Diet of albacore Thunnus alalunga from the waters of Mauritius (western Indian Ocean) inferred from stomach contents and fatty acid analysis

The diet of albacore Thunnus alalunga from their spawning ground in the waters of Mauritius was investigated. The stomach contents of 249 albacore individuals, caught by industrial longliners and artisanal fishers, was analysed, and the dominant prey taxa were selected for lipid and fatty acid (FA) analysis. The FA profiles of prey were compared with those of liver tissue of spawning-capable and post-spawning female albacore, using multivariate analysis. Whereas stomach content analysis identified cephalopods and crustaceans as the dominant prey items in number, FA-profile analysis identified crustaceans and fishes as the most-frequently consumed prey of post-spawning female albacore. In contrast, the FA profiles of spawning-capable albacore and those of prey showed very low similarity. Analysis of the prey suggests that although cephalopods, crustaceans and fishes could all provide albacore with the required lipids and FAs, cephalopod prey seem to be less desirable owing to their lower energy content (i.e. low in total lipid, triacylglycerol, 16:0, 18:0 and 18:1ω9). Instead, the most beneficial food appeared to be locally available fishes, which are more energy-rich and have a higher docosahexaenoic acid/ eicosapentaenoic acid ratio. These results provide new information on the trophic ecology of albacore, promote our understanding of the importance of prey type for successful reproduction of albacore, and highlight the advantages of FA profiling to study diet.     

Experimental testing of relativistic effects,variability of the gravitational constant and topography of Mercury surface from radar observations 1964–1989

The new analysis of radar observations of inner planets for the time span 1964–1989 is described. The residuals show that Mercury topography is an important source of systematic errors which have not been taken into account up to now. The longitudinal and latitudinal variations of heights of Mercury surface were found and an approximate map of equatorial zone |?|≤120° was constructed. Including three values characterizing global nonsphericity of Mercury surface into the set of parameters under determination allowed to improve essentially all estimates. In particular, the variability of the gravitational constantG was evaluated: $$\dot G/G = (0.47 \pm 0.47) \times 10^{ - 11} yr^{ - 1} $$ . The correction to Mercury perihelion motion: $$\Delta \dot \pi = - 0''.017 \pm 0''.052 cy^{ - 1} $$ and linear combination of the parameters of PPN formalism: $$\upsilon = (2 + 2\gamma - \beta )/3 = 0.9995 \pm 0.0013$$ were determined; they are in a good agreement with General Relativity predictions. The obtained values Δ.π and ν correspond to the negligible solar oblateness, the estimate of solar quadrupole moment being: $$J_2 = ( - 0.13 \pm 0.41) \times 10^{ - 6} $$ .     

Mass of the Kuiper belt

The Kuiper belt includes tens of thousand of large bodies and millions of smaller objects. The main part of the belt objects is located in the annular zone between 39.4 and 47.8 au from the Sun; the boundaries correspond to the average distances for orbital resonances 3:2 and 2:1 with the motion of Neptune. One-dimensional, two-dimensional, and discrete rings to model the total gravitational attraction of numerous belt objects are considered. The discrete rotating model most correctly reflects the real interaction of bodies in the Solar system. The masses of the model rings were determined within EPM2017—the new version of ephemerides of planets and the Moon at IAA RAS—by fitting spacecraft ranging observations. The total mass of the Kuiper belt was calculated as the sum of the masses of the 31 largest trans-Neptunian objects directly included in the simultaneous integration and the estimated mass of the model of the discrete ring of TNO. The total mass is \((1.97 \pm 0.35)\times 10^{-2} \ m_{\oplus }\). The gravitational influence of the Kuiper belt on Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune exceeds at times the attraction of the hypothetical 9th planet with a mass of \(\sim 10 \ m_{\oplus }\) at the distances assumed for it. It is necessary to take into account the gravitational influence of the Kuiper belt when processing observations and only then to investigate residual discrepancies to discover a possible influence of a distant large planet.     

Modern Numerical Ephemerides of Planets and the Importance of Ranging Observations for Their Creation

The JPL planetary and lunar ephemerides – DE200/LE200, DE403/LE403, DE405/LE405 and the planetary and lunar ephemerides, EPM87, EPM98, and EPM2000, constructed in the Institute of Applied Astronomy of RAS are described. Common properties and differences of the various ephemerides are given. Graphical comparisons of the DE ephemerides with each other and with the EPM ephemerides are presented. A fairly good agreement of planetary orbits is between DE403, DE405 and EPM98, EPM2000, respectively, over the interval of 120 years (1886–2006) covered by EPM98 and EPM2000. Some differences are explained by a slight disagreement in representing the orbits of Ceres, Pallas, and Vesta as they affect the planets. The accurate radar observations of planets and spacecraft make it possible not only to improve the orbital elements of planets but to determine a broad set of astronomical constants as well: km/AU, parameters of Mars rotation including its precessional rate, the masses of Jupiter, Ceres, Pallas, and Vesta, relativistic parameters of the PPN formalism, the variability of the gravitational constant G. These have been obtained in the fitting process of the DE405 and EPM2000 ephemerides to observational data, including nearly 80000 American and Russian radar observations of planets (1961–1997), ranging and doppler to the Viking and Pathfinder landers, and other miscellaneous measurements from various sources and spacecraft.     

