TAOS – The Taiwanese‐American Occultation Survey

The Taiwanese‐American Occultation Survey (TAOS) seeks to determine the number and size spectrum for small (∼3 km) bodies in the Kuiper Belt. This will be accomplished by searching for the brief occultations of bright stars (R ∼ 14) by these objects. We have designed and built a special purpose photometric monitoring system for this purpose. TAOS comprises four 50 cm telescopes, each equipped with a 2048 × 2048 pixel CCD camera, in a compact array located in the central highlands of Taiwan. TAOS will monitor up to 2 000 stars at 5 Hz. The system went into scientific operation in the autumn of 2005. (© 2006 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

Test area of the SAGE survey

Sky surveys represent one of the most important efforts to improve developments in astrophysics,especially when using new photometric bands. We are performing the Stellar Abundance and Galactic Evolution(SAGE) survey with a self-designed SAGE photometric system, which is composed of eight photometric bands. The project mainly aims to study the stellar atmospheric parameters of ～0.5 billion stars in ～12 000 deg2 of the northern sky, which mainly focuses on Galactic astronomy, as well as some aspects of extragalactic astronomy. This work introduces the detailed data reduction process of the test field NGC 6791, including the data reduction of single-exposure images and stacked multi-exposure images, and properties of the final catalog.     

The potential of FAST in detecting celestial hydroxyl masers and related science topics

The Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical radio Telescope(FAST) will make contributions to studies of Galactic and extragalactic masers. This telescope, with construction finished and now undergoing commissioning, has an innovative design that leads to the highest sensitivity of any single dish radio telescope in the world. FAST's potential for OH megamaser research is discussed, including the sky density of masers detectable in surveys. The scientific impact expected from FAST maser studies is also discussed.     

CCD astrometric observations of 2017 VR12, Camillo and Midas

We have observed three near-Earth objects(NEOs), 2017 VR12, Camillo and Midas, during 2018.The observations were made with the 1-m telescope, operated by Yunnan Observatories, over two nights.Their precise astrometric positions are derived from 989 CCD observations. The theoretical positions of asteroids are retrieved from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory(JPL) Horizons System and Institut de M′ecanique C′eleste et de Calcul des ′Eph′em′erides(IMCCE). The positions of three asteroids are measured with respect to stars in the Gaia DR2 star catalog. For 2017 VR12, the means(O-C) of right ascension and declination are -0.090′′and-0.623′′respectively based on the published JPL ephemeris, but the corresponding means(O-C) are 3.122′′and-0.636′′based on the published IMCCE ephemeris. The great difference in declination could be explained by several factors.(1) The degraded CCD images caused by the fast apparent motion of the objects lead to a reduction in positioning accuracy.(2) The poor timing system may introduce systematic errors, especially in the high speed direction.(3) The asteroid may be perturbed by Earth when it approaches the Earth too closely. These astrometric results demonstrate that the centroid centering method can reduce the dispersion of non-Gaussian images as compared with the PSF modeling method.For Camillo and Midas, the astrometric results are consistent based on the two ephemerides. Implementing a high-precision timing system, and analyzing some astronomical effects and geometric distortions in CCD images should be carefully considered in future works.     

Low-mass and high-mass supermassive black holes in radio-loud AGNs are spun-up in different evolution paths

How supermassive black holes(SMBHs) are spun-up is a key issue in modern astrophysics. As an extension to the study in Wang et al., here we address the issue by comparing the host galaxy properties of nearby(z 0.05) radio-selected Seyfert 2 galaxies. With the two-dimensional bulge+disk decompositions for the SDSS r-band images, we identify a dichotomy in various host galaxy properties for radio-loud SMBHs. By assuming that radio emission from the jet reflects a high SMBH spin, which stems from the well-known Blandford-Znajek mechanism of jet production, high-mass SMBHs(i.e., MBH 107.9 M⊙)have a preference for being spun-up in classical bulges, and low-mass SMBHs(i.e., MBH = 106-107 M⊙)in pseudo-bulges. This dichotomy suggests and confirms that high-mass and low-mass SMBHs are spun-up in different ways, i.e., a major "dry" merger and a secular evolution respectively.     

