GAS PERMEABILITY OF SHOCKED CHONDRITES

The gas permeability of 11 ordinary chondrites was measured at various gas pressures (0.5-2.5 bars) under confining pressures up to 120 bars. The gas permeability ranges from less than a nanodarcy to a few millidarcies. There is a positive correlation between the permeability and the porosity. The permeability decreased by as much as 50% when the confining pressure was increased from 10 to 100 bars, suggesting that the permeability of some chondrites is partly due to cracks. A linear relation between gas flow pressure dependence and confining pressure dependence of the gas permeability is observed, suggesting that on average, crack apertures are larger than pore spaces. The permeability of heavily-shocked chondrites is less than that of mildly shocked chondrites. Using the measured permeability data we estimated the size of a possible shocked-chondrite precursor body.     

Numerical simulations of hot halo gas in galaxy mergers

Galaxy merger simulations have explored the behaviour of gas within the galactic disc, yet the dynamics of hot gas within the galaxy halo have been neglected. We report on the results of high-resolution hydrodynamic simulations of colliding galaxies with metal-free hot halo gas. To isolate the effect of the halo gas, we simulate only the dark matter halo and the hot halo gas over a range of mass ratios, gas fractions and orbital configurations to constrain the shocks and gas dynamics within the progenitor haloes. We find that (i) a strong shock is produced in the galaxy haloes before the first passage, increasing the temperature of the gas by almost an order of magnitude to   T ∼ 10^6.3 K  . (ii) The X-ray luminosity of the shock is strongly dependent on the gas fraction; it is  ≳10³⁹ erg s⁻¹  for halo gas fractions larger than 10 per cent. (iii) The hot diffuse gas in the simulation produces X-ray luminosities as large as  10⁴² erg s⁻¹  . This contributes to the total X-ray background in the Universe. (iv) We find an analytic fit to the maximum X-ray luminosity of the shock as a function of merger parameters. This fit can be used in semi-analytic recipes of galaxy formation to estimate the total X-ray emission from shocks in merging galaxies. (v) ∼10–20 per cent of the initial gas mass is unbound from the galaxies for equal-mass mergers, while 3–5 per cent of the gas mass is released for the 3:1 and 10:1 mergers. This unbound gas ends up far from the galaxy and can be a feasible mechanism to enrich the intergalactic medium with metals.     

Gas flow and dust acceleration in a cometary Knudsen layer

An analytical model of the innermost gas–dust coma region is proposed. The kinetic Knudsen layer adjacent to the surface of the cometary nucleus, where the initially non-equilibrium velocity distribution function of gas molecules relaxes to Maxwell equilibrium distribution function and, as a result, the macro-characteristics of gas and dust flows vary several-fold, is considered. The gas phase model is based on the equations for mass, momentum and energy flux conservation, and is a natural development of the Anisimov, 1968 and Cercignani, 1981 approaches. The analytical relations between the characteristics of the gas flow on the boundaries of the non-equilibrium layer and the characteristics of the returning gas flow adsorbed by the surface are determined. These values form a consistent basis both for hydrodynamic models of the inner coma and for jet force models. Three particular models are presented: (1) sublimation of a polyatomic one-component gas; (2) sublimation of a two-component polyatomic gas mixture, in both cases from a plane surface; and (3) sublimation of water ice through a porous dust mantle. We conclude that the characteristics of the gas flow emerging from the Knudsen layer over a porous dust mantle is not very sensitive to the structure of the mantle.We also treat the expansion of dust into the coma, concentrating on the interaction between a non-equilibrium gas flow and a test particle. The dynamics of a grain of idealized shape is explored by using several simplifying assumptions for the variation of the drag force. The velocity of a particle at the exterior boundary of the Knudsen layer is thus estimated. Examining various model behaviours of the drag force inside the Knudsen layer, we show that the dust velocity is not sensitive to these variations.     

