Radio-silent isolated neutron stars as a new astronomical reality

Summary. As of today, seven X-ray sources have been tentatively identified as radio-quiet, isolated neutron stars. The family appears to be a rapidly growing one, although not all the objects have been identified with the same degree of certainty. The most convincing example of radio quiet pulsar is certainly Geminga, the neutron star nature of which, proposed in 1983 on the basis of its similarity with the Vela pulsar, has been firmly established with the discovery of its X and pulsation. Four more neutron star candidates, originally found in the Einstein data, have been confirmed by ROSAT, which has added to the list two more entries. All this is not the result of an unbiased search. The seven sources were not selected at random: four are inside supernova remnants, an obvious place to search for isolated neutron stars, while the remaining three were singled out because of some peculiarity. Intense -ray emission in the case of Geminga, very high X-ray counting rate for RXJ185635-3754, or being the brightest unidentified source in the Einstein medium sensitivity survey, MS 0317-6647. In spite of the limited number of objects and of the observational biases, these seven radio quiet neutron star candidates add valuable pieces of information to the observational panorama of known pulsars. Their properties, inferred from the X-ray emission, offer a coherent picture, pointing towards thermally emitting, cooling neutron stars. Received: April 1, 1996     

Relative contributions of sublimation and volcanoes to Io's atmosphere inferred from its plasma interaction during solar eclipse

We present a model that describes Io's delayed electrodynamic response to a temporal change in Io's atmosphere. Our model incorporates the relevant physical processes involved in Io's atmosphere-ionosphere-magnetosphere electrodynamic interaction to predict the far-ultraviolet (FUV) radiation as Io enters Jupiter's shadow and re-emerges into sunlight. The predicted FUV brightnesses are highly nonlinear as the strength of the electrodynamic interaction depends on the ratios of ionospheric conductances to the torus Alfvén conductance, but the former are functions of electrodynamics and the atmospheric density, which decays rapidly upon entering eclipse. Key factors governing the time evolution are the column density due to sublimation and the column density due to volcanoes, which maintain the background atmosphere during eclipse. The plasma interaction does not react instantaneously, but lags to a temporarily changing atmosphere. We find three qualitatively different scenarios with two of them including a post-eclipse brightening. The brightness ratio of in-sunlight/in-eclipse coupled with the existence of a sub-jovian equatorial spot constrains the volcanic column density to several times 10¹⁸ m⁻², based on the currently available observations. Thus in sunlight, the sublimation driven part of Io's atmosphere dominates the volcanically driven contribution by roughly a factor of 10 or more.     

Surface and deep water response to rapid climate changes at the Western Iberian Margin

Rapid climate changes at the onset of the last deglaciation and during Heinrich Event H4 were studied in detail at IMAGES cores MD95-2039 and MD95-2040 from the Western Iberian margin. A major reorganisation of surface water hydrography, benthic foraminiferal community structure, and deepwater isotopic composition commenced already 540 years before the Last Isotopic Maximum (LIM) at 17.43 cal. ka and within 670 years affected all environments. Changes were initiated by meltwater spill in the Nordic Seas and northern North Atlantic that commenced 100 years before concomitant changes were felt off western Iberia. Benthic foraminiferal associations record the drawdown of deepwater oxygenation during meltwater and subsequent Heinrich Events H1 and H4 with a bloom of dysoxic species. At a water depth of 3380 m, benthic oxygen isotopes depict the influence of brines from sea ice formation during ice-rafting pulses and meltwater spill. The brines conceivably were a source of ventilation and provided oxygen to the deeper water masses. Some if not most of the lower deep water came from the South Atlantic. Benthic foraminiferal assemblages display a multi-centennial, approximately 300-year periodicity of oxygen supply at 2470-m water depth. This pattern suggests a probable influence of atmospheric oscillations on the thermohaline convection with frequencies similar to Holocene climate variations. For Heinrich Events H1 and H4, response times of surface water properties off western Iberia to meltwater injection to the Nordic Seas were extremely short, in the range of a few decades only. The ensuing reduction of deepwater ventilation commenced within 500–600 years after the first onset of meltwater spill. These fast temporal responses lend credence to numerical simulations that indicate ocean–climate responses on similar and even faster time scales.