Luciola hypertelescope space observatory: versatile, upgradable high-resolution imaging, from stars to deep-field cosmology

Luciola is a large (1 km) “multi-aperture densified-pupil imaging interferometer”, or “hypertelescope” employing many small apertures, rather than a few large ones, for obtaining direct snapshot images with a high information content. A diluted collector mirror, deployed in space as a flotilla of small mirrors, focuses a sky image which is exploited by several beam-combiner spaceships. Each contains a “pupil densifier” micro-lens array to avoid the diffractive spread and image attenuation caused by the small sub-apertures. The elucidation of hypertelescope imaging properties during the last decade has shown that many small apertures tend to be far more efficient, regarding the science yield, than a few large ones providing a comparable collecting area. For similar underlying physical reasons, radio-astronomy has also evolved in the direction of many-antenna systems such as the proposed Low Frequency Array having “hundreds of thousands of individual receivers”. With its high limiting magnitude, reaching the m _v?=?30 limit of HST when 100 collectors of 25 cm will match its collecting area, high-resolution direct imaging in multiple channels, broad spectral coverage from the 1,200 Å ultra-violet to the 20 μm infra-red, apodization, coronagraphic and spectroscopic capabilities, the proposed hypertelescope observatory addresses very broad and innovative science covering different areas of ESA’s Cosmic Vision program. In the initial phase, a focal spacecraft covering the UV to near IR spectral range of EMCCD photon-counting cameras (currently 200 to 1,000 nm), will image details on the surface of many stars, as well as their environment, including multiple stars and clusters. Spectra will be obtained for each resel. It will also image neutron star, black-hole and micro-quasar candidates, as well as active galactic nuclei, quasars, gravitational lenses, and other Cosmic Vision targets observable with the initial modest crowding limit. With subsequent upgrade missions, the spectral coverage can be extended from 120 nm to 20 μm, using four detectors carried by two to four focal spacecraft. The number of collector mirrors in the flotilla can also be increased from 12 to 100 and possibly 1,000. The imaging and spectroscopy of habitable exoplanets in the mid infra-red then becomes feasible once the collecting area reaches 6 m², using a specialized mid infra-red focal spacecraft. Calculations (Boccaletti et al., Icarus 145, 628–636, 2000) have shown that hypertelescope coronagraphy has unequalled sensitivity for detecting, at mid infra-red wavelengths, faint exoplanets within the exo-zodiacal glare. Later upgrades will enable the more difficult imaging and spectroscopy of these faint objects at visible wavelengths, using refined techniques of adaptive coronagraphy (Labeyrie and Le Coroller 2004). Together, the infra-red and visible spectral data carry rich information on the possible presence of life. The close environment of the central black-hole in the Milky Way will be imageable with unprecedented detail in the near infra-red. Cosmological imaging of remote galaxies at the limit of the known universe is also expected, from the ultra-violet to the near infra-red, following the first upgrade, and with greatly increasing sensitivity through successive upgrades. These areas will indeed greatly benefit from the upgrades, in terms of dynamic range, limiting complexity of the objects to be imaged, size of the elementary “Direct Imaging Field”, and limiting magnitude, approaching that of an 8-m space telescope when 1,000 apertures of 25 cm are installed. Similar gains will occur for addressing fundamental problems in physics and cosmology, particularly when observing neutron stars and black holes, single or binary, including the giant black holes, with accretion disks and jets, in active galactic nuclei beyond the Milky Way. Gravitational lensing and micro-lensing patterns, including time-variable patterns and perhaps millisecond lensing flashes which may be beamed by diffraction from sub-stellar masses at sub-parsec distances (Labeyrie, Astron Astrophys 284, 689, 1994), will also be observable initially in the favourable cases, and upgrades will greatly improve the number of observable objects. The observability of gravitational waves emitted by binary lensing masses, in the form of modulated lensing patterns, is a debated issue (Ragazzoni et al., MNRAS 345, 100–110, 2003) but will also become addressable observationally. The technology readiness of Luciola approaches levels where low-orbit testing and stepwise implementation will become feasible in the 2015–2025 time frame. For the following decades beyond 2020, once accurate formation flying techniques will be mastered, much larger hypertelescopes such as the proposed 100 km Exo-Earth Imager and the 100,000 km Neutron Star Imager should also become feasible. Luciola is therefore also seen as a precursor toward such very powerful instruments.     

A meteorite crater on Earth formed on September 15, 2007: The Carancas hypervelocity impact

Abstract— On September 15, 2007, a bright fireball was observed and a big explosion was heard by many inhabitants near the southern shore of Lake Titicaca. In the community of Carancas (Peru), a 13.5 m crater and several fragments of a stony meteorite were found close to the site of the impact. The Carancas event is the first impact crater whose formation was directly observed by several witnesses as well as the first unambiguous seismic recording of a crater‐forming meteorite impact on Earth. We present several lines of evidence that suggest that the Carancas crater was a hypervelocity impact. An event like this should have not occurred according to the accepted picture of stony meteoroids ablating in the Earth's atmosphere, therefore it challenges our present models of entry dynamics. We discuss alternatives to explain this particular event. This emphasizes the weakness in the pervasive use of “average” parameters (such as tensile strength, fragmentation behavior and ablation behavior) in current modeling efforts. This underscores the need to examine a full range of possible values for these parameters when drawing general conclusions from models about impact processes.     