A dynamical model for the extraplanar gas in spiral galaxies

Recent H  i observations reveal that the discs of spiral galaxies are surrounded by extended gaseous haloes. This extraplanar gas reaches large distances (several kiloparsecs) from the disc and shows peculiar kinematics (low rotation and inflow). We have modelled the extraplanar gas as a continuous flow of material from the disc of a spiral galaxy into its halo region. The output of our models is pseudo data cubes that can be directly compared to the H  i data. We have applied these models to two spiral galaxies (NGC 891 and NGC 2403) known to have a substantial amount of extraplanar gas. Our models are able to reproduce accurately the vertical distribution of extraplanar gas for an energy input corresponding to a small fraction (<4 per cent) of the energy released by supernovae. However, they fail in two important aspects: (1) they do not reproduce the right gradient in rotation velocity; (2) they predict a general outflow of the extraplanar gas, contrary to what is observed. We show that neither of these difficulties can be removed if clouds are ionized and invisible at 21 cm as they leave the disc but become visible at some point on their orbits. We speculate that these failures indicate the need for accreted material from the intergalactic medium that could provide the low angular momentum and inflow required.     

Active Galactic Nuclei Feedback and Clusters

The Intracluster Medium (ICM) is believed to have been affected by feedback from Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN) and/or supernovae-driven winds. These sources are supposed to have injected entropy into the ICM gas. The recently determined universal pressure profile of the ICM gas has been used and after comparing with the entropy profile of the gas from gravitational effects of the dark matter halo, the additional entropy injected by non-gravitational sources, as a function of the total cluster mass is determined. The current observational data of red-shift evolution of cluster scaling relation is shown that allow models in which the entropy injection decreases at high red-shift.     

Chemical and physical properties of gas jets in comets: I. Monte Carlo model of an inner cometary coma

We describe a 3-dimensional, time-dependent Monte Carlo model developed to analyze the chemical and physical nature of a cometary gas coma. Our model includes the necessary physics and chemistry to recreate the conditions applicable to Comet Hale-Bopp when the comet was near 1 AU from the Sun. Two base models were designed and are described here. The first is an isotropic model that emits particles (parents of the observed gases) from the entire nucleus; the second is a jet model that ejects parent particles solely from discrete active areas on the surface of the comet nucleus, resulting in coma jets. The two models are combined to produce the final model, which is compared with observations. The physical processes incorporated in both base models include: (1) isotropic ejection of daughter molecules (the observed gases) in the parent's frame of reference, (2) solar radiation pressure, (3) solar insolation effects, (4) collisions of daughter products with other molecules in the coma, and (5) acceleration of the gas in the coma. The observed daughter molecules are produced when a parent decays, which is represented by either an exponential decay distribution (photodissociation of the parent gas) or a triangular distribution (production from a grain extended source). Application of this model to the analysis the OH, C₂ and CN gas jets observed in the coma of Comet Hale-Bopp is the focus of the accompanying paper [Lederer, S.M., Campins, H., Osip, D.J., 2008. Icarus, in press (this issue)].     

Star formation around the H ii region Sh2-235

We present a picture of star formation around the H  ii region Sh2-235 (S235) based upon data on the spatial distribution of young stellar clusters and the distribution and kinematics of molecular gas around S235. We observed ¹³CO (1–0) and CS (2–1) emission toward S235 with the Onsala Space Observatory 20-m telescope and analysed the star density distribution with archival data from the Two Micron All-Sky Survey (2MASS). Dense molecular gas forms a shell-like structure at the southeastern part of S235. The young clusters found with 2MASS data are embedded in this shell. The positional relationship of the clusters, the molecular shell and the H  ii region indicates that expansion of S235 is responsible for the formation of the clusters. The gas distribution in the S235 molecular complex is clumpy, which hampers interpretation exclusively on the basis of the morphology of the star-forming region. We use data on kinematics of molecular gas to support the hypothesis of induced star formation, and distinguish three basic types of molecular gas components. The first type is primordial undisturbed gas of the giant molecular cloud, the second type is gas entrained in motion by expansion of the H  ii region (this is where the embedded clusters were formed) and the third type is a fast-moving gas, which might have been accelerated by winds from the newly formed clusters. The clumpy distribution of molecular gas and its kinematics around the H  ii region implies that the picture of triggered star formation around S235 can be a mixture of at least two possibilities: the 'collect-and-collapse' scenario and the compression of pre-existing dense clumps by the shock wave.     

