The U.S. National 8 m telescope project

The National Optical Astronomy Observatories (NOAO) are planning to buld two 8 m telescopes, one for Mauna Kea, Hawaii, the other for a site in Chile. Optical configurations, primary mirror systems, and the telescope mounting are discussed. A new optical testing method is outlined. The system imaging goal is 0.25 FWHM. Construction could begin in the early 1990's.Paper presented at the Symposium on the JNLT and Related Engineering Developments, Tokyo, November 29–December 2, 1988.Operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy Inc., under contract with the National Science Foundation.     

Radiometry of near-earth asteroids

We report 10 micrometers infrared photometry for 22 Aten, Apollo, and Amor asteroids. Thermal models are used to derive the corresponding radiometric albedos and diameters. Several of these asteroids appear to have surfaces of relatively high thermal inertia due to the exposure of bare rock or a coarse regolith. The Apollo asteroid 3103, 1982 BB, is recognized as class E. The Jupiter-crossing Amor asteroid 3552, 1983 SA, is confirmed as class D, but low albedos remain rare for near-Earth asteroids.     

Radio observations of the M8.1 solar flare of 23 June, 1988: Evidence for energy transport by thermal processes

The Very Large Array (VLA) and the frequency agile interferometer at the Owens Valley Radio Observatory (OVRO) were used to observe the M8.1 flare of 23 June, 1988. The VLA obtained images prior to and during the flare at 333 MHz, and at 1.5 and 4.7 GHz. The frequency agile interferometer at Owens Valley obtained interferometer amplitude and total power spectra of the flare at 45 frequencies between 1 and 18 GHz. The observations were supplemented by radiometer measurements made by the USAF RSTN network site at Palehua, HI, by GOES soft X-ray observations, by USAF SOON H filtergrams, and by a KPNO photospheric magnetogram.The radio data reveal a wide variety of phenomena, including: (i) a multiply impulsive microwave burst that is essentially thermal in character; (ii) stationary discrete components at 1.5 GHz, associated temporally and spatially with distant brightenings in Ha; (iii) a dynamical component at 1.5 GHz associated with hot plasma moving subsonically into the corona; (iv) the appearance of intense, short-lived, decimetric burst activity near the lead sunspot in the active region at 1.5 GHz, indicative of a high degree of inhomogeneity in the source.The unusually complete radio coverage allows us to investigate the transport of energy from the initial site to sites of distant H brightenings. The transport of energy appears to be most consistent with slow, thermal processes, rather than rapid transport by nonthermal electron beams.     

Impact-generated atmospheres over Titan, Ganymede, and Callisto

The competition between impact erosion and impact supply of volatiles to planetary atmospheres can determine whether a planet or satellite accumulates an atmosphere. In the absence of other processes (e.g., outgassing), we find either that a planetary atmosphere should be thick, or that there should be no atmosphere at all. The boundary between the two extreme cases is set by the mass and velocity distributions and intrinsic volatile content of the impactors. We apply our model specifically to Titan, Callisto, and Ganymede. The impacting population is identified with comets, either in the form of stray Uranus-Neptune planetesimals or as dislodged Kuiper belt comets. Systematically lower impact velocities on Titan allow it to retain a thick atmosphere, while Callisto and Ganymede get nothing. Titan's atmosphere may therefore be an expression of a late-accreting, volatile-rich veneer. An impact origin for Titan's atmosphere naturally accounts for the high D/H ratio it shares with Earth, the carbonaceous meteorites, and Halley. It also accounts for the general similarity of Titan's atmosphere to those of Triton and Pluto, which is otherwise puzzling in view of the radically different histories and bulk compositions of these objects.     

Exact Bianchi-type VIII and IX models in the presence of the self-creation theory of cosmology

Exact Bianchi-type VIII and IX models in the presence of Barber's second self-creation theory of cosmology are presented, when the source of the gravitational field is a perfect fluid withP=. Some physical and geometrical properties of the models are discussed.     

The light curved in the CM field

In this paper we introduce the CM field in Sections 2 and 3 based on the paper by Wang and Peng (1985), and calculate the light curved in the CM field in Section 4. The result shows thatP makes _CM larger than _C at , and smaller at . Under a special circumstance which source, CM lens, and observer are in the same line, if we get | ₀₌₀ , and | _=/2 , we can determine theP(M) andQ(M) of the CM lens,M is the mass of the CM lens.     

