannot be very much different from distributions given by stellar atmosphere models in radiative and hydrostatic equilibrium. The sampling interval (200 km) is such that a ‘granule’ is represented by 10 to 30 columns. Horizontal transfer is computed explicitly at each point. Corrections are introduced in the model but are not of significant importance: temperature differences of 1000 K or more at the same geometrical depth in the τ = 1 region are compatible with a life time of the order of 10 min. The importance of pressure is emphasized: significant pressure excess in the granule is suggested a priori. Results tend to confirm this hypothesis.     

Diameters and albedos of thirty-six asteroids

Radiometric diameters and albedos of 36 asteroids, most previously unmeasured by this technique, are reported. These objects were selected primarily to resolve taxonomic ambiguities resulting from the lack of albedo information. Of the sample of 36, most are of the common types C, S, and M, but also represented are types A, D, F, and P. One object, 214 Aschera, is of the rare E type (only the fourth of its kind known); 87 Sylvia is the largest known member of the P class; and albedo combined with Arizona eight-color data from Tholen (1983, Asteroid Taxonomy from Cluster Analysis of Photometry: Implications for Origin and Evolution of the Asteroid Belt. PhD dissertation, University of Arizona, Tucson) indicate that 336 Lacadiera is of type D, one of the few members of this class found in the main asteroid belt, and a prime candidate for future space missions.     

Observations of the solar corona in polarized white light during the total solar eclipse of February 16, 1980: Preliminary results

Photographic observations of the corona were made by a Belgian expedition to Kenya during the eclipse of 1980, February 16, using a polaroïd filter oriented in three directions 60 ° apart. The preliminary results of the reduced data are presented here; these results consist in the analysis of the three following parameters: total intensity, degree of polarization, direction of the electric vector. The local variation of these parameters reveals, among other features, a deep coronal hole at the south pole and peculiar streamer (P.A. 280 °) associated to a transient, (the so-called tennis racket) also observed by other teams, and a density enhancement at P.A. 200 °, possibly associated with a transient observed with the K-coronameter of the High Altitude Observatory 12 hr before the eclipse.     

Variability of radiation from the Crab Nebula

We consider variations of the radiation from the Crab Nebula in two energy ranges: X-rays (2–10 keV) and very-high-energy (>1 TeV) gamma rays. We demonstrate the presence of sine-shaped quasi-periodic variations in the X-ray range, with the period P = 862 d. A positive correlation was detected between variations of X-rays and gamma rays (the HEGRA data) with time.     

The size and thermal properties of the nucleus of Comet 22P/Kopff

We detected the nucleus of Comet 22P/Kopff at 4.87 AU from the Sun with the two IRS peak-up cameras of the Spitzer Space Telescope on April 19, 2007. Using the thermal model of [Groussin, O., and 15 colleagues, 2007. Icarus 187, 16-25], we derive a nucleus size of 1.89±0.16 km, in agreement with [Lamy, P., Toth, I., Jorda, L., Groussin, O., A'Hearn, M.F., Weaver, H.A., 2002. Icarus 156, 442-455], and a thermal inertia .     

Cometary dust properties retrieved from polarization observations: Application to C/1995 O1 Hale-Bopp and 1P/Halley

The analysis of the polarized light scattered by cometary dust particles provides information on the physical properties of the solid component of cometary comae for C/1995 O1 Hale-Bopp and 1P/Halley. A model of light scattering by a size distribution of aggregates of up to 256 submicron-sized grains (spherical or spheroidal) mixed with single spheroidal particles has been developed, with its parameters adjusted to fit the phase angle and wavelength dependence of the polarization observations. The particles are built of two materials: a non-absorbing silicates-type material and a more absorbing organic-type material. The model reproduces accurately the inversion angle and the positive branch of the polarization phase curves from the visible to the near-infrared spectral domains. A negative branch of the polarization phase curves appears in our model, although the negative branch is not deep enough to reproduce accurately the observations. Significant differences are shown between the two comets, with dominance of small grains in the coma of Comet C/1995 O1 Hale-Bopp, well fitted by a distribution of the volume-equivalent diameter, a, following a^−3.0 with a lower cutoff around 0.20 μm and an upper cutoff of at least 40 μm. For 1P/Halley, the size distribution follows a^−2.8 with a lower cutoff around 0.26 μm and an upper cutoff of about 38 μm. The relative amount of organic-type particles is larger for 1P/Halley while the amount of aggregates, significant for both comets, is larger for C/1995 O1 Hale-Bopp.