共查询到20条相似文献，搜索用时 31 毫秒
1.
N.C. Wickramasinghe M. Wainwright J.V. Narlikar P. Rajaratnam M.J. Harris D. Lloyd 《Astrophysics and Space Science》2003,283(3):403-413
Theories of panspermia are rapidly coming into vogue, with the possibility of the transfer of viable bacterial cells from
one planetary abode to another being generally accepted as inevitable. The panspermia models of Hoyle and Wickramasinghe require
the transfer of viable bacterial cells from interstellar dust to comets and back into interplanetary and interstellar space.
In such a cycle a viable fraction of as little as 10-18 at the inception of a newly formed comet/planet system suffices for cometary panspermia to dominate over competing processes
for the origin and transfer of life. The well-attested survival attributes of microbes under extreme conditions, which have
recently been discovered, gives credence to the panspermia hypothesis. The prediction of the theory that comets bring microbes
onto the Earth at the present time is testable if aseptic collections of stratospheric air above the tropopause can be obtained.
We describe a recent collection of this kind and report microbiological analysis that shows the existence of viable cells
at 41 km, falling to Earth at the rate of a few tonnes per day over the entire globe. Some of these cells have been cultured
in the laboratory and found to include microorganisms that are not too different from related species on the Earth. This is
in fact what the Hoyle-Wickramasinghe theory predicts. The weight of evidence goes against the more conservative explanation
that organisms are being lofted to the high atmosphere from the ground.
This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date. 相似文献
2.
Natural transfer of viable microbes in space. 总被引：8，自引：0，他引：8
C Mileikowsky F A Cucinotta J W Wilson B Gladman G Horneck L Lindegren J Melosh H Rickman M Valtonen J Q Zheng 《Icarus》2000,145(2):391-427
The possibility and probability of natural transfer of viable microbes from Mars to Earth and Earth to Mars traveling in meteoroids during the first 0.5 Ga and the following 4 Ga are investigated, including: --radiation protection against the galactic cosmic ray nuclei and the solar rays, dose rates as a function of the meteorite's radial column mass (radius x density), combined with dose rates generated by natural radioactivity within the meteorite; and survival curves for some bacterial species using NASA's HZETRN transport code --other factors affecting microbe survival: vacuum; central meteorite temperatures at launch, orbiting, and arrival; pressure and acceleration at launch; spontaneous DNA decay; metal ion migration --mean sizes and numbers of unshocked meteorites ejected and percentage falling on Earth, using current semiempirical results --viable flight times for the microbe species Bacillus subtilis and Deinococcus radiodurans R1 --the approximate fraction of microbes (with properties like the two species studied) viably arriving on Earth out of those ejected from Mars during the period 4 Ga BP to the present time, and during the 700 Ma from 4.5 to 3.8 Ga. Similarly, from Earth to Mars. The conclusion is that if microbes existed or exist on Mars, viable transfer to Earth is not only possible but also highly probable, due to microbes' impressive resistance to the dangers of space transfer and to the dense traffic of billions of martian meteorites which have fallen on Earth since the dawn of our planetary system. Earth-to-Mars transfer is also possible but at a much lower frequency. 相似文献
3.
E. L. Akim G. S. Zaslavsky I. M. Morskoy E. G. Ruzsky V. A. Stepaniants A. G. Tuchin 《Solar System Research》2010,44(1):26-37
This paper is concerned with the problems of ballistics, navigation, and flight control of the space craft (SC) in the Phobos-Grunt
mission. We consider an insertion into the Earth-Mars transfer trajectory, the Earth-Mars transfer, the strategy of corrections,
and the accuracy of the insertion of the SC into Martian orbit. During the orbital maneuvering stage in the sphere of influence
of Mars, we set up a scheme that allows for the insertion of the SC, with the prescribed accuracy, into a point 80-km above
the Phobos surface over the theoretical landing area. We specify the sequence for a controlled landing and provide methods
for solving the problems of navigation and control during a self-c ontained landing. We also consider the liftoff from Phobos,
insertion into the parking orbit, and the Mars-Earth transfer. 相似文献
4.
