Boulders and ponds on the Asteroid 433 Eros

There are ∼300 features on the Asteroid 433 Eros that morphologically resemble ponds (flat-floored and sharply embaying the bounding depression in which they sit). Because boulders on Eros are apparently eroding in place and because ponds with associated boulders tend to be larger than ponds without blocks, we propose that ponds form from thermally disaggregated and seismically flattened boulder material, under the assumption that repeated day/night cycling causes material fatigue that leads to erosion of the boulders. Results from a simple boulder emplacement/thermal erosion model with boulders emplaced in a few discrete events (i.e., large impacts) match well the observed size distribution. Under this scenario, the subtle color differences of ponds (somewhat bluer than the rest of the surface) might be due to some combination of less space-weathered material and density stratification of silicate-rich chondrules and more metal-rich matrix from a disaggregated boulder. Volume estimates of ponds derived from NEAR Laser Rangefinder profiles are consistent with what can be supplied by boulders. Ponds are also observed to be concentrated in regions of low slope and high elevation, which suggests the presence of a less mobile regolith and thus a contrast in the resistance to seismic shaking between the pond material and the material that makes up the bounding depression. Future tests include shake-table experiments and temperature cycling (fatigue) of ordinary chondrites to test the thermal erosion mechanism.     

Supersonic meteorology of Io: Sublimation-driven flow of SO2

The horizontal flow of SO₂ gas from day side to night side of Io is calculated. The surface is assumed to be covered by a frost whose vapor pressure at the subsolar point is orders of magnitude larger than that on the night side. Temperature of the frost is controlled by radiation. The flow is hydrostatic and turbulent, with velocity and entropy per particle independent of height. The vertically integrated conservation equations for mass, momentum, and energy are solved for atmospheric pressure, temperature, and horizontal velocity as functions of solar zenith angle. Formulas from boundary layer theory govern the interaction between atmosphere and surface. The flow becomes supersonic as it expands away from the subsolar point, as in the theory of rocket nozzles and the solar wind. Within 35° of the subsolar point atmospheric pressureis less than the frost vapor pressure, and the frost sublimes. Elsewhere, atmospheric pressure is greater than the frost vapor pressure, and the frost condenses. The two pressures seldom differ by more than a factor of 2. The sublimation rate at the subsolar point is proportional to the frost vapor pressure, which is a sensitive function of temperature. For a subsolar temperature of 130°K, the sublimation rate is 10¹⁵ molecules/cm²/sec. Diurnally averaged sublimation rates at the equator are comparable to the 0.1 cm/year resurfacing rate required for burial of impact craters. At the poles where both the vapor pressures and atmospheric pressures are low, the condensation rates are 100 times smaller. Surface pressures near the terminator are generally too low to account for the ionosphere discovered by Pioneer 10. The possibility of a noncondensable gas in addition to SO₂ must be seriously considered.     

An assessment of boundary-layer air mass characteristics associated with topographically-induced local wind systems

Measured and derived meteorological parameters are used to examine the changes in air mass associated with local winds of differing origin. Research conducted explores the usefulness of wet bulb potential temperature, equivalent potential temperature, virtual potential temperature and relative humidity as indicators of air mass change during sea breeze, foehn wind and nocturnal drainage flow events. The complex interactions between these different topographically-induced wind systems in South Canterbury, New Zealand, provide an environment in which marked changes in air mass characteristics are common. Results demonstrate that under a considerable range of boundary-layer conditions, measured wet bulb potential temperature when used in conjunction with windspeed and direction enables quick and accurate determination of air mass origin. Relative humidity was also found to respond closely to changes in local air mass type, but its dependence on air temperature makes it a less reliable indicator.     

Forbidden Ca ii in the Sun unmasked by way of Venus

Eleven high-dispersion spectra of Venus, taken with blue Doppler shifts have enabled us to unmask the 7323.88 Å forbidden line of Ca ii from terrestrial absorption. We obtain an equivalent width of 7.4±0.4 mÅ for this line in integrated sunlight. Our value of W _λ is smaller than previous values and much more accurate. The HSRA solar model gives a solar calcium abundance of A _Ca = 6.21.     

The MESSENGER mission to Mercury: scientific objectives and implementation

Mercury holds answers to several critical questions regarding the formation and evolution of the terrestrial planets. These questions include the origin of Mercury's anomalously high ratio of metal to silicate and its implications for planetary accretion processes, the nature of Mercury's geological evolution and interior cooling history, the mechanism of global magnetic field generation, the state of Mercury's core, and the processes controlling volatile species in Mercury's polar deposits, exosphere, and magnetosphere. The MErcury Surface, Space ENvironment, GEochemistry, and Ranging (MESSENGER) mission has been designed to fly by and orbit Mercury to address all of these key questions. After launch by a Delta 2925H-9.5, two flybys of Venus, and two flybys of Mercury, orbit insertion is accomplished at the third Mercury encounter. The instrument payload includes a dual imaging system for wide and narrow fields-of-view, monochrome and color imaging, and stereo; X-ray and combined gamma-ray and neutron spectrometers for surface chemical mapping; a magnetometer; a laser altimeter; a combined ultraviolet–visible and visible-near-infrared spectrometer to survey both exospheric species and surface mineralogy; and an energetic particle and plasma spectrometer to sample charged species in the magnetosphere. During the flybys of Mercury, regions unexplored by Mariner 10 will be seen for the first time, and new data will be gathered on Mercury's exosphere, magnetosphere, and surface composition. During the orbital phase of the mission, one Earth year in duration, MESSENGER will complete global mapping and the detailed characterization of the exosphere, magnetosphere, surface, and interior.     

