Chemical abundances determined from meteor spectra: I. Ratios of the main chemical elements

Abstract— Relative chemical abundances of 13 meteoroids were determined by averaging the composition of the radiating gas along the fireball path that originated during their penetration into the Earth's atmosphere. Mg, Fe, Ni, Cr, Mn, and Co abundances, relative to Si, are similar to those reported for CI and CM carbonaceous chondrites and interplanetary dust particles. In contrast, relative abundances of Ca and Ti in meteor spectra indicate that these elements suffer incomplete evaporation processes. The chemical composition of all meteoroids studied in this work differs from that of 1P/Halley dust.     

A search for high-redshift molecular absorption lines towards millimetre-loud, optically faint quasars

We describe initial results of a search for redshifted molecular absorption towards four millimetre-loud, optically faint quasars. A wide frequency bandwidth of up to 23 GHz per quasar was scanned using the Swedish–ESO Submillimetre Telescope at La Silla. Using a search list of commonly detected molecules, we obtained nearly complete redshift coverage up to   z _abs= 5  . The sensitivity of our data is adequate to have revealed absorption systems with characteristics similar to those seen in the four known redshifted millimetre-band absorption systems, but none were found. Our frequency-scan technique nevertheless demonstrates the value of wide-band correlator instruments for searches such as these. We suggest that a somewhat larger sample of similar observations should lead to the discovery of new millimetre-band absorption systems.     

Formation of ω Centauri from an ancient nucleated dwarf galaxy in the young Galactic disc

We first present a self-consistent dynamical model in which ω Cen is formed from an ancient nucleated dwarf galaxy merging with the first generation of the Galactic thin disc in a retrograde manner with respect to the Galactic rotation. Our numerical simulations demonstrate that during merging between the Galaxy and the ω Cen host dwarf with   M _B≃−14 mag  and its nucleus mass of  10⁷ M⊙  , the outer stellar envelope of the dwarf is nearly completely stripped, whereas the central nucleus can survive from the tidal stripping because of its compactness. The developed naked nucleus has a very bound retrograde orbit around the young Galactic disc, as observed for ω Cen, with apocentre and pericentre distances of ∼8 and ∼1 kpc, respectively. The Galactic tidal force can induce radial inflow of gas to the centre of the dwarf and consequently triggers moderately strong nuclear starbursts in a repetitive manner. This result implies that efficient nuclear chemical enrichment resulting from the later starbursts can be closely associated with the origin of the observed relatively young and metal-rich stars in ω Cen. Dynamical heating by the ω Cen host can transform the young thin disc into the thick disc during merging.     

Non-Existence of New Meromorphic First Integrals in the Planar Three-Body Problem

We consider the planar three-body problem and prove that, apart from some exceptional cases, there is no additional first integral meromorphic with respect to positions, mutual distances and momenta.