Searching for Planetary Eclipses in Open Clusters: NGC 7086

In an attempt to discover planetary eclipses, we observed the open cluster NGC 7086. On one night we observed the cluster and standard stars through the B and V filters, enabling us to make a colour-magnitude diagram. Plots of the differential magnitudes were inspected for variability, but no planetary eclipses were found. New variable stars were discovered and their light curves show some of them to be eclipsing binary stars. The location on the colour-magnitude diagram of some of the variable stars is consistent with cluster membership.     

MAXIPOL: a balloon-borne experiment for measuring the polarization anisotropy of the cosmic microwave background radiation

We discuss MAXIPOL, a bolometric balloon-borne experiment designed to measure the E-mode polarization anisotropy of the cosmic microwave background radiation (CMB) on angular scales of 10^′ to 2°. MAXIPOL is the first CMB experiment to collect data with a polarimeter that utilizes a rotating half-wave plate and fixed wire-grid polarizer. We present the instrument design, elaborate on the polarimeter strategy and show the instrument performance during flight with some time domain data. Our primary dataset was collected during a 26 h turnaround flight that was launched from the National Scientific Ballooning Facility in Ft. Sumner, New Mexico in May 2003. During this flight five regions of the sky were mapped. Data analysis is in progress.     

Exchange and correlation interactions in electron-positron plasma

The effect of particle-particle interaction on the adiabatic index γ for an electron-positron plasma is considered. An improved method for numerically calculating the Hartree-Fock exchange integral is presented and its relativistic asymptotics is determined. An approximation formula is derived for the correlation part of the interaction in the low-density limit. This formula includes degeneracy and the positron component.     

39Ar‐40Ar ages of eucrites and thermal history of asteroid 4 Vesta

Abstract— Eucrite meteorites are igneous rocks that derived from a large asteroid, probably 4 Vesta. Past studies have shown that after most eucrites formed, they underwent metamorphism in temperatures up to ≥800°C. Much later, many were brecciated and heated by large impacts into the parent body surface. The less common basaltic, unbrecciated eucrites also formed near the surface but, presumably, escaped later brecciation, while the cumulate eucrites formed at depths where metamorphism may have persisted for a considerable period. To further understand the complex HED parent body thermal history, we determined new ³⁹Ar‐⁴⁰Ar ages for 9 eucrites classified as basaltic but unbrecciated, 6 eucrites classified as cumulate, and several basaltic‐brecciated eucrites. Precise Ar‐Ar ages of 2 cumulate eucrites (Moama and EET 87520) and 4 unbrecciated eucrites give a tight cluster at 4.48 ± 0.02 Gyr (not including any uncertainties in the flux monitor age). Ar‐Ar ages of 6 additional unbrecciated eucrites are consistent with this age within their relatively larger age uncertainties. By contrast, available literature data on Pb‐Pb isochron ages of 4 cumulate eucrites and 1 unbrecciated eucrite vary over 4.4–4.515 Gyr, and ¹⁴⁷Sm‐¹⁴³Nd isochron ages of 4 cumulate and 3 unbrecciated eucrites vary over 4.41–4.55 Gyr. Similar Ar‐Ar ages for cumulate and unbrecciated eucrites imply that cumulate eucrites do not have a younger formation age than basaltic eucrites, as was previously proposed. We suggest that these cumulate and unbrecciated eucrites resided at a depth where parent body temperatures were sufficiently high to cause the K‐Ar and some other chronometers to remain as open diffusion systems. From the strong clustering of Ar‐Ar ages at ?4.48 Gyr, we propose that these meteorites were excavated from depth in a single large impact event ?4.48 Gyr ago, which quickly cooled the samples and started the K‐Ar chronometer. A large (?460 km) crater postulated to exist on Vesta may be the source of these eucrites and of many smaller asteroids thought to be spectrally or physically associated with Vesta. Some Pb‐Pb and Sm‐Nd ages of cumulate and unbrecciated eucrites are consistent with the Ar‐Ar age of 4.48 Gyr, and the few older Pb‐Pb and Sm‐Nd ages may reflect an isotopic closure before the large cratering event. One cumulate eucrite gives an Ar‐Ar age of 4.25 Gyr; 3 additional cumulate eucrites give Ar‐Ar ages of 3.4–3.7 Gyr; and 2 unbrecciated eucrites give Ar‐Ar ages of ?3.55 Gyr. We attribute these younger ages to a later impact heating. Furthermore, the Ar‐Ar impact‐reset ages of several brecciated eucrites and eucritic clasts in howardites fall within the range of 3.5–4.1 Gyr. Among these, Piplia Kalan, the first eucrite to show evidence for extinct ²⁶Al, was strongly impact heated ?3.5 Gyr ago. When these data are combined with eucrite Ar‐Ar ages in the literature, they confirm that several large impact heating events occurred on Vesta between ?4.1–3.4 Gyr ago. The onset of major impact heating may have occurred at similar times for both Vesta and the moon, but impact heating appears to have persisted for a somewhat later time on Vesta.     

Comparison between polar regions of Mars from HEND/Odyssey data

In this paper, we have analyzed neutron spectroscopy data gathered by the High Energy Neutron Detector (HEND) instrument onboard Mars Odyssey for comparison of polar regions. It is known that observation of the neutron albedo of Mars provides important information about the distribution of water-ice in subsurface layers and about peculiarities of the CO₂ seasonal cycle. It was found that there are large water-rich permafrost areas with contents of up to ∼50% water by mass fraction at both the north and south Mars polar regions. The water-ice layers at high northern latitudes are placed close to the surface, but in the south they are covered by a dry and relatively thick (10-20 cm) layer of soil. Analysis of temporal variations of neutron flux between summer and winter seasons allowed the estimation of the masses of the CO₂ deposits which seasonally condense at the polar regions. The total mass of the southern seasonal deposition was estimated as 6.3×¹⁰¹⁵ kg, which is larger than the total mass of the seasonal deposition at the north by 40-50%. These results are in good agreement with predictions from the NASA Ames Research Center General Circulation Model (GCM). But, the dynamics of the condensation and sublimation processes are not quite as consistent with these models: the peak accumulation of the condensed mass of CO₂ occurred 10-15 degrees of Ls later than is predicted by the GCM.     

Swimming with…Devonian fish

Armoured jawless fish, or 'ostracoderms', lived 450–360 million years ago, and display unusual morphologies, unlike any modern fish group. Since they left no living descendants, their mode of swimming has, until recently, remained speculative, although this is a crucial question as the first true pectoral fins evolved within the 'ostracoderms'. The discovery of the oldest-known fish trails, from the Early Devonian (400 million year old) 'Lower Old Red Sandstone' of south-east Wales offers new insights into the swimming behaviour of these early fish, notably the osteostracan 'ostracoderms' (or cephalaspids), whose horseshoe-shaped head and paddle-shaped pectoral fins have remained a functional riddle.     

Collisionless Slowing Down of Nova and Supernova Shells in Magnetized Interstellar Medium

The collisionless interaction of an expanding plasma cloud with a magnetized background plasma is examined in the framework of a 3D kinetic-hydrodynamic model. The slowing down of a hydrogen cloud is studied for high Alfven-Mach numbers and magneto-laminar interaction parameters. A particle-in-cell method is used to study the dynamics of the magnetic field, plasma cloud, background plasma, and collisionless shock wave generated by the intense particle flux. A numerical simulation is consistent with the nonstationary interactions between the plasma shells formed during nova and supernova explosions and the interstellar plasma medium.