White-light promoted degradation of leucopterin and related pteridines dissolved in seawater, with evidence for involvement of complexation from major divalent cations of seawater

The photochemical instability of several related pteridines in seawater was investigated by aseptic incubation of solutions at 20–22°C under illumination from cool-white light of intensity 6 kerg cm⁻² sec⁻¹, and the chemical changes were spectrophotometrically monitored. All the pteridines showed markedly accelerated degradation from this illumination relative to their behaviour in total darkness.Pterin and lumazine were degraded very slowly with zero-order reaction kinetics, while the other pteridines photolysed rapidly (according to first-order kinetics) with decomposition rates increasing in the order dioxylumazine (2,4,6,7-tetrahydroxypteridine) < leucopterin < isoxanthopterin < xanthopterin < oxylumazine (2,4,6-trihydroxypteridine). Excepting leucopterin and dioxylumazine, the photolysis rates were attributable to the pH of seawater and not its salt content; this was also the case with oxylumazine which required the salt content of seawater for decomposition in darkness. Leucopterin and dioxylumazine (both 6,7-dihydroxylated pteridines) gave evidence of complexation with the major divalent cations (Ca²⁺, Mg²⁺) of seawater, by virtue of which their photolytic degradation rates were enhanced to magnitudes obtained in pH-10 buffer without seawater. It is proposed that such complexation produces structural forms of these pteridines analogous to their normal ionic forms at pH 10–12.The photolysis of the 6-hydroxylated pteridines (xanthopterin, oxylumazine) proceeded via intermediate formation of their corresponding 7-hydroxylated derivatives (leucopterin, dioxylumazine).     

Cometary collisions and the dark material on Iapetus

Iapetus (S8) is unique in our solar system in that the albedo of its leading hemisphere is only 0.05 while that of the trailing side is 0.5. Several existing hypotheses are examined and found inadequate. Photometric studies of the dark side are compared to comet nuclei and class D asteroids. It is hypothesized that in the last 10⁶–10⁸ yrs the leading side suffered a high-velocity collision with a cometary body of mass 10¹³–10¹⁵ kg and traveling at a speed of 20 km s^–1. About 5–16% of the excavated material was ejected into space, where the vaporized ices dissipated while the dark carbonaceous/silicate material was reaccreted on the leading side. The collision, although not sufficient to break Iapetus' tidal lock, resulted in a period of oscillation of about 5 yr. Until tidal friction reasserted a lock, the oscillation gave rise to the longitude effect, viz., the observed fact that the dark material covers more than 220 of longitude but only 110 of latitude.     

Interpretation of a special fine structure in type-IV solar radio bursts

A special fine structure (slowly drifting chains of narrowband fiber bursts), firstly observed during the solar type-IV radio burst on April 24, 1985, is interpreted as the radio signature of whistler waves periodically excited by a switch-on/switch-off process of a loss-cone instability in a localized wave packet of the fast magnetoacoustic mode.     

Irish on the move

Trends in emigration from Ireland over time are reviewed. "During the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries overseas migration to the United States and seasonal harvest migration to Britain were the main types of movement, but over the past 100 years the Irish have developed a special affinity for settling in British towns. Although the outflow was halted for a time during the 1970s, when return migration took over, the 1980s have seen a renewal of the exodus. This time, however, the character of the flow has changed from predominantly low-skill construction and factory workers to embrace better-educated emigrants, including many graduates. This shift reflects Ireland's changing position in the international market for labour."     

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.     

The center-to-limb variations of four Ca i lines in the photospheric spectrum at λ6500

We study the center-limb (CL) variation of the average profiles of four Ca i lines near 6500 and compare these observations with synthetic data obtained from several line formation models having different thermal structures, line parameters, LTE and non-LTE conditions, and micro and macroturbulence values, to assess the formation characteristics of our Ca i lines in the solar photosphere.Comparison of numerical results with observations indicates that non-LTE is indispensable to fit the CL variation of the central residual intensity for the line 6493, and anisotropic microturbulence is indispensable to improve the CL behavior of the equivalent widths for all lines. The Ca i line analysis favors a cool photospheric model, but this cannot be disentangled clearly from the effects of non-LTE and small-scale velocity fields on the grounds of the present line formation models.     

Unusually low coronal radio emission at the solar minimum

We present two-dimensional observations of the quiet Sun at 73.8, 50.0, and 38.5 MHz obtained with the Clark Lake Radioheliograph during the sunspot minimum period of September 1986. The observed peak brightness temperatures during the entire period of sunspot minimum are found to be extremely low, lying in the range (0.6 × 10⁵ K – 2.5 × 10⁵ K). It is shown that these low values cannot be explained by the generally adopted models for N _e and T _e in a homogeneous corona. The effect of scattering by random density fluctuations is introduced in order to decrease the values of predicted T _b . The value of peak T _b is computed as a function of relative r.m.s. density fluctuations = <N _e >/N _e ; and it is found that should be in the range from 0.07 to 0.19, 0.1 to 0.25, and 0.15 to 0.35, respectively, at 38.5, 50.0, and 73.8 MHz, respectively, to explain the observed low brightness temperatures.On leave from Indian Institute of Astrophysics, Bangalore, India.     

Photometric investigation of the evolved contact binary system DN Aur

We present here the photometric light curve analyses of the eclipsing binary star DN Aur. The CCD photometry, performed at the Behlen observatory using the 0.76 m automated telescope gave 646 individual data points inV andR bandpass filters. From this data we have determined a new epoch and an orbital period of 0.6168891 days. The published spectral classification is F3.The Wilson-Devinney model was used to derive the photometric solutions. DN Aur is a W UMa type contact binary system. The mass ratio, (q=m ₂/m ₁0.210, where star 2 is eclipsed at the primary minimum) suggests that the system has A-type configuration. The computed light curve has a third light of about 22 percent and a total eclipse in the secondary minimum. A solution with a cool spot on the secondary component is also found. We recommend spectroscopic study of DN Aur even though the light curve analysis show it to be a single line spectroscopic system. Generally contact systems of spectral type F3 have periods ranging from 0.25 to 0.5 days. The longer period of DN Aur suggests that it is an evolved contact system with case A mass transfer.