Note on the age and fauna of the Lynton Beds (Lower Devonian) of north Devon

The Lynton Beds represent shallow marine sediments with a restricted fauna dominated by brachiopods. The age indicated by the brachiopod fauna is late Emsian, although the possibility of a younger date for the uppermost horizons cannot be discounted.     

A hydrodynamic model of a submerged lenticular wave energy device

The wavemaking capability and energy absorbing characteristics of a single submerged body, constrained to move horizontally in a surge mode, are examined. The body possesses both a vertical axis of symmetry and a horizontal plane of symmetry and is ‘thin’ in the sense that the body draft is small compared to the length. The behaviour of a single body subject to a constraint being placed upon the amplitude of its displacement and the properties of an array of interacting identical devices are also discussed.     

Automated Extraction of a Five‐Year LA‐ICP‐MS Trace Element Data Set of Ten Common Glass and Carbonate Reference Materials: Long‐Term Data Quality,Optimisation and Laser Cell Homogeneity

LA‐ICP‐MS is increasingly applied to obtain quantitative multi‐element data with minimal sample preparation, usually achieved by calibration using reference materials (RMs). However, some ubiquitous RMs, for example the NIST SRM 61× series glasses, suffer from reported value uncertainties for certain elements. Moreover, no long‐term data set of analyses conducted over a range of ablation and tuning conditions exists. Thus, there has been little rigorous examination of the extent to which offsets between measured and reported values are the result of error in these values rather than analytically induced fractionation. We present new software (‘LA‐MINE’), capable of extracting LA‐ICP‐MS data with no user input, and apply this to our system, yielding over 5 years of data (~ 5700 analyses of ten glass and carbonate RMs). We examine the relative importance of systematic analytical bias and possible error in reported values through a mass‐specific breakdown of fourteen of the most commonly determined elements. Furthermore, these data, obtained under a wide range of different ablation conditions, enable specific recommendations of how data quality may be improved, for example the role of diatomic gas, the effect of differential inter‐glass fractionation factors and choice of transport tubing material. Finally, these data demonstrate that the two‐volume Laurin ablation cell is characterised by no discernible spatial heterogeneity in measured trace element ratios.     

Is Ursa Major II the progenitor of the Orphan Stream?

Prominent in the 'Field of Streams'– the Sloan Digital Sky Survey map of substructure in the Galactic halo – is an 'Orphan Stream' without obvious progenitor. In this numerical study, we show a possible connection between the newly found dwarf satellite Ursa Major II (UMa II) and the Orphan Stream. We provide numerical simulations of the disruption of UMa II that match the observational data on the position, distance and morphology of the Orphan Stream. We predict the radial velocity of UMa II as −100 km s⁻¹, as well as the existence of strong velocity gradients along the Orphan Stream. The velocity dispersion of UMa II is expected to be high, though this can be caused both by a high dark matter content or by the presence of unbound stars in a disrupted remnant. However, the existence of a gradient in the mean radial velocity across UMa II provides a clear-cut distinction between these possibilities. The simulations support the idea that some of the anomalous, young halo globular clusters like Palomar 1 or Arp 2 or Ruprecht 106 may be physically associated with the Orphan Stream.     

High Angular Resolution Studies of Coronal Structures with SOHO

Since January 1996, the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO)has been providing unprecedented views of the extended solar coronato heliocentric distances of up to 32 solar radii. During the past threeyears we carried out studies of the morphology and dynamical evolutionof various structures in the solar corona using two instruments on boardSOHO: the Large Angle Spectrometric Coronagraph (LASCO) and the ExtremeUltraviolet Imaging Telescope (EIT). We have applied advanced image resolutionenhancement techniques to explore in detail the characteristics of thesmall-scale structures and/or the low contrast structures in the solarcorona. We describe here the results from these high-angular resolutionstudies, including of the kinematics of several Coronal Mass Ejections andpolar jets.     

Planetary orbital equations in externally-perturbed systems: position and velocity-dependent forces

The increasing number and variety of extrasolar planets illustrates the importance of characterizing planetary perturbations. Planetary orbits are typically described by physically intuitive orbital elements. Here, we explicitly express the equations of motion of the unaveraged perturbed two-body problem in terms of planetary orbital elements by using a generalized form of Gauss’ equations. We consider a varied set of position and velocity-dependent perturbations, and also derive relevant specific cases of the equations: when they are averaged over fast variables (the “adiabatic” approximation), and in the prograde and retrograde planar cases. In each instance, we delineate the properties of the equations. As brief demonstrations of potential applications, we consider the effect of Galactic tides. We measure the effect on the widest-known exoplanet orbit, Sedna-like objects, and distant scattered disk objects, particularly with regard to where the adiabatic approximation breaks down. The Mathematica code which can help derive the equations of motion for a user-defined perturbation is freely available upon request.     

The mass of the Andromeda galaxy

This paper argues that the Milky Way galaxy is probably the largest member of the Local Group. The evidence comes from estimates of the total mass of the Andromeda galaxy (M31) derived from the three-dimensional positions and radial velocities of its satellite galaxies, as well as the projected positions and radial velocities of its distant globular clusters and planetary nebulae. The available data set comprises 10 satellite galaxies, 17 distant globular clusters and nine halo planetary nebulae with radial velocities. We find that the halo of Andromeda has a mass of together with a scalelength of 90 kpc and a predominantly isotropic velocity distribution. For comparison, our earlier estimate for the Milky Way halo is Although the error bars are admittedly large, this suggests that the total mass of M31 is probably less than that of the Milky Way . We verify the robustness of our results to changes in the modelling assumptions and to errors caused by the small size and incompleteness of the data set.
Our surprising claim can be checked in several ways in the near future. The numbers of satellite galaxies, planetary nebulae and globular clusters with radial velocities can be increased by ground-based spectroscopy, while the proper motions of the companion galaxies and the unresolved cores of the globular clusters can be measured using the astrometric satellites Space Interferometry Mission ( SIM ) and Global Astrometric Interferometer for Astrophysics ( GAIA ). Using 100 globular clusters at projected radii 20 R 50 kpc with both radial velocities and proper motions, it will be possible to estimate the mass within 50 kpc to an accuracy of 20 per cent. Measuring the proper motions of the companion galaxies with SIM and GAIA will reduce the uncertainty in the total mass caused by the small size of the data set to 22 per cent.     

Infrared emission from interstellar grains heated by supernovae

The infrared emission from interstellar grains heated by a supernova in eruption is investigated. The dependence of the emission on various physical parameters, such as the depth of the supernova into the dust plane of the parent galaxy, the inclination of the galaxy to the line-of-sight, are investigated. The possibility of detecting this emission is discussed. The prospects are hopeful as far as cryogenically-cooled instruments in Earth orbit are concerned.