斜拉桥主桥营运期间的变形监测方法研究--以湘潭湘江三大桥为例

变形监测是大跨度桥梁营运期间不可缺少的部分。本文介绍了湘潭湘江三大桥主桥在营运期间桥梁内部的微观测量和桥梁外部的宏观测量,表明综合测量是了解桥梁“健康”的有效方法,同时对其宏观测量的应用模型和数据精度进行了分析。     

GPS干扰和抗干扰技术的研究

在简要叙述GPS原理、分析GPS弱点基础上,结合伊拉克战争中关、伊两军对GPS的应用及干扰与抗干扰的实施,对GPS深入开展研究,给出了对GPS进行干扰的主要技术方式和提高系统抗干扰能力的主要技术措施。     

钛磁铁矿的制备及其异相Fenton反应催化性能

在水相中合成了钛磁铁矿（Fe3-xTixO4）,并用XRD、MSssbauer、TG-DSC和SEM等手段对合成的Fe3-xTixO4进行了表征。结果表明,合成的Fe3-xTixO4为立方晶系尖晶石结构,样品中的钛离子都已经进入其晶格中;钛掺杂有抑制钛磁铁矿进一步向钛磁赤铁矿转化和稳定尖晶石结构的作用。此外,以亚甲基蓝降解为探针反应,考察了钛磁铁矿异相Fenton反应的催化性能。实验表明,钛含量较高的钛磁铁矿是一种性能优越的异相Fenton反应催化剂。     

龙门山泥盆纪腕足化石锶同位素组成特征及其古环境意义

生物成因的海相碳酸盐岩中Sr同位素组成与演化是目前研究古海平面变化、造山运动以及古气候变化的主要工具,在海相地层定年及全球等时对比研究中发挥着重要作用。对四川龙门山泥盆纪剖面腕足化石Sr同位素组成进行了研究。保存鉴定结果显示：腕足化石壳体结构保存完整;阴极射线照射下壳体不发光或部分壳体呈微弱橙黄色;大多数壳体微量元素Mn〈250μg／g、Sr〉400μg／g。表明腕足化石保存完好,后期成岩作用影响微弱。锶同位素结果显示：龙门山泥盆纪sr同位素演化同全球泥盆纪Sr同位素演化基本一致,表明龙门山泥盆纪Sr同位素演化受全球性变化影响。早泥盆世较高Sr同位素比值（甘溪组0．708437）可能是受加里东造山运动的影响,大量古陆的出露,风化作用的加强所致。其后的缓慢下降可能受海平面上升古陆面积缩小的影响。中泥盆世Sr同位素组成低值平台显示着幔源Sr和陆源Sr（风化作用较弱）输入量之间的平衡。随后的Sr同位素组成的上升可能是受中泥盆世开始温度上升的影响,致使风化作用的加强所致。     

东秦岭八里坡钼矿床地球化学 特征与深部成矿预测

东秦岭地区八里坡钼矿床是近年在金堆城钼矿床外围找矿中新发现的,野外地质观察显示岩体与矿体北东倾伏,有向南西深部延伸的趋势,而且最厚矿体出现在西南边界(ZK2101);地球化学研究证明岩体具有高硅、富碱、富钠特征,高钾钙碱性系列岩类,具有成钼多金属矿的潜力;石英包裹体测温与矿物电子探针分析指示了八里坡钼矿床具有中高温、高盐度热液成矿特征,具有很好的成矿条件,而且平均温度与平均盐度向南西有增大的趋势,值得加强矿区西南深部矿体的探测.     

Objectives of fisheries management: case studies from the UK, France, Spain and Denmark

The main objectives of fisheries management are generally similar throughout the world. These are often stated in policy documents such as the Common Fisheries Policy and the Magnuson–Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act. However, at the local level often the key objectives of management are more detailed, characterised by both the overriding management structure and the status and type of fishery concerned. In this paper, we consider case study fisheries from the UK, France, Spain and Denmark to compare some of the various types of fisheries and fisheries management systems that exist in the European Union. From this, we define the key objectives for each management system.     

POS辅助光束法区域网平差

介绍POS数据与摄影测量观测值联合平差的基本原理,推导了平差基础误差方程,并利用自行研制的POS辅助光束法区域网平差系统WuCAPS对摄自两个平坦地区的1:2 500和1:60 000比例尺两种航摄影像进行了试验.结果表明,利用POS系统测定的未检校与经检校场检校后的影像定向参数辅助光束法区域网平差的结果基本是一致的.此时,仅需在区域四角各布设1个平高地面控制点就能满足航空摄影测量加密的精度要求,这不但减少摄影测量加密野外像片控制点的联测工作量,而且避免了使用POS系统时必须设置专门检校场的繁琐检校,可以明显提高航空摄影效率,节省POS使用成本,有利于POS系统的大规模推广应用.     

Feature Construction and Identification of Convective Wind from Doppler Radar Data

Convective wind is one of the common types of severe convective weather. Identification and Forecasting of con- vective wind are essential. In this paper, five ...