Kinematic Analysis of Near and Far Stars in the Hipparcos Catalog

The proper motions of stars in the main sequence and of luminosity class III giants are analyzed kinematically. A new method has been used for reliably separating all the parameters of the Ogorodnikov-Milne model based on representing the proper motions of the stars in coordinate systems whose poles lie on each of the three principal axes of the galactic trihedron. Solutions for stars in different spectral classes are obtained. The main sequence is found to subdivide into two zones (near and far stars) with a fairly sharp boundary at B-V=0.5. It is shown that the Parenago effect may be related to the different distances from the sun of the main sequence stars.     

Evolution of the Radio Luminosities of the Tycho and Kepler Supernovae Remnants

Radio emission of the historical supernovae remnants Tycho (SNR1572) and Kepler (SNR1604) and evolution of their luminosity are considered. Measurement data of secular luminosity decrease rate, obtained earlier by the authors, were corrected with account of variation in time of the flux density of the reference sources. As a result, it is found that the SNR1604 luminosity at 1667 MHz is weakening with an annual mean rate equal to (0.2 ± 0.07)%. The corresponding rate for SNR1572 is (0.47 ± 0.05)%. Since the radio luminosity evolution, as well as energy densities of magnetic field and relativistic electrons inside SNR1604 and SNR1572 are essentially different, these remnants should be considered as different types of supernovae. Bandiera classified SN1604 as type SNIb or SNII.     

Computer Simulation of Sputtering of Lunar Regolith by Solar Wind Protons: Contribution to Change of Surface Composition and to Hydrogen Flux at the Lunar Poles

A computer simulation of the sputtering of lunar soil by solar wind protons was performed with the TRIM program. The rate of the sputtering-induced erosion of regolith particles was shown to be less than 0.2 Å per year. A preferential sputtering of Ca, Mg, and O was found along with a less intense sputtering of Fe, Si, and Ti. However, with no other selection mechanisms, surface concentrations of the atoms would differ from the volume ones by no more than 6 %. The enrichment of rims of regolith particles with iron occurs as a result of selective removal of lighter atoms from the lunar surface because of different energies of escape from the Moon's gravity. The energy distributions proved to be the same for all sorts of the sputtered atoms, except for implanted hydrogen; thus, a greater fraction of the atoms left on the lunar surface corresponds to heavier elements. According to simulation results, the concentration of reduced iron observed in the mature regolith could be attained during the time of regolith particle exposure to the present flux of solar wind (10⁵ years). Thus, sputtering can provide the concentration of Fe₀ observed in regolith. On periphery of a cloud of impact vapor the temperature is too low for an irreversible selective removal of evaporation products; thus, a meteoritic bombardment contributes to the formation of composition of the rims of regolith particles mainly through enrichment of the rims with elements from the bulk of the particles. The estimates of fluxes of backscattered solar wind protons and of sputtered protons, earlier implanted to the regolith, demonstrated that their contribution to the proton flux near the poles is only 10⁴ cm^–2 s^–1. This is by two orders of magnitude smaller than the proton flux from the Earth's magnetosphere which is, therefore, the main source of protons for permanently shaded polar craters of the Moon.     

A Method for the Determination of an Intermediate Orbit from Three Positions of the Small Body on the Celestial Sphere

A new method is suggested for finding the preliminary orbit from three complete measurements of the angular coordinates of a celestial body developed by analogy with the classic Lagrange–Gauss method. The proposed method uses the intermediate orbit that we had constructed in an earlier paper based on two position vectors and the corresponding time interval. This intermediate orbit allows for most of the perturbations in the motion of the body. Using the orbital motion of asteroid 1566 Icarus as an example, we compare the results obtained by applying the classic and the new method. The comparison shows the new method to be highly efficient for studying perturbed motion. It is especially efficient if applied to high-precision observational data covering short orbital arcs.     

