EChO spectra and stellar activity – I

Stellar activity is the major astrophysical limiting factor for the study of planetary atmospheres. Its variability and spectral characteristics may affect the extraction of the planetary signal even for moderately active stars. A technique based on spectral change in the visible band was developed to estimate the effects in the infrared due to star activity. This method has been purposely developed for the EChO mission which had the crucial characteristics of monitoring simultaneously a broadband from visible to infrared. Thanks to this capability the optical spectrum, whose variations are mainly due to stellar activity, has been used as in an instantaneous calibrator to correct the infrared spectrum. The technique is based on principal component analysis which significantly reduces the dimensionality of the spectra. The method was tested on a set of simulations with realistic photon noise. It can be generalized to any chromatic variability effects provided that optical and infrared variations are correlated.     

The carbonate-hosted willemite prospects of the Zambezi Metamorphic Belt (Zambia)

Zambian willemite (Zn₂SiO₄) deposits occur in the metasedimentary carbonate rocks of the Proterozoic Katangan Supergroup. The most important orebodies are located around Kabwe and contain both sulphides and willemite in dolomites of low metamorphic grade. The Star Zinc and Excelsior prospects (Lusaka area), discovered in the early 1920s, occur in the metamorphic lithotypes of the late Proterozoic Zambezi Supracrustal sequence, which were deposited in a transtensional basin formed during the oblique collision of the Kalahari and Congo cratons. The deposits are hosted by the limestone and dolomitic marbles of the Cheta and Lusaka Formations. Structural analysis indicates that several fracture sets host the deposits, which may be genetically related to the Pan-African Mwembeshi dislocation zone (a major geotectonic boundary between the Lufilian Arc and the Zambezi Belt). In both prospects, willemite replaces the marbles and is found along joints and fissures with open-space filling textures and locally may develop colloform and vuggy fabrics as well. Silver as well as traces of germanium and cadmium have been detected within the willemite ore, and lead or zinc sulphides are scarce or absent. Calcite locally replaces willemite. Willemite is associated with specular hematite and franklinite and post-dates the Zn-spinel gahnite in the paragenesis. Genthelvite [Zn₄Be₃(SiO₄)₃S] occurs as a minor phase in irregular aggregates. The willemites from the Lusaka area, though Mn-poor, show green cathodoluminescence colours and bright green fluorescence in short-wave UV (as the high-temperature willemites in USA). Thermometric analyses of primary fluid inclusions in willemite yield homogenization temperatures that range from 160°C to 240°C and salinities of 8–16 wt.% equiv. NaCl. The homogenization temperatures suggest a hypogene–hydrothermal origin for the willemite concentrations. The geochemistry of fluid inclusion leachates suggests that the hydrothermal fluids were brines derived from highly evaporated seawater. Precise age constraints are currently lacking for the Lusaka area deposits, though the deposits are not deformed, indicating that they post-date the Lufilian orogeny (~520 Ma). The possibility of precursor ores exists; the gahnite–franklinite–willemite deposits could have been derived from a metamorphosed primary sulphide (or even nonsulphide) concentration that has subsequently been completely destroyed. However, there is no real evidence of such a primary source for the willemite mineral association. The Lusaka zinc ores may have been produced by an extensive hydrothermal system, with fluids discharging along basinal fracture zones controlled by the pre-Pan-African rifting stage. A paragenesis similar to that of the Lusaka prospects has been proposed to be a vector towards massive sulphide ores in several parts of the world; therefore, it is possible that these small willemite showings in Zambia may be part of a much bigger, and still unexplored, zinc province.     

Photospheric Abundance Peculiarities in RS CVn Binaries

It is shown that Kantowski–Sachs cosmological models do not exist in Rosen's (1973) bimetric theory of gravitation when the source of gravitation is either perfect fluid or cosmic string. Hence, the vacuum model is constructed.     

Nephelines from the Somma-Vesuvius volcanic complex (Southern Italy): crystal-chemical,structural and genetic investigations

Sixteen nephelines from different geological occurrences were sampled at the type-locality, the Somma-Vesuvius volcanic complex (southern Italy), and investigated for their chemistry and crystal structure obtained by both single-crystal and powder X-ray diffraction. Nepheline-bearing samples are metamorphic or from magmatic ejecta and pumice deposits. The lower K contents characterize the pumice- and some metamorphic-derived nephelines, whereas the higher ones are found in some samples from magmatic nodules. The amount of the anorthite molecule, quite low on average, can be more variable in the metamorphic nephelines. The crystal-structure investigations on Somma-Vesuvius samples compare well with previous studies of natural nephelines. All 16 nepheline samples adopt space group P6₃. The observed lattice parameters vary between 9.9768–9.9946 Å (for a) and 8.3614–8.3777 Å (for c), respectively. Furthermore, chemical analysis revealed that all specimens exhibit an excess of Si relative the ideal Si:Al ratio of 1:1. The analysis of the T-O distances in our samples clearly indicates a distinct ordering process of aluminium and silicon on the tetrahedral sites which is an agreement with Loewenstein’s rule. A linear correlation between the distance of symmetry equivalent split atoms O(1)-O(1)’ and the T(1)-O(1)-T(2) tilt angle was observed. The average <B-O> (B = Na) distances of all crystals are very similar which is consistent with the outcome of the site population refinement indicating full occupancy with sodium. Oriented precession-type sections of reciprocal space indicated the presence of at least the most intense family of satellite peaks, demonstrating that this group of satellite reflections can occur not only in nephelines from pegmatites and ijolites but also in rocks from completely different petrological settings.