On the instability of “folded” equilibria of a flexible nonstretchable thread attached to the satellite in a circular orbit

The author considers a problem of Lyapunov's stability of relative equilibria of a flexible nonstretchable thread attached to the satellite moving in a circular Keplerian orbit in the first approximation. When it is in the position of relative equilibrium, the thread is known to be situated either along the radius vector of the orbit (the radial equilibrium) or along the circular orbit (the tangential equilibrium) and in each case the thread can be in a folded state. The author shows that folded radial equilibria of the thread are always unstable while tangential ones are unstable if the thread is sufficiently short in comparison with the radius of the orbit. The generalized Chetaev functional has been constructed to prove the instability.     

Quiet-Sun emission and local sources at meter and decimeter wavelengths and their relationship with the coronal neutral sheet

We analysed multifrequency 2-dimensional maps of the solar corona obtained with the Nançay radioheliograph during two solar rotations in 1986. We discuss the emission of the quiet Sun, coronal holes and local sources and its association with chromospheric and coronal features as well as with large-scale magnetic fields. The brightness temperature of the quiet Sun was 5 to 5.5 × 10⁵ K at 164 MHz and 4.5 to 5 × 10⁵ K at 408 MHz. A coronal hole, also detected in the 10830 Å He i line, had a brightness temperature of 4.5 × 10⁵ at 164 and 2.5 × 10⁵ at 408 MHz. We give statistics of source brightness temperatures (on the average 8% above the background at 164 MHz and 14% at 408 MHz), as well as distributions in longitude and latitude. Although we found no significant center-to-limb effect in the brightness temperature, the sources were not visible far from the central meridian (apparently a refraction effect). The brightest sources at 164 MHz were near, but not directly above active regions and had characteristics of faint type I continua. At 408 MHz some sources were observed directly above active regions and one was unambiguously a type I continuum. The majority of the fainter sources showed no association with chromospheric features seen on H synoptic charts, including filaments. Most of them were detected at one frequency only. Sources identified at three frequencies (164, 327, and 408 MHz) were located in regions of enhanced large-scale magnetic field, some of them at the same location as decayed active regions visible one rotation before on synoptic H charts. Multifrequency sources are associated with maxima of the green line corona. The comparison with K-corona synoptic charts shows a striking association of the radio sources with dense coronal regions, associated with the coronal neutral sheet. Furthermore, we detected an enhanced brightness region which surrounds the local sources and is stable over at least one solar rotation. We call this feature a coronal plateau and we identify it with the radio counterpart of the coronal neutral sheet.     

On the inclination and the axial velocity of spicules

This paper studies two properties of chromospheric spicules: their angular distribution and the plasma velocity along their axes. To investigate the first property, we measured the apparent tilt of spicules at the limb, and then computed their actual distribution in space. This was achieved by solving first kind Fredholm or Volterra integral equations by various methods. The distribution of the axial velocity of the spicule plasma was studied on the basis of two types of observations: (1) the height variation of the spicules as a function of time and (2) the Doppler shift of the spectral lines. The resulting velocity distributions, using the experimental data of these two sets of observations, are quite different. The average velocity based on the Doppler shift measurements ( 40 km s^–1) is greater than that based on height variation of spicules ( 20 km s^–1). This is due to the ionization of the material as it penetrates the corona.     

SVLBI用于大地测量的卫星轨道及其跟踪网设计(英文)

SVLBI （space very long baseline interferometry） has some important potential applications in geodesy and geodynamics, for which one of the most difficult tasks is to precisely determine the orbit of an SVLBI satellite. This work studies several technologies that will possibly be able to determine the orbit of a space VLBI satellite. Then, according to the types and charac- teristics of the satellite and the requirements for geodetic study and the geometry of the GNSS （GPS, GALILEO） satellite to track the space VLBI satellite, the six Keplerian elements of the SVLBI satellite （TEST-SVLBI） are determined. A program is designed to analyze the coverage area of space of different altitudes by the stations of the network, with which the tracking network of TEST-SVLBI is designed. The efficiency of tracking TEST-SVLBI by the network is studied, and the results are presented.