Jrg Fritz Natalia Artemieva Ansgar Greshake 《Meteoritics & planetary science》2005,40(9-10):1393-1411
Abstract— We investigated the transfer of meteorites from Mars to Earth with a combined mineralogical and numerical approach. We used quantitative shock pressure barometry and thermodynamic calculations of post‐shock temperatures to constrain the pressure/temperature conditions for the ejection of Martian meteorites. The results show that shock pressures allowing the ejection of Martian meteorites range from 5 to 55 GPa, with corresponding post‐shock temperature elevations of 10 to about 1000 °C. With respect to shock pressures and post‐shock temperatures, an ejection of potentially viable organisms in Martian surface rocks seems possible. A calculation of the cooling time in space for the most highly shocked Martian meteorite Allan Hills (ALH) 77005 was performed and yielded a best‐fit for a post‐shock temperature of 1000 °C and a meteoroid size of 0.4 to 0.6 m. The final burial depths of the sub‐volcanic to volcanic Martian rocks as indicated by textures and mineral compositions of meteorites are in good agreement with the postulated size of the potential source region for Martian meteorites during the impact of a small projectile (200 m), as defined by numerical modeling (Artemieva and Ivanov 2004). A comparison of shock pressures and ejection and terrestrial ages indicates that, on average, highly shocked fragments reach Earth‐crossing orbits faster than weakly shocked fragments. If climatic changes on Mars have a significant influence on the atmospheric pressure, they could account for the increase of recorded ejection events of Martian meteorites in the last 5 Ma. 相似文献
5.
Meteorite and asteroid impacts into planet Earth seem rare but over the lifetime of our planet have been relatively frequent. Such collisions (involving very large impactors) have been blamed for mass extinctions during Earth’s history. It has also been postulated that impactors could carry life with them throughout the universe and seed our planet. This is the basis of the theory of panspermia (‘life everywhere’) and suggests that life could be spread throughout the universe by ‘piggy-backing’ on inter-planetary bodies, e.g. asteroids, which then collide with other planets, thus seeding them with life. The shock behaviour of organic matter has an important role to play in helping to inform the feasibility of such theories. An example of a model carrier for life in seeding mechanisms is the plant seed. Here we present the development of an experimental technique in which plant seed samples are shock-loaded and their viability subsequently assessed post-shock. This technique was tested on Lepidium sativum (cress) seed samples. Experimentally, shocked seeds showed positive viability in all tests performed until shocked with a maximum peak shock pressure of ca. 0.8 GPa. These results suggest it is unlikely that the plant seeds tested would be able to survive the extreme conditions on an asteroid during impact, but may be able to survive shock waves that would be generated from such collisions when existing on a planetary body. 相似文献
6.
G. H. A. Roelofs G. Nelemans P. J. Groot 《Monthly notices of the Royal Astronomical Society》2007,382(2):685-692
The AM Canum Venaticorum (AM CVn) stars are rare interacting white dwarf binaries, whose formation and evolution are still poorly known. The Sloan Digital Sky Survey provides, for the first time, a sample of six AM CVn stars (out of a total population of 18) that are sufficiently homogeneous that we can start to study the population in some detail.
We use the Sloan sample to 'calibrate' theoretical population synthesis models for the space density of AM CVn stars. We consider optimistic and pessimistic models for different theoretical formation channels, which yield predictions for the local space density that are more than two orders of magnitude apart. When calibrated with the observations, all models give a local space density ρ0 = 1–3 × 10−6 pc−3 , which is lower than expected.