Hidden Mass in the Asteroid Belt

The total mass of the asteroid belt is estimated from an analysis of the motions of the major planets by processing high precision measurements of ranging to the landers Viking-1, Viking-2, and Pathfinder (1976-1997). Modeling of the perturbing accelerations of the major planets accounts for individual contributions of 300 minor planets; the total contribution of all remaining small asteroids is modeled as an acceleration caused by a solid ring in the ecliptic plane. Mass M_ring of the ring and its radius R are considered as solve-for parameters. Masses of the 300 perturbing asteroids have been derived from their published radii based mainly on measured fluxes of radiation, making use of the corresponding densities. This set of asteroids is grouped into three classes in accordance with physical properties and then corrections to the mean density for each class are estimated in the process of treating the observations. In this way an improved system of masses of the perturbing asteroids has been derived.The estimate M_ring≈(5±1)×10⁻¹⁰M_⊙ is obtained (M_⊙ is the solar mass) whose value is about one mass of Ceres. For the mean radius of the ring we have R≈2.80 AU with 3% uncertainty. Then the total mass M_belt of the main asteroid belt (including the 300 asteroids mentioned above) may be derived: M_belt≈(18±2)×10⁻¹⁰M_⊙. The value M_belt includes masses of the asteroids which are already discovered, and the total mass of a large number of small asteroids—most of which cannot be observed from the Earth. The second component M_ring is the hidden mass in the asteroid belt as evaluated from its dynamical impact onto the motion of the major planets.Two parameters of a theoretical distribution of the number of asteroids over their masses are evaluated by fitting to the improved set of masses of the 300 asteroids (assuming that there is no observational selection effect in this set). This distribution is extrapolated to the whole interval of asteroid masses and as a result the independent estimate M_belt≈18×10⁻¹⁰M_⊙ is obtained which is in excellent agreement with the dynamical finding given above.These results make it possible to predict the total number of minor planets in any unit interval of absolute magnitude H. Such predictions are compared with the observed distribution; the comparison shows that at present only about 10% of the asteroids with absolute magnitude H<14 have been discovered (according to the derived distribution, about 130,000 such asteroids are expected to exist).     

High-Precision Ephemerides of Planets—EPM and Determination of Some Astronomical Constants

The latest version of the planetary part of the numerical ephemerides EPM (Ephemerides of Planets and the Moon) developed at the Institute of Applied Astronomy of the Russian Academy of Sciences is presented. The ephemerides of planets and the Moon were constructed by numerical integration in the post-Newtonian metric over a 140-year interval (from 1880 to 2020). The dynamical model of EPM2004 ephemerides includes the mutual perturbations from major planets and the Moon computed in terms of General Relativity with allowance for effects due to lunar physical libration, perturbations from 301 big asteroids, and dynamic perturbations due to the solar oblateness and the massive asteroid ring with uniform mass distribution in the plane of the ecliptic. The EPM2004 ephemerides resulted from a least-squares adjustment to more than 317000 position observations (1913–2003) of various types, including radiometric measurements of planets and spacecraft, CCD astrometric observations of the outer planets and their satellites, and meridian and photographic observations. The high-precision ephemerides constructed made it possible to determine, from modern radiometric measurements, a wide range of astrometric constants, including the astronomical unit AU = (149597870.6960 ± 0.0001) km, parameters of the rotation of Mars, the masses of the biggest asteroids, the solar quadrupole moment J ₂ = (1.9 ± 0.3) × 10⁻⁷, and the parameters of the PPN formalism β and γ. Also given is a brief summary of the available state-of-the-art ephemerides with the same precision: various versions of EPM and DE ephemerides from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) (USA) and the recent versions of these ephemerides—EPM2004 and DE410—are compared. EPM2004 ephemerides are available via FTP at ftp://qua-sar.ipa.nw.ru/incoming/EPM2004.__________Translated from Astronomicheskii Vestnik, Vol. 39, No. 3, 2005, pp. 202–213.Original Russian Text Copyright © 2005 by Pitjeva.     

