Monte‐Carlo simulation of a possible correlation between the estimated luminosity distances and internal extinctions of type Ia supernovae

This paper describes a Monte Carlo simulation of type Ia supernova data. It was shown earlier that the data of SNe Ia might contain a possible correlation between the estimated luminosity distances and internal extinctions. This correlation was shown by different statistical investigations of the data. In order to remove observational biases (for example the effect of the detection limit of the observing instrument) and to test the reality of the effect found earlier we developed a simple routine which simulates extinction values, redshifts and absolute magnitudes for Ia supernovae. We pointed out that the correlation found earlier in the real data between the internal extinction and luminosity distance does not occur in the simulated sample. Furthermore, it became obvious that the detection limit of the observing devices used in supernova projects does not affect the far end of the redshift‐luminosity distance relationship of Ia supernovae. This result strengthens the earlier conclusions of the authors that SN Ia supernovae alone do not support the existence of dark energy. (© 2007 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

Search for New Parent Bodies of Meteoroid Streams Among Comets. I. Showers of Comets 126P/1996 P1 and 161P/2004 V2 with Radiants on Southern Sky

We deal with theoretical meteoroid streams the parent bodies of which are two Halley-type comets in orbits situated at a relatively large distance from the orbit of Earth: 126P/1996 P1 and 161P/2004 V2. For two perihelion passages of each comet in the far past, we model the theoretical stream and follow its dynamical evolution until the present. We predict the characteristics of potential meteor showers according to the dynamical properties of theoretical particles currently approaching the orbit of the Earth. Our dynamical study reveals that the comet 161P/2004 V2 could have an associated Earth-observable meteor shower, although no significant number of theoretical particles are identified with real, photographic, video, or radar meteors. However, the mean radiant of the shower is predicted on the southern sky (its declination is about −23°) where a relatively low number of real meteors has been detected and, therefore, recorded in the databases used. The shower of 161P has a compact radiant area and a relatively large geocentric velocity of ∼53 km s⁻¹. A significant fraction of particles assumed to be released from comet 126P also cross the Earth’s orbit and, eventually, could be observed as meteors. However, their radiant area is largely dispersed (declination of radiants spans from about +60° to the south pole) and, therefore, mixed with the sporadic meteor background. An identification with real meteors is practically impossible.     

Problems and possibilities in fine-tuning of the Cepheid P-L relationship

Factors contributing to the scatter around the ridge-line period-luminosity relationship are listed, followed by a discussion how to eliminate the adverse effects of these factors (mode of pulsation, crossing number, temperature range, reddening, binarity, metallicity, non-linearity of the relationship, blending), in order to reduce the dispersion of the P-L relationship.     

Numerical modelling of elastic space tethers

In this paper the importance of the ill-posedness of the classical, non-dissipative massive tether model on an orbiting tether system is studied numerically. The computations document that via the regularisation of bending resistance a more reliable numerical integrator can be produced. Furthermore, the numerical experiments of an orbiting tether system show that bending may introduce significant forces in some regions of phase space. Finally, numerical evidence for the existence of an almost invariant slow manifold of the singularly perturbed, regularised, non-dissipative massive tether model is provided. It is also shown that on the slow manifold the dynamics of the satellites are well-approximated by the finite dimensional slack-spring model.     

Rieger quasi-periodicity in solar indices

Using wavelet analysis and Fourier analysis, the temporal behavior of ??156-day quasi-periodicity (Rieger quasi-periodicity, RQ) is investigated for series of daily solar indices: Wolf numbers W for 161 years (from 1849), the flux F_10.7 of the Sun??s radio emission at a frequency of 2800 MHz for 63 years (from 1947), the number of X-ray flares N _X for 29 years (from 1981), and the number of optical flares N _?? for 11 years in cycle 21. The N _?? series are studied for four quadrants of the solar disk. It is found for the W series that there is no stable dependence of the amplitude RQ on the cycle phase and the W value. It is associated with the fact that, corresponding to a period of around eight years, in the power spectrum changes in the amplitude of the Rieger quasiperiodicity of the index W are dominated by the peak. Moreover, the peaks corresponding to the 11-year cyclicity are also significant. The comparative study of the temporal behavior of the Rieger quasi-periodicity amplitude of the indices W, F_10.7, and N _X has shown that the quasi-periodicity covers the processes, occurring in active regions on the Sun at different altitudes, almost simultaneously. It is found that for N _??, the lag of variations of the Rieger quasi-periodicity amplitude for series of the Sun??s western hemisphere, relative to those for series of the eastern hemisphere, is on average less than for the flare series. Thus, if the flare occurrence is modulated by the Rieger quasi-periodicity process as a wave propagating over the Sun??s disc, then the wave is not a retrograde one. Different interpretations of the nature of the Rieger quasi-periodicity are discussed including the hypothesis of Rossby waves.     