We discuss the implications for the formation of AM CVn stars, and conclude that at least one of the dominant formation channels (the double-degenerate channel) has to be suppressed relative to the optimistic models. In the framework of the current models this suggests that the mass transfer between white dwarfs usually cannot be stabilized. We furthermore discuss evolutionary effects that have so far not been considered in population synthesis models, but which could be of influence for the observed population. We finish by remarking that, with our lower space density, the expected number of Galactic AM CVn stars resolvable by gravitational-wave detectors like the Laser Interferometer Space Antenna ( LISA ) should be lowered from current estimates, to about 1000 for a mission duration of 1 yr. 相似文献
We use the Sloan sample to 'calibrate' theoretical population synthesis models for the space density of AM CVn stars. We consider optimistic and pessimistic models for different theoretical formation channels, which yield predictions for the local space density that are more than two orders of magnitude apart. When calibrated with the observations, all models give a local space density ρ
We discuss the implications for the formation of AM CVn stars, and conclude that at least one of the dominant formation channels (the double-degenerate channel) has to be suppressed relative to the optimistic models. In the framework of the current models this suggests that the mass transfer between white dwarfs usually cannot be stabilized. We furthermore discuss evolutionary effects that have so far not been considered in population synthesis models, but which could be of influence for the observed population. We finish by remarking that, with our lower space density, the expected number of Galactic AM CVn stars resolvable by gravitational-wave detectors like the Laser Interferometer Space Antenna ( LISA ) should be lowered from current estimates, to about 1000 for a mission duration of 1 yr. 相似文献
7.
J. T. Wickramasinghe W. M. Napier 《Monthly notices of the Royal Astronomical Society》2008,387(1):153-157
We calculate the expected flux profile of comets into the planetary system from the Oort Cloud arising from Galactic tides and encounters with molecular clouds. We find that both periodic and sporadic bombardment episodes, with amplitudes an order of magnitude above background, occur on characteristic time-scales ∼25–35 Myr. Bombardment episodes occurring preferentially during spiral arm crossings may be responsible both for mass extinctions of life and the transfer of viable microorganisms from the bombarded Earth into the disturbing nebulae. Good agreement is found between the theoretical expectations and the age distribution of large, well-dated terrestrial impact craters of the past 250 Myr. A weak periodicity of ∼36 Myr in the cratering record is consistent with the Sun's recent passage through the Galactic plane, and implies a central plane density ∼0.15 M⊙ pc−3 . This leaves little room for a significant dark matter component in the disc. 相似文献
8.
Propagating kink waves are ubiquitously observed in solar magnetic wave guides. We consider the possibility that these waves propagate without reflection although there is some inhomogeneity. We briefly describe the general theory of non-reflective, one-dimensional wave propagation in inhomogeneous media. This theory is then applied to kink-wave propagation in coronal loops. We consider a coronal loop of half-circle shape embedded in an isothermal atmosphere, and assume that the plasma temperature is the same inside and outside the loop. We show that non-reflective kink-wave propagation is possible for a particular dependence of the loop radius on the distance along the loop. A viable assumption that the loop radius increases from the loop footpoint to the apex imposes a lower limit on the loop expansion factor, which is the ratio of the loop radii at the apex and footpoints. This lower limit increases with the loop height; however, even for a loop that is twice as high as the atmospheric scale height, it is small enough to satisfy observational constraints. Hence, we conclude that non-reflective propagation of kink waves is possible in a fairly realistic model of coronal loops. 相似文献
9.
Dusty water-ice snowpacks on Mars may provide a habitable zone for DNA based photosynthetic life. Previous work has over estimated the depths and thicknesses of such photohabitable zones by not considering the effect of red dust within the snowpack. For the summer solar solstice, at 80°N and a surface albedo of 0.45, there is a calculated photohabitable zone in the snowpack between depths of 5.5 and 7.5 cm. For an albedo of 0.62, there is a calculated photohabitable zone in the snowpack between depths of 8 and 11 cm. A coupled atmosphere-snow radiative-transfer model was set to model the Photosynthetic Active Radiation and DNA dose rates through water-ice snow at the north polar region of Mars. The optical properties of the polar caps were determined by creating a laboratory analogue to the Mars north polar deposits, and directly measuring light penetration and albedo. It is important for future exobiology missions to the polar regions of Mars to consider the implications of these findings, as drilling to depths of ∼11 cm should be sufficient to determine whether life exists within the martian snows, whether it is photosynthetic or otherwise, as at this depth the snow cover will provide a permanent protection from DNA damaging UV radiation. 相似文献
10.
