Opening a new window to other worlds with spectropolarimetry

A high level of diversity has already been observed among the planets of our own Solar System. As such, one expects extrasolar planets to present a wide range of distinctive features, therefore the characterisation of Earth- and super Earth-like planets is becoming of key importance in scientific research. The Search (Spectropolarimetric Exoplanet AtmospheRe CHaracerisation) mission proposal of this paper represents one possible approach to realising these objectives. The mission goals of Search include the detailed characterisation of a wide variety of exoplanets, ranging from terrestrial planets to gas giants. More specifically, Search will determine atmospheric properties such as cloud coverage, surface pressure and atmospheric composition, and may also be capable of identifying basic surface features. To resolve a planet with a semi major axis of down to 1.4 AU and 30 pc distant Search will have a mirror system consisting of two segments, with elliptical rim, cut out of a parabolic mirror. This will yield an effective diameter of 9 m along one axis. A phase mask coronagraph along with an integral spectrograph will be used to overcome the contrast ratio of star to planet light. Such a mission would provide invaluable data on the diversity present in extrasolar planetary systems and much more could be learned from the similarities and differences compared to our own Solar System. This would allow our theories of planetary formation, atmospheric accretion and evolution to be tested, and our understanding of regions such as the outer limit of the Habitable Zone to be further improved.     

Does the Milky Way launch a large-scale wind?

The ROSAT All-Sky Survey revealed soft X-ray emission on kiloparsec scales towards the Galactic center. Separately, it has also been observed that the cosmic ray intensity (measured via γ-ray emission) rises only very slowly towards the center of the Galaxy, counter to expectations based on the greater number of cosmic ray sources there. A thermal and cosmic-ray driven wind could potentially explain both of these observations. We find that a cosmic-ray and thermally driven wind fits the X-ray observations well; in fact, a wind fits significantly better than an earlier-proposed static-polytrope gas model.     

The Hubble constant from galaxy lenses: impacts of triaxiality and model degeneracies

The Hubble constant can be constrained using the time delays between multiple images of gravitationally lensed sources. In some notable cases, typical lensing analyses assuming isothermal galaxy density profiles produce low values for the Hubble constant, inconsistent with the result of the HST Key Project  (72 ± 8 km s⁻¹ Mpc⁻¹)  . Possible systematics in the values of the Hubble constant derived from galaxy lensing systems can result from a number of factors, for example, neglect of environmental effects, assumption of isothermality, or contamination by line-of-sight structures. One additional potentially important factor is the triaxial structure of the lensing galaxy halo; most lens models account for halo shape simply by perturbing the projected spherical lensing potential, an approximation that is often necessary but that is inadequate at the levels of triaxiality predicted in the cold dark matter paradigm. To quantify the potential error introduced by this assumption in estimates of the Hubble parameter, we strongly lens a distant galaxy through a sample of triaxial softened isothermal haloes and use an Markov Chain Monte Carlo method to constrain the lensing halo profile and the Hubble parameter from the resulting multiple image systems. We explore the major degeneracies between the Hubble parameter and several parameters of the lensing model, finding that without a way to accurately break these degeneracies accurate estimates of the Hubble parameter are not possible. Crucially, we find that triaxiality does not significantly bias estimates of the Hubble constant, and offer an analytic explanation for this behaviour in the case of isothermal profiles. Neglected triaxial halo shape cannot contribute to the low Hubble constant values derived in a number of galaxy lens systems.     

On the Dynamics of a Deformable Satellite in the Gravitational Field of a Spherical Rigid Body

In this paper, a model is developed for the dynamics of a system of two bodies whose material points are under the influence of a central gravitational force. One of the bodies is assumed to be rigid and spherically symmetric, while the other is assumed to be deformable. To develop a tractable model for the system, the deformable body is modeled using Cohen and Muncaster's theory of a pseudo-rigid body. The resulting model of the system has several of the features, such as angular momentum conservation, exhibited by more restrictive models. We also show how the self-gravitation of the deformable body can be accommodated using appropriate constitutive equations for a force tensor. This enables our model to subsume many existing models of ellipsoidal figures of equilibrium. After the model and its conservations have been discussed, attention is restricted to steady motions of the system. Several results, which generalize recent works on rigid satellites, are established for these motions. For a specific choice of constitutive equations for the pseudo-rigid body, we determine the steady motions with the aid of a numerical continuation method. These results can also be considered as generalizations of earlier works on Roche's ellipsoids of equilibrium.     

Pulsating Stars

Modern long-baseline interferometers are capable of resolving stellar diameters in the range of one to several milli-arcseconds with measurement precision approaching a few percent. This level of precision allows astronomers to directly resolve diameter changes associated with pulsation for various classesc of stars, including Cepheids and Miras. For several nearby Cepheids itis relatively straightforward to apply a Baade-Wesselink analysis and hence directly measure the distance to the Cepheid with a high degree of precision. This field is still quite new; I expect that in the near term several new interferometers will provide direct Cepheid distances to perhaps a few tens of Galactic Cepheids. However, equally important will be direct measurements of the atmospheric properties (in particular limb darkening) of these stars. Such measurements should help reduce the considerable systematic uncertainties that remain. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Shapes of the saturnian icy satellites and their significance

The sizes and shapes of six icy saturnian satellites have been measured from Cassini Imaging Science Subsystem (ISS) data, employing limb coordinates and stereogrammetric control points. Mimas, Enceladus, Tethys, Dione and Rhea are well described by triaxial ellipsoids; Iapetus is best represented by an oblate spheroid. All satellites appear to have approached relaxed, equilibrium shapes at some point in their evolution, but all support at least 300 m of global-wavelength topography. The shape of Enceladus is most consistent with a homogeneous interior. If Enceladus is differentiated, its shape and apparent relaxation require either lateral inhomogeneities in an icy mantle and/or an irregularly shaped core. Iapetus supports a fossil bulge of over 30 km, and provides a benchmark for impact modification of shapes after global relaxation. Satellites such as Mimas that have smoother limbs than Iapetus, and are expected to have higher impact rates, must have relaxed after the shape of Iapetus was frozen.     

Planet formation around M-dwarfs: the moving snow line and super-Earths

Planets result from a series of processes within a circumstellar disk. Evidence comes from the near planar orbits in the Solar System and other planetary systems, observations of newly formed disks around young stars, and debris disks around main-sequence stars. As planet-hunting techniques improve, we approach the ability to detect systems like the Solar System, and place ourselves in context with planetary systems in general. Along the way, new classes of planets with unexpected characteristics are discovered. One of the most recent classes contains super Earth-mass planets orbiting a few AU from low-mass stars. In this contribution, we outline a semi-analytic model for planet formation during the pre-main sequence contraction phase of a low-mass star. As the star contracts, the “snow line”, which separates regions of rocky planet formation from regions of icy planet formation, moves inward. This process enables rapid formation of icy protoplanets that collide and merge into super-Earths before the star reaches the main sequence. The masses and orbits of these super-Earths are consistent with super-Earths detected in recent microlensing experiments.