The fusion crust of the Winchcombe meteorite: A preserved record of atmospheric entry processes

Fusion crusts form during the atmospheric entry heating of meteorites and preserve a record of the conditions that occurred during deceleration in the atmosphere. The fusion crust of the Winchcombe meteorite closely resembles that of other stony meteorites, and in particular CM2 chondrites, since it is dominated by olivine phenocrysts set in a glassy mesostasis with magnetite, and is highly vesicular. Dehydration cracks are unusually abundant in Winchcombe. Failure of this weak layer is an additional ablation mechanism to produce large numbers of particles during deceleration, consistent with the observation of pulses of plasma in videos of the Winchcombe fireball. Calving events might provide an observable phenomenon related to meteorites that are particularly susceptible to dehydration. Oscillatory zoning is observed within olivine phenocrysts in the fusion crust, in contrast to other meteorites, perhaps owing to temperature fluctuations resulting from calving events. Magnetite monolayers are found in the crust, and have also not been previously reported, and form discontinuous strata. These features grade into magnetite rims formed on the external surface of the crust and suggest the trapping of surface magnetite by collapse of melt. Magnetite monolayers may be a feature of meteorites that undergo significant degassing. Silicate warts with dendritic textures were observed and are suggested to be droplets ablated from another stone in the shower. They, therefore, represent the first evidence for intershower transfer of ablation materials and are consistent with the other evidence in the Winchcombe meteorite for unusually intense gas loss and ablation, despite its low entry velocity.     

Solar wind induction in Mercury: Constraints on the formation of a magnetosphere

The discovery of Mercury's magnetosphere by Mariner 10 was surprising since the conventional view of regenerative planetary dynamos had been that the spin requirement would likely have been in excess of the observed spin rate of Mercury. Also internal fluid motions were not expected to be sufficiently large. This paper explores the alternative model of the formation of Mercury's magnetosphere via electromagnetic induction forced by the solar wind. It is shown, however, that the constraints are so severe as to limit severely the applicability of such a model. Although induction is easily observed on the Moon, the modification of the magnetic boundary condition associated with a plasma magnetosphere on Mercury rules out its formation via induction except for interplanetary driving fields which are decreasing in amplitude. That model is explored but retains the difficulty that induced magnetospheres tend to be of small radial and temporal extent compared to that inferred by Ness et al. for Mercury.     

AÏOUN EL ATROUSS: A NEW HYPERSTHENE ACHONDRITE WITH EUCRITIC INCLUSIONS

Preliminary investigations have been made on two separate pieces from the Aïoun el Atrouss meteorite that fell on April 17, 1974 in southeast Mauritania. The major portion of the meteorite is a brecciated hypersthene achondrite with orthopyroxene (En₇₄) as the major phase. Clasts of eucrite, up to 7 percent in volume within a single slice, occur within the hypersthene achondrite host. No evidence has been found of reaction between the two meteorite types, nor of the presence of any materials intermediate in composition.     

Generalized projection theorem for mapping with radio interferometers

A theorem, which provides a relationship between the one-dimensional Fourier transform of a line section across two-dimensional (spatial) spectrum and that across the correspoding (brightness) distribution function, is proved. The theorem is then shown to be relevant in some problems in radio astronomy and possibly in other fields connected with image reconstructions from one-dimensional scans through objects or their spectra.     

On the R z -sunspot relative number variations

The Zürich sunspot relative number R _z series has been analysed by the cyclogram method. The amplitude and the frequency variations of the Fourier 11 yr component between 1700–1983 A.D., were determined in a continuous way.Four distinct time intervals with significantly different characteristics of the periodicities are observed and discussed.Their second harmonics are also considered. The periodicity changes are contemporary to those of the 11 yr cycles.Around the year 1903 it seems that an important event has happened in the Sun. In fact the 11.4 yr cycle periodicity, that was very stable since at least 1825 started to change gradually to smaller values and similarly it happened to the second harmonic which also stopped and abruptly changed of phase of 90°.     

The solar causes of geomagnetic disturbances

Geomagnetic disturbances have been identified with respect to their sources for 1977–1983. The disturbance level was found using the daily planetary index A _p. High-amplitude ( 50), mean-amplitude (24) and low-amplitude ( 12) disturbances are caused by solar flares of importance 1, coronal holes, and filament cavities, respectively. The ranges of probable amplitudes of disturbances of different nature and their relative number are found from Poisson random distributions of amplitudes.     

The structure and oscillations of low-mass stars in the presence of a magnetic field

The equilibrium structure and oscillations of a partially degenerate standard model in the presence of a poloidal magnetic field have been studied. The magnetic field in the interior has been matched with an outside dipole field. The effect of magnetic field on the various structural parameters, e.g., mass, central condensation, moment of inertia, and oblateness has been computed for different values of the central degeneracy of the model. We have also studied the effect of magnetic field on radial oscillations of the configuration. A variational formulation is used to compute the changes in the frequency of radial mode of oscillation. It has been shown that the changes in frequency computed for various models using a two-parameter eigenfunction are in fair agreement with the values obtained by using the exact eigenfunction.     

On the proposed associations of solar neutrino flux with solar particles,cosmic rays,and the solar activity cycle

It has been proposed that the observed solar neutrino flux exhibits important correlations with solar particles, galactic cosmic rays, and the sunspot cycle, with the latter correlation being opposite in phase and lagging behind the sunspot cycle by about one year. Re-examination of the data-available interval 1971–1981, employing various tests of statistical significance, however, suggests that such a claim is, at present, unwarrantable. For example, on the associations of solar neutrino flux and cosmic-ray flux with the Ap geomagnetic index, neither were found to be statistically significant (at the 95% level of confidence), regardless of the choice of lag (-1, 0, or +1 yr). Presuming linear fits, all correlations with Ap had coefficients of determination (r ², where r is the linear correlation coefficient) less than 16%, meaning that 16% of the variation in the selected test parameters could be explained by the variation in Ap. Similarly, on the associations of solar neutrino flux and cosmic ray flux with sunspot number, only the latter association proved to be of statistical importance. Using the best linear fits, the correlation between yearly averages of solar neutrino flux and sunspot number had r ² 19%, the correlation between weighted moving averages (of order 5) of solar neutrino flux and sunspot number had r ² 45%, and the correlation between cosmic-ray flux and sunspot number had r ² 76%, all correlations being inverse associations. Solar neutrino flux was found not to correlate strongly with cosmic-ray flux, and the Ap geomagnetic index was found not to correlate strongly with sunspot number.