A Complete Microjansky Radio Survey

The Phoenix Deep Survey is an ongoing multi-wavelength survey of a 2^° diameter field aimed at studying the properties of the sub-mJy and μJy radio population. Here, we present the latest 1.4 GHz observations of this field. The new data, reaching a 5 σ flux level of 45 μJy at the centre of a 50′ diameter field, comprise more than 700 sources with flux densities less than 1 mJy (187 of which have S_1.4 < 100 μJy). This provides one of the deepest radio (1.4 GHz) surveys currently available. The 1.4 GHz source counts are presented and show a flattening down to the 50 μJy level. At flux densities around 300 μJy there are indications that the sources detected may exhibit higher clustering than those observed at higher flux levels. This suggests that deep radio surveys could be useful for studies of large-scale structure but it also presents a warning for the representativity of sources in deep pencil-beam radio surveys. The study of the optical counterparts of the μJy population seems to indicate that the median R magnitude starts to decrease below 100 μJy. Spectroscopic classification of a sample of sources in this survey confirms the trend for an increasing fraction of star-forming galaxies over other systems down to ～ 100 μJy.     

Inflation and the Cosmic Microwave Background

I give a status report and outlook concerning the use of the cosmic microwave background anisotropies to constrain the inflationary cosmology, and stress its crucial role as an underlying paradigm for the estimation of cosmological parameters. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Grosvenor Mountains 95 howardite pairing group: Insights into the surface regolith of asteroid 4 Vesta

Regolithic howardites are analogs for the surface materials of asteroid 4 Vesta, recently mapped by the Dawn spacecraft. Rigorously evaluating pairing of howardites recovered in 1995 in the Grosvenor Mountains (GRO 95), Antarctica, enables an examination of a larger, more representative regolith sample. Previous work on two of the howardites studied here concluded that GRO 95602 and GRO 95535 are solar wind‐rich surface regolith samples and that they are not paired with each other, leading to uncertainty regarding pairing relationships between the other GRO 95 howardites. Based on petrology, cosmic‐ray exposure history, and terrestrial age, four GRO 95 howardites are paired. The paired howardites (GRO 95534, 95535, 95574, 95581) were from a meteoroid with radius of 10–15 cm, a preatmospheric size comparable to that of Kapoeta, the largest known regolithic howardite. The paired GRO 95 howardites contain clasts of at least 18 separate HED lithologies, providing evidence they were assembled from diverse source materials. The total eucrite:diogenite mixing ratio (ratio of all eucrite lithologies to all diogenite lithologies) in the paired GRO 95 howardites is ~2:1. Petrographically determined basaltic eucrite:cumulate eucrite ratios in regolithic howardites, studied here and previously, vary more widely than total eucrite:diogenite ratios. Relative to eucritic pyroxene, plagioclase is depleted in these howardites, which provides evidence that plagioclase is preferentially comminuted in the vestan regolith. The extent of plagioclase depletion could be an indicator of regolith maturity.     

Isotopic abundances of silicon in four red giants

High-resolution spectra near 4 m of the four red giants— Peg,o ¹ Ori, 10 Dra, and HR 1105—have been analysed to obtain estimates of the²⁸Si/²⁹Si and²⁸Si/³⁰Si abundance ratios. For Peg and the S star HR 1105, the²⁸Si/²⁹Si ratio is close to the solar ratio (²⁸Si/²⁹Si=20).²⁹Si appears to be underabundant in the MS staro ¹ Ori (²⁸Si/²⁹Si=40) and the M star 10 Dra (²⁸Si/²⁹Si53). The³⁰Si isotope appears to be underabundant by, perhaps, about a factor of 2 in all four stars.     

Atom‐probe analyses of nanodiamonds from Allende

Atom‐probe tomography (APT) is currently the only analytical technique that, due to its spatial resolution and detection efficiency, has the potential to measure the carbon isotope ratios of individual nanodiamonds. We describe three different sample preparation protocols that we developed for the APT analysis of meteoritic nanodiamonds at sub‐nm resolution and present carbon isotope peak ratios of meteoritic and synthetic nanodiamonds. The results demonstrate an instrumental bias associated with APT that needs to be quantified and corrected to obtain accurate isotope ratios. After this correction is applied, this technique should allow determination of the distribution of ¹²C/¹³C ratios in individual diamond grains, solving the decades‐old question of the origin of meteoritic nanodiamonds: what fraction, if any, formed in the solar system and in presolar environments? Furthermore, APT could help us identify the stellar sources of any presolar nanodiamonds that are detected.