Project “phobos-grunt”: Instruments for scientific research

This article provides an overview of the scientific objectives of the project Phobos-Grunt. The set of scientific instruments installed on board the spacecraft is discussed and the main problems to be resolved using these devices.     

Observations of extrasolar planet transits with the automated telescopes of the Pulkovo Astronomical Observatory

Exoplanet observations have been performed on the automated Pulkovo Observatory telescopes. We have obtained 33 transit light curves for 16 known exoplanets and six transit observations for three exoplanet candidates discovered by the Kepler telescope. Based on our observations, we have reliably confirmed the existence of an exoplanet with an extremely large radius, R _pl = 1.83 ± 0.16R _Jup, in the system KOI 256 and detected a strong deviation of its orbital revolution from the theoretically predicted one. During the transit of the exoplanet WASP-12b across the stellar disk, we detected bursts that could be caused by the planet transit across spots on the star or by the presence of a satellite around this exoplanet. We detected possible periodic variations in the duration of the exoplanet transit across the stellar disk with time for HAT-P-12b that could be caused by variations in orbital inclination. The transit duration and depth, the central transit time, and the radius and orbital inclination of the planet have been estimated. The equilibrium temperature and albedo have been estimated for several exoplanets.     

Evolution of oxygen and nitrogen abundances in SDSS galaxies

New expressions for ON and NS calibrations (we call them ON11 and NS11 calibrations) for the determination of oxygen and nitrogen abundances in HII regions are proposed. New criteria for the division of HII regions into three classes (hot, warm, and cold) are also proposed. ON11 and NS11 calibrations provide more accurate determination of oxygen and nitrogen abundances from integrated emission spectra, in comparison with ON and NS calibrations. Oxygen and nitrogen abundances are estimated for a sample of 57 470 SDSS galaxies using ON11 and NS11 calibrations. Strongline flux measurements for SDSS spectra of these galaxies are taken from the MPA/JHU catalog. A ??mass-metallicity?? diagram for several redshift ranges is constructed. It is found that the interstellar medium of galaxies with high masses log(M/M _??) > 11.3 was hardly enriched with either oxygen or nitrogen over the last 4 Gyrs (corresponding to the redshift interval z = 0?C0.4). This indicates that an active stage of star formation in massive galaxies was completed more than 4 Gyrs ago. For galaxies of lower masses, changes in oxygen and nitrogen abundances over the time period under consideration increase as galaxy mass decreases.     

An improved shadow measurement technique for constraining the morphometry of simple impact craters

Abstract— The lengths of the shadows cast within simple, bowl‐shaped impact craters have been used to constrain their depths on a variety of planetary bodies. This technique, however, only yields the “true” crater depth if the shadow transects the crater center where the floor is deepest. In the past, attempts have been made to circumvent this limitation by choosing only craters where the shadow tip lies very near the crater center; but this approach may introduce serious artifacts that adversely affect the slope of the regressed depth vs. diameter data and its variance. Here we introduce an improved method for deriving depth information from shadow measurements that considers three basic shape variations of simple craters: paraboloidal, conical, and flat‐floored. We show that the shape of the cast shadow can be used to constrain crater shape and we derive improved equations for finding the depths of these simple craters.     

Amino acids in the Tagish Lake meteorite

Abstract— High‐performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) based amino acid analysis of a Tagish Lake meteorite sample recovered 3 months after the meteorite fell to Earth have revealed that the amino acid composition of Tagish Lake is strikingly different from that of the CM and CI carbonaceous chondrites. We found that the Tagish Lake meteorite contains only trace levels of amino acids (total abundance = 880 ppb), which is much lower than the total abundance of amino acids in the CI Orgueil (4100 ppb) and the CM Murchison (16 900 ppb). Because most of the same amino acids found in the Tagish Lake meteorite are also present in the Tagish Lake ice melt water, we conclude that the amino acids detected in the meteorite are terrestrial contamination. We found that the exposure of a sample of Murchison to cold water lead to a substantial reduction over a period of several weeks in the amount of amino acids that are not strongly bound to the meteorite matrix. However, strongly bound amino acids that are extracted by direct HCl hydrolysis are not affected by the leaching process. Thus even if there had been leaching of amino acids from our Tagish Lake meteorite sample during its 3 month residence in Tagish Lake ice and melt water, a Murchison type abundance of endogenous amino acids in the meteorite would have still been readily detectable. The low amino acid content of Tagish Lake indicates that this meteorite originated from a different type of parent body than the CM and CI chondrites. The parent body was apparently devoid of the reagents such as aldehyldes/ketones, HCN and ammonia needed for the effective abiotic synthesis of amino acids. Based on reflectance spectral measurements, Tagish Lake has been associated with P‐ or D‐type asteroids. If the Tagish Lake meteorite was indeed derived from these types of parent bodies, our understanding of these primitive asteroids needs to be reevaluated with respect to their potential inventory of biologically important organic compounds.