Late Quaternary vegetation changes around Lake Rutundu,Mount Kenya,East Africa: evidence from grass cuticles,pollen and stable carbon isotopes

Woody, subalpine shrubs and grasses currently surround Lake Rutundu, Mount Kenya. Multiple proxies, including carbon isotopes, pollen and grass cuticles, from a 755‐cm‐long core were used to reconstruct the vegetation over the past 38 300 calendar years. Stable carbon‐isotope ratios of total organic carbon and terrestrial biomarkers from the lake sediments imply that the proportion of terrestrial plants using the C₄ photosynthetic pathway was greater during the Late Pleistocene than in the Holocene. Pollen data show that grasses were a major constituent of the vegetation throughout the Late Pleistocene and Holocene. The proportion of grass pollen relative to the pollen from other plants was greatest at the last glacial maximum (LGM). Grass cuticles confirm evidence that C₄ grass taxa were present at the LGM and that the majority followed the cold‐tolerant NADP‐MEC₄ subpathway. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Palomar Testbed Interferometer Observations of Young Stellar Objects

We present observations of a sample of Herbig AeBe stars, as well as the FU Orionis object V1057 Cygni. Our K-band (2.2μm) observations from the Palomar Testbed Interferometer (PTI) used baselines of 110 m and 85 m, resulting in fringe spacings of ∼4 mas and 5 mas, respectively. Fringes were obtained for the first time on V1057 Cygnias well as V594 Cas. Additional measurements were made of MWC147, while upper limits to visibility-squared are obtained for MWC297, HD190073, and MWC614. These measurements are sensitive to the distribution of warm, circumstellar dust in these sources. If the circumstellar infrared emission comes from warm dust in a disk, the inclination of the disk to the line of sight implies that the observed interferometric visibilities should depend upon hour angle. Surprisingly, the observations of Millan-Gabet, Schloerb and Traub (2001)(hereafter MST) did not show significant variation with hour angle. However, limited sampling of angular frequencies on the sky was possible with the IOTA interferometer, motivating us to study a subset of their objects to further constrain these systems. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Loss of water from Mars:: Implications for the oxidation of the soil

The evolution of the martian atmosphere with regard to its H₂O inventory is influenced by thermal loss processes of H, H₂, nonthermal atmospheric loss processes of H⁺, H₂⁺, O, O⁺, CO₂, and O₂⁺ into space, as well as by chemical weathering of the surface soil. The evolution of thermal and nonthermal escape processes depend on the history of the intensity of the solar XUV radiation and the solar wind density. Thus, we use actual data from the observation of solar proxies with different ages from the Sun in Time program for reconstructing the Sun's radiation and particle environment from the present to 3.5 Gyr ago. The correlation between mass loss and X-ray surface flux of solar proxies follows a power law relationship, which indicates a solar wind density up to 1000 times higher at the beginning of the Sun's main sequence lifetime. For the study of various atmospheric escape processes we used a gas dynamic test particle model for the estimation of the pick up ion loss rates and considered pick up ion sputtering, as well as dissociative recombination. The loss of H₂O from Mars over the last 3.5 Gyr was estimated to be equivalent to a global martian H₂O ocean with a depth of about 12 m, which is smaller than the values reported by previous studies. If ion momentum transport, a process studied in detail by Mars Express is significant on Mars, the water loss may be enhanced by a factor of about 2. In our investigation we found that the sum of thermal and nonthermal atmospheric loss rates of H and all nonthermal escape processes of O to space are not compatible with a ratio of 2:1, and is currently close to about 20:1. Escape to space cannot therefore be the only sink for oxygen on Mars. Our results suggest that the missing oxygen (needed for the validation of the 2:1 ratio between H and O) can be explained by the incorporation into the martian surface by chemical weathering processes since the onset of intense oxidation about 2 Gyr ago. Based on the evolution of the atmosphere-surface-interaction on Mars, an overall global surface sink of about 2×10⁴² oxygen particles in the regolith can be expected. Because of the intense oxidation of inorganic matter, this process may have led to the formation of considerable amounts of sulfates and ferric oxides on Mars. To model this effect we consider several factors: (1) the amount of incorporated oxygen, (2) the inorganic composition of the martian soil and (3) meteoritic gardening. We show that the oxygen incorporation has also implications for the oxidant extinction depth, which is an important parameter to determine required sampling depths on Mars aimed at finding putative organic material. We found that the oxidant extinction depth is expected to lie in a range between 2 and 5 m for global mean values.