Gravitational instability in the dust layer of a protoplanetary disk: Interaction of solid particles with turbulent gas in the layer

Gravitational instability of the dust layer formed after the aggregates of dust particles settle toward the midplane of a protoplanetary disk under turbulence is considered. A linearized system of hydrodynamic equations for perturbations of dust (monodisperse) and gas phases in the incompressible gas approximation is solved. Turbulent diffusion and the velocity dispersion of solid particles and the perturbation of gas azimuthal velocity in the layer upon the transfer of angular momentum from the dust phase due to gas drag are taken into account. Such an interaction of the particles and the gas establishes upper and lower bounds on the perturbation wavelength that renders the instability possible. The dispersion equation for the layer in the case when the ratio of surface densities of the dust phase and the gas in the layer is well above unity is obtained and solved. An approximate gravitational instability criterion, which takes the size-dependent stopping time of a particle (aggregate) in the gas into account, is derived. The following parameters of the layer instability are calculated: the wavelength range of its subsistence and the dependence of the perturbation growth rate on the perturbation wavelength in the circumsolar disk at a radial distance of 1 and 10 AU. It is demonstrated that at a distance of 1 AU, the gas–dust disk should be enriched with solids by a factor of 5–10 relative to the initial abundance as well as the particle aggregates should grow to the sizes higher than about 0.3 m in order for the instability to emerge in the layer in the available turbulence models. Such high disk enrichment and aggregate growth is not needed at a distance of 10 AU. The conditions under which this gravitational instability in the layer may be examined with no allowance made for the transfer of angular momentum from the gas in the layer to the gas in a protoplanetary disk outside the layer are discussed.     

The gas kinematics in the Mrk 533 nucleus and circumnuclear region: a gaseous outflow

We present an analysis of 3D spectra of Mrk 533, observed with the integral-field spectrograph MultiPupil Fiber Spectrograph (MPFS) and using the Fabry-Perot Interferometer (FPI) of the Special Astrophysical Observatory of the Russian Academy of Sciences (SAO RAS) 6-m telescope. We found emissions of gas from the active type 2 Seyfert nucleus in the centre and also from the H  ii regions in a spiral structure and a circumnuclear region. The gas kinematics shows regular non-circular motions in the wide range of galactocentric distances from 500 pc up to 15 kpc. The maps of inward and outward radial motions of the ionized gas were constructed. We found that the narrow-line region (NLR) is composed of at least two (probably three) kinematically separated regions. We detect a stratification in the NLR of Mrk 533 with the outflow velocity ranging from 20–50 km s⁻¹ to 600–700 km s⁻¹, respectively, on the radial distances of ∼2.5 and ∼1.5 kpc. The maximal outflow velocity comes from the nucleus and corresponds to the position of the observed radio structure, which is assumed to be created in an approaching jet. We suggest that these ionized gas outflows are triggered by the radio jet intrusion in an ambient medium.     

The opacity of spiral galaxy disks: IX. Dust and gas surface densities

Our aim is to explore the relation between gas, atomic and molecular, and dust in spiral galaxies. Gas surface densities are from atomic hydrogen and CO line emission maps. To estimate the dust content, we use the disk opacity as inferred from the number of distant galaxies identified in twelve HST/WFPC2 fields of ten nearby spiral galaxies. The observed number of distant galaxies is calibrated for source confusion and crowding with artificial galaxy counts and here we verify our results with sub‐mm surface brightnesses from archival Herschel ‐SPIRE data. We find that the opacity of the spiral disk does not correlate well with the surface density of atomic (H I) or molecular hydrogen (H₂) alone implying that dust is not only associated with the molecular clouds but also the diffuse atomic disk in these galaxies. Our result is a typical dust‐to‐gas ratio of 0.04, with some evidence that this ratio declines with galactocentric radius, consistent with recent Herschel results. We discuss the possible causes of this high dust‐to‐gas ratio; an over‐estimate of the dust surface‐density, an under‐estimate of the molecular hydrogen density from CO maps or a combination of both. We note that while our value of the mean dust‐to‐gas ratio is high, it is consistent with the metallicity at the measured radii if one assumes the Pilyugin & Thuan (2005) calibration of gas metallicity. (© 2013 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

Gas flow in the solar nebula leading to the formation of Jupiter

Three-dimensional gas flow in the solar nebula, which is subject to the gravity of the Sun and proto-Jupiter, is numerically calculated by using a three-dimensional hydrodynamic code - i.e., the socalled smoothed-particle method. The flow is circulating around the Sun as well as falling into a potential well of proto-Jupiter. The results for various masses of proto-Jupiter show that (1) the e-folding growth time of proto-Jupiter by accretion of the nebular gas is as short as about 300 years in stages where the mass of proto-Jupiter is 0.2 ~ 0.5 times the present Jovian mass, and that (2) proto-Jupiter begins to push away the nebular gas from the orbit of proto-Jupiter and form a gap around the orbit, when its mass is about 0.7 times the present Jovian mass. It is possible that this pushing-away process determined the present Jovian mass.     