The IAU 2009 system of astronomical constants: the report of the IAU working group on numerical standards for Fundamental Astronomy

In the 2006?C2009 triennium, the International Astronomical Union (IAU) Working Group on Numerical Standards for Fundamental Astronomy determined a list of Current Best Estimates (CBEs). The IAU 2009 Resolution B2 adopted these CBEs as the IAU (2009) System of Astronomical Constants. Additional work continues to define the process of updating the CBEs and creating a standard electronic document.     

Development of planetary ephemerides EPM and their applications

This paper outlines the progress in development of the numerical planet ephemerides EPM—Ephemerides of Planets and the Moon. EPM was first created in the 1970s in support of Russian space flight missions and constantly improved at IAA RAS. Comparison between various available EPM ephemerides (EPM2004, EPM2008, EPM2011) is shown. The first results of the updated EPM2013 version which takes into account the two-dimensional annulus of small asteroids are presented. Currently two main factors drive the progress of planet ephemerides: dynamical models of planet motion and observational data, with the crucial role of spacecraft ranging. EPM ephemerides are the basis for the Russian Astronomical and Nautical Astronomical Yearbooks, are planned to use in the GLONASS and LUNA-RESOURCE programs, and are being used for determination of physical parameters: masses of asteroids, planet rotation parameters and topography, the \(GM_\odot \) and its secular variation, the PPN parameters, and the upper limit on the mass of dark matter in the Solar System. The files containing polynomial approximation for EPM ephemerides (EPM2004, EPM2008, EPM2011) along with TT–TDB and ephemerides of Ceres, Pallas, Vesta, Eris, Haumea, Makemake, and Sedna are available from ftp://quasar.ipa.nw.ru/incoming/EPM/. Files are provided in IAA’s binary and ASCII formats, as well as in the SPK format.     

Updated IAA RAS planetary ephemerides-EPM2011 and their use in scientific research

The EPM (Ephemerides of Planets and the Moon) numerical ephemerides were first created in the 1970s in support of Russian space flight missions and since then have been constantly improved at IAA RAS. In the following work, the latest version of the planetary part of the EPM2011 numerical ephemerides is presented. The EPM2011 ephemerides are computed using an updated dynamical model, new values of the parameters, and an extended observation database that contains about 680000 positional measurements of various types obtained from 1913 to 2011. The dynamical model takes into account mutual perturbations of the major planets, the Sun, the Moon, 301 massive asteroids, and 21 of the largest trans-Neptunian objects (TNOs), as well as perturbations from the other main-belt asteroids and other TNOs. The EPM ephemerides are computed by numerical integration of the equations of motion of celestial bodies in the parameterized post-Newtonian n-body metric in the BCRS coordinate system for the TDB time scale over a 400-year interval. The ephemerides were oriented to the ICRF system using 213 VLBI observations (taken from 1989 to 2010) of spacecraft near planets with background quasars, the coordinates of which are given in the ICRF system. The accuracy of the constructed ephemerides was verified by comparison with observations and the JPL independent ephemerides DE424. The EPM ephemerides are used in astronavigation (they form the basis of the Astronomical Yearbook and are planned to be utilized in GLONASS and LUNA-RESURS programs) and various research, including the estimation of the solar oblateness, the parameters of the rotation of Mars, and the total mass of the asteroid main belt and TNOs, as well as the verification of general relativity, the secular variations of the Sun’s mass and the gravitational constant, and the limits on the dark matter density in the Solar System. The EPM ephemerides, together with the corresponding time differences TT — TDB and the coordinates of seven additional objects (Ceres, Pallas, Vesta, Eris, Haumea, Makemake, and Sedna), are available at ftp://quasar.ipa.nw.ru/incoming/EPM.     

Constraints on dark matter in the solar system

We have searched for and estimated the possible gravitational influence of dark matter in the Solar system based on the EPM2011 planetary ephemerides using about 677 thousand positional observations of planets and spacecraft. Most of the observations belong to present-day ranging measurements. Our estimates of the dark matter density and mass at various distances from the Sun are generally overridden by their errors (σ). This suggests that the density of dark matter ρ _dm, if present, is very low and is much less than the currently achieved error of these parameters. We have found that ρ _dm is less than 1.1 × 10^?20 g cm^?3 at the orbital distance of Saturn, ρ _dm < 1.4 × 10^?20 g cm^?3 at the orbital distance of Mars, and ρ _dm < 1.4 × 10^?19 g cm^?3 at the orbital distance of the Earth. We also have considered the case of a possible concentration of dark matter to the Solar system center. The dark matter mass in the sphere within Saturn’s orbit should be less than 1.7 × 10^?10 M _⊙ even if its possible concentration is taken into account.