Scanning sky monitor (SSM) onboard AstroSat

Scanning Sky Monitor (SSM) onboard AstroSat is an Xray sky monitor in the soft X-ray band designed with a large field of view to detect and locate transient X-ray sources and alert the astronomical community about interesting phenomena in the X-ray sky. SSM comprises position sensitive proportional counters with 1D coded mask for imaging. There are three detector units mounted on a platform capable of rotation which helps covering about 50% of the sky in one full rotation. This paper discusses the elaborate details of the instrument and few immediate results from the instrument after launch.     

Period variation of Pc5 pulsations at high latitudes

Geomagnetic data for the year 1967 from seven Canadian observatories, spanning the subauroral, auroral and polar zones, have been analysed to investigate the characteristic variation of Pc5 period with several geophysical variables. Pulsations in the whole spectrum of Pc5 (period range 150–600 s) were found to occur at all of the observatories. Those with smaller periods occurred more frequently at lower latitudes while those with longer periods occurred more frequently at higher latitudes. Daily variation of the periods of Pc5 showed little change with seasons or with magnetic activity. Periods, in general, had two daily maxima which appeared at different local times in different zones. A predominant morning peak was noted at all stations except Baker Lake, where a mid-day maximum of the period was found. The Pc5 periods tended to increase with geomagnetic activity at lower latitude stations, and to decrease with activity at stations in the polar cap for low to moderateKp levels. At high activity levels these trends appeared to reverse, though results are less certain. In different seasons and for the whole year the periods increased almost linearly with latitude. However when similar analysis was done for individual hours of the day and for different magnetic activity groups, this linear relationship between period and geomagnetic latitude was not evident. Efforts to detect a 27-day recurrence tendency of Pc5 periods did not succeed.Contributions from the Earth Physics Branch No. 495.     

Be phenomenon in open clusters: results from a survey of emission-line stars in young open clusters

Emission-line stars in young open clusters are identified to study their properties, as a function of age, spectral type and evolutionary state. 207 open star clusters were observed using the slitless spectroscopy method and 157 emission stars were identified in 42 clusters. We have found 54 new emission-line stars in 24 open clusters, out of which 19 clusters are found to house emission stars for the first time. About 20 per cent clusters harbour emission stars. The fraction of clusters housing emission stars is maximum in both the 0–10 and 20–30 Myr age bin (∼40 per cent each). Most of the emission stars in our survey belong to Classical Be class (∼92 per cent) while a few are Herbig Be stars (∼6 per cent) and Herbig Ae stars (∼2 per cent). The youngest clusters to have Classical Be stars are IC 1590, NGC 637 and 1624 (all 4 Myr old) while NGC 6756 (125–150 Myr) is the oldest cluster to have Classical Be stars. The Classical Be stars are located all along the main sequence (MS) in the optical colour–magnitude diagrams (CMDs) of clusters of all ages, which indicates that the Be phenomenon is unlikely due to core contraction near the turn-off. The distribution of Classical Be stars as a function of spectral type shows peaks at B1–B2 and B6–B7 spectral types. The Be star fraction [N(Be)/N(B+Be)] is found to be less than 10 per cent for most of the clusters and NGC 2345 is found to have the largest fraction (∼26 per cent). Our results indicate there could be two mechanisms responsible for the Classical Be phenomenon. Some are born Classical Be stars (fast rotators), as indicated by their presence in clusters younger than 10 Myr. Some stars evolve to Classical Be stars, within the MS lifetime, as indicated by the enhancement in the fraction of clusters with Classical Be stars in the 20–30 Myr age bin.     

Development of a Speckle Interferometer and the Measurement of Fried's Parameter (ro) at the Telescope Site

A new optical speckle interferometer for use at the 2.34 meter Vainu Bappu Telescope (VBT), at Vainu Bappu Observatory (VBO), Kavalur, India, has been designed and developed. Provisions have been made for observation both at the prime focus (f/3,25), as well as at the Cassegrain focus (f/13) of the said telescope. The technical details of this sensitive instrument and the design features are described. An interface between the telescope and the afore-mentioned interferometer is made based on a concept of eliminating the formation of eddies due to the hot air entrapment. The performances of this instrument has been tested both at the laboratory, as well as at the Cassegrain end of the telescope. It is being used routinely to observe the speckle-grams of close-binary (separation < 1 arc second) stars. The size of the Fried's parameter, r_o, is also measured.     

Life-bearing primordial planets in the solar vicinity

The space density of life-bearing primordial planets in the solar vicinity may amount to ～8.1×10⁴?pc^?3 giving total of ～10¹⁴ throughout the entire galactic disk. Initially dominated by H₂ these planets are stripped of their hydrogen mantles when the ambient radiation temperature exceeds 3?K as they fall from the galactic halo to the mid-plane of the galaxy. The zodiacal cloud in our solar system encounters a primordial planet once every 26 My (on our estimate) thus intercepting an average mass of 10³ tonnes of interplanetary dust on each occasion. If the dust included microbial material that originated on Earth and was scattered via impacts or cometary sublimation into the zodiacal cloud, this process offers a way by which evolved genes from Earth life could become dispersed through the galaxy.     

Fast Transients with the Square Kilometre Array and its Pathfinders: An Indian Perspective

In the rapidly developing field of study of the transient sky, fast radio transients are perhaps the most exciting objects of scrutiny at present. The SKA, with its wide field-of-view and significant improvement in sensitivity over existing facilities, is expected to detect a plethora of fast transients which, in addition to help resolve the mysteries surrounding their nature and origin, will also lead to other interesting applications in astrophysics. We explore some of these possibilities here, and also emphasize the current status and future plans of the Indian community working in this area, in the context of ongoing work and extension of this to the SKA.     

Transition 212-303 May Help for Detection of Methylene in a Cool Cosmic Object

Astrophysics - Methylene is an important astrochemical compound. Though its laboratory spectrum was analyzed in 1982, its first unambiguous detection could be feasible after more than one decade in...     

Corrected Hawking temperature of Warped AdS3 rotating Black Hole by using tunneling method

In this paper, we have calculated the corrected Hawking temperature for the Warped AdS₃ rotating Black Hole by using the tunneling method beyond the semi-classical approximation for the Warped AdS₃ rotating Black Hole. For this purpose, we have isolated the r-t sector of the metric from the angular part throughout a coordinate transformation near the horizon.