Comparison of 13CO line and far-infrared continuum emission as a diagnostic of dust and molecular gas physical conditions – I. Motivation and modelling

Determining temperatures in molecular clouds from ratios of CO rotational lines or from ratios of continuum emission in different wavelength bands suffers from reduced temperature sensitivity in the high-temperature limit. In theory, the ratio of far-infrared (FIR), submillimetre or millimetre continuum to that of a ¹³CO (or C¹⁸O) rotational line can place reliable upper limits on the temperature of the dust and molecular gas. Consequently, FIR continuum data from the COBE /Diffuse Infrared Background Experiment (DIRBE) instrument and Nagoya 4-m  ¹³CO  J = 1 → 0  spectral line data were used to plot  240 μm/¹³CO  J = 1 → 0  intensity ratios against 140/240 μm dust colour temperatures, allowing us to constrain the multiparsec-scale physical conditions in the Orion A and B molecular clouds.
The best-fitting models to the Orion clouds consist of two components: a component near the surface of the clouds that is heated primarily by a very large scale (i.e. ∼1 kpc) interstellar radiation field and a component deeper within the clouds. The former has a fixed temperature and the latter has a range of temperatures that vary from one sightline to another. The models require a dust–gas temperature difference of 0 ± 2 K and suggest that 40–50 per cent of the Orion clouds are in the form of dust and gas with temperatures between 3 and 10 K. The implications are discussed in detail in later papers and include stronger dust–gas thermal coupling and higher Galactic-scale molecular gas temperatures than are usually accepted, and an improved explanation for the N (H₂)/ I (CO) conversion factor. It is emphasized that these results are preliminary and require confirmation by independent observations and methods.     

Noble gases in enstatite chondrites released by stepped crushing and heating

Abstract– Enstatite chondrites (ECs) were subjected to noble gas analyses using stepped crushing and pyrolysis extraction methods. ECs can be classified into subsolar gas‐carrying and subsolar gas‐free ECs based on the ³⁶Ar/⁸⁴Kr/¹³²Xe ratios. For subsolar gas‐free ECs, elemental ratios, and Xe isotopic compositions indicate that Q gas is the dominant trapped component, the Q gas concentration can be correlated with the petrologic type, reasonably explained by gas release from a common EC parental material during subsequent heating. Atmospheric Xe with sub‐Q elemental ratios is found in Antarctic E3s at 600–800 °C and through crushing. The ¹³²Xe released in these fractions accounts for 30–60% of the bulk concentrations. Hence, the sub‐Q signature is generally due to contamination of elementally fractionated atmosphere. Subsolar gas is mainly released (up to 78% of the bulk ³⁶Ar) at 1300–1600 °C and through crushing, suggesting that enstatite and friable phases are the host phases. Subsolar gas is isotopically identical to solar gas, but elementally fractionated. These observations are consistent with a previous study, which suggested that subsolar gas could be fractionated solar wind having been implanted into chondrule precursors ( Okazaki et al. 2001 ). Unlike subsolar gas‐free ECs, the primordial gas concentrations of subsolar gas‐carrying ECs are not simply correlated with the petrologic type. It is inferred that subsolar gas‐rich chondrules were heterogeneously distributed in the solar nebula and accreted to form subsolar gas‐carrying ECs. Subsequent metamorphic and impact‐shock heating events have affected noble gas compositions to various degrees.     