A search for the optical and near-infrared counterpart of the accreting millisecond X-ray pulsar XTE J1751−305

We have obtained optical and near-infrared images of the field of the accreting millisecond X-ray pulsar XTE J1751−305. There are no stars in the 0.7-arcsec error circle (0.7 arcsec is the overall uncertainty arising from tying the optical and X-ray images and from the intrinsic uncertainty in the Chandra X-ray astrometric solution). We derive limiting magnitudes for the counterpart of   R > 23.1, I > 21.6, Z > 20.6, J > 19.6  and   K > 19.2  . We compare these upper limits with the magnitudes one would expect for simple models for the possible donor stars and the accretion disc subject to the reddening observed in X-rays for XTE J1751−305 and when put at the distance of the Galactic Centre (8.5 kpc). We conclude that our non-detection does not constrain any of the models for the accretion disc or possible donor stars. Deep, near-infrared images obtained during quiescence will, however, constrain possible models for the donor stars in this ultracompact system.     

Fast neutral particles as probes of the extent of Io's exosphere

The spatial extent of ion cyclotron waves at Io has been interpreted as requiring a multistep acceleration and transport process: exospheric ions are accelerated outward (relative to Jupiter) due to the corotation electric field, neutralized due to charge exchange in the surrounding exosphere, and then reionized after traveling far across magnetic field lines, at which point they generate the waves. The trajectories of the particles away from Io are sensitive to the location of their initial ionization. This paper examines the spatial distributions of fast neutrals produced under varying conditions in order to provide constraints on the possible structure and nature of the Io exosphere. While a rapid onset of cyclotron waves at a specific location around Io can be modeled with a single, point-source region of ions, such as might occur over a volcano, the regional extent of the waves suggests multiple or distributed sources.     

Observations of 1000 km s −1 Doppler shifts in 107 K solar flare supra-arcade

An X1.5 flare on the west limb of the Sun on 21 April 2002 developed a large supra-arcade about 30 min after flare onset. The growth of the supra-arcade can be followed in both TRACE 195 Å images and SUMER spectra. Its growth seems to be associated with dark (in TRACE images), sunward moving channels that descend onto the arcade from above. SUMER recorded Doppler shifts of 800–1000 km s^–1 in Fexxi 1354 Å from positions where this sunward flow interacts with the arcade tops. We describe the observations, focusing on the relationship of the high Fexxi line shifts to the sunward moving dark flows.     

Proton Irradiation of Centaur,Kuiper Belt,and Oort Cloud Objects at Plasma to Cosmic Ray Energy

Times for accumulation of chemically significant dosages on icy surfaces of Centaur, Kuiper Belt, and Oort Cloud objects from plasma and energetic ions depend on irradiation position within or outside the heliosphere. Principal irradiation components include solar wind plasma ions, pickup ions from solar UV ionization of interstellar neutral gas, energetic ions accelerated by solar and interplanetary shocks, including the putative solar wind termination shock, and galactic cosmic ray ions from the Local Interstellar Medium (LISM). We present model flux spectra derived from spacecraft data and models for eV to GeV protons at 40 AU, a termination shock position at 85 AU, and in the LISM. Times in years to accumulate dosages ～100 eV per molecule are computed from the spectra as functions of sensible surface depth less than one centimeter at unit density.The collisional resurfacing model of Luu and Jewitt is reconsidered in thecontext of depth-dependent dosage rates from plasma, suprathermal,and higher energy protons, and global exposure, by micrometeoroiddust grain impacts, of moderately irradiated red material below athin crust of heavily irradiated neutral material. This material should be more visible on dynamically `cold’ objects in the ～40 AU region.     

Noble gases and mineralogy of meteorites from China and the Grove Mountains,Antarctica: A 0.05 Ma cosmic ray exposure age of GRV 98004

Abstract— We determined the mineralogical and chemical characteristics and the He, Ne, and Ar isotopic abundances of 2 meteorites that fell in China and of 2 meteorites that were recovered by the 15th Chinese Antarctic Research Expedition. Guangmingshan (H5), Zhuanghe (H5), and Grove Mountain (GRV) 98002 (L5) yield cosmic ray exposure (CRE) ages of 68.7 ± 10.0 Ma, 3.8 ± 0.6 Ma, and 17.0 ± 2.5 Ma, respectively. These ages are within the range typically observed for the respective meteorite types. GRV 98004 (H5) had an extremely short parent body‐Earth transfer time of 0.052 ± 0.008 Ma. Its petrography and mineral chemistry are indistinguishable from other typical H5 chondrites. Only 3 other meteorites exist with similarly low CRE ages: Farmington (L5), Galim (LL6), and ALH 82100 (CM2). We show that several asteroids in Earth‐crossing orbits, or in the main asteroid belt with orbits close to an ejection resonance, are spectrally matching candidates and may represent immediate precursor bodies of meteorites with CRE ages ≤0.1 Ma.