Photoionizing feedback in star cluster formation

We present the first ever hydrodynamic calculations of star cluster formation that incorporate the effect of feedback from ionizing radiation. In our simulations, the ionizing source forms in the cluster core at the intersection of several dense filaments of inflowing gas. We show that these filaments collimate ionized outflows and suggest such an environmental origin for at least some observed outflows in regions of massive star formation. Our simulations show both positive feedback (i.e. promotion of star formation in neutral gas compressed by expanding H  ii regions) and negative feedback (i.e. suppression of the accretion flow in to the central regions). We show that the volume filling factor of ionized gas is very different in our simulations from the result from the case where the central source interacted with an azimuthally smoothed gas density distribution. As expected, gas density is the key parameter in determining whether or not clusters are unbound by photoionizing radiation. Nevertheless, we find – on account of the acceleration of a small fraction of the gas to high velocities in the outflows – that the deposition in the gas of an energy that exceeds the binding energy of the cluster is not a sufficient criterion for unbinding the bulk of the cluster mass.     

Navier-Stokes and direct Monte-Carlo simulations of the circumnuclear gas coma: III. Spherical, inhomogeneous sources

We pursue our program of comparative simulations of the cometary gas coma by the two most advanced techniques available: (1) numerical solution of Navier-Stokes equations coupled to the Boltzman equation in the surface boundary layer, and (2) direct Monte-Carlo simulation. Here, we consider two different spherical but compositionally inhomogeneous nuclei, at three very different levels of gas production. The results show the same excellent agreement between the two methods in a domain adjacent to the surface as found precedingly, practically down to free-molecular conditions. A wealth of coma density patterns with non-intuitive structure is obtained. Some of these structures appear even under free-molecular effusion from the surface. The physical origin of all structures is discussed, and their evolution with changing gas production is studied. The computed comae are compared to those computed by various authors precedingly. Intercomparison of the present results demonstrates that differing inhomogeneity patterns may lead to similar structures in the gas coma. Comparison between these structures and those created by homogeneous, aspherical surfaces shows that it is not possible to guess from empirical rules which one of the two processes is responsible for the creation of a given structure. The implications for the interpretation of future high resolution images, or of future in situ mass spectrometric samplings of the near-nucleus gas coma are discussed.     

The SAURON project – VII. Integral-field absorption and emission-line kinematics of 24 spiral galaxy bulges

We present observations of the stellar and gas kinematics for a representative sample of 24 Sa galaxies obtained with our custom-built integral-field spectrograph SAURON operating on the William Herschel Telescope. The data have been homogeneously reduced and analysed by means of a dedicated pipeline. All resulting data cubes were spatially binned to a minimum mean signal-to-noise ratio of 60 per spatial and spectral resolution element. Our maps typically cover the bulge-dominated region. We find a significant fraction of kinematically decoupled components (12/24), many of them displaying central velocity dispersion minima. They are mostly aligned and co-rotating with the main body of the galaxies, and are usually associated with dust discs and rings detected in unsharp-masked images. Almost all the galaxies in the sample (22/24) contain significant amounts of ionized gas which, in general, is accompanied by the presence of dust. The kinematics of the ionized gas are consistent with circular rotation in a disc co-rotating with respect to the stars. The distribution of mean misalignments between the stellar and gaseous angular momenta in the sample suggests that the gas has an internal origin. The [O  iii ]/Hβ ratio is usually very low, indicative of current star formation, and shows various morphologies (ring-like structures, alignments with dust lanes or amorphous shapes). The star formation rates (SFRs) in the sample are comparable with that of normal disc galaxies. Low gas velocity dispersion values appear to be linked to regions of intense star formation activity. We interpret this result as stars being formed from dynamically cold gas in those regions. In the case of NGC 5953, the data suggest that we are witnessing the formation of a kinematically decoupled component from cold gas being acquired during the ongoing interaction with NGC 5954.     

Accretion of gas on to nearby spiral galaxies

We present evidence for cosmological gas accretion on to spiral galaxies in the local universe. The accretion is seen through its effects on the dynamics of the extraplanar neutral gas. The accretion rates that we estimate for two nearby spiral galaxies are of the order of their star formation rates. Our model shows that most of the extraplanar gas is produced by supernova feedback (galactic fountain) and only 10–20 per cent comes from accretion. The accreting material must have low specific angular momentum about the disc's spin axis, although the magnitude of the specific angular momentum vector can be higher. We also explore the effects of a hot corona on the dynamics of the extraplanar gas and find that it is unlikely to be responsible for the observed kinematical pattern and the source of accreted gas. However, the interaction with the fountain flow should profoundly affect the hydrodynamics of the corona.