B. A. Cohen J. R. Szalay A. S. Rivkin J. A. Richardson R. L. Klima C. M. Ernst N. L. Chabot Z. Sternovsky M. Hornyi 《Meteoritics & planetary science》2019,54(9):2046-2066
Given the compositional diversity of asteroids, and their distribution in space, it is impossible to consider returning samples from each one to establish their origin. However, the velocity and molecular composition of primary minerals, hydrated silicates, and organic materials can be determined by in situ dust detector instruments. Such instruments could sample the cloud of micrometer‐scale particles shed by asteroids to provide direct links to known meteorite groups without returning the samples to terrestrial laboratories. We extend models of the measured lunar dust cloud from LADEE to show that the abundance of detectable impact‐generated microsamples around asteroids is a function of the parent body radius, heliocentric distance, flyby distance, and speed. We use Monte Carlo modeling to show that several tens to hundreds of particles, if randomly ejected and detected during a flyby, would be a sufficient number to classify the parent body as an ordinary chondrite, basaltic achondrite, or other class of meteorite. Encountering and measuring microsamples shed from near‐Earth and Main Belt asteroids, coupled with complementary imaging and multispectral measurements, could accomplish a thorough characterization of small, airless bodies. 相似文献
11.
Mounting attention has focused on interplanetary transfer of microorganisms (panspermia), particularly in reference to exchange between Mars and Earth. In most cases, however, such exchange requires millions of years, over which time the transported microorganisms must remain viable. During a large impact on Earth, however, previous work (J.C. Armstrong et al., 2002, Icarus 160, 183-196) has shown that substantial amounts of material return to the planet of origin over a much shorter period of time (< 5000 years), considerably mitigating the challenges to the survival of a living organism. Conservatively evaluating experiments performed [by others] on Bacillus subtilis and Deinococcus radiodurans to constrain biological survival under impact conditions, we estimate that if the Earth were hit by a sterilizing impactor ∼ 300 km in diameter, with a relative velocity of 30 km s−1 (such as may have occurred during the Late Heavy Bombardment), an initial cell population in the ejecta of order 103-105 cells kg−1 would in most cases be sufficient for a single modern organism to survive and return to an again-clement planet 3000-5000 years later. Although little can be said about the characteristics or distribution of ancient life, our calculations suggest that impact reseeding is a possible means by which life, if present, could have survived the Late Heavy Bombardment. 相似文献
12.
《Chinese Astronomy and Astrophysics》1982,6(3):192-198
We investigate the possibility of an additional acceleration of the high speed solar wind by whistler waves propagating outward from a coronal hole. We consider a stationary, spherically symmetric model and assume a radial wind flow as well as a radial magnetic field. The energy equation consists of (a) energy transfer of the electron beam which excites the whistler waves, and (b) energy transfer of the whistler waves described by conservation of wave action density. The momentum conservation equation includes the momentum transfer of two gases (a thermal gas and an electron beam). The variation of the temperature is described by a polytropic law. The variation of solar wind velocity with the radial distance is calculated for different values of energy density of the whistler waves. It is shown that the acceleration of high speed solar wind in the coronal hole due to the whistler waves is very important. We have calculated that the solar wind velocity at the earth's orbit is about equal to 670 km/sec (for wave energy density about 10?4 erg cm?3 at 1.1R⊙). It is in approximate agreement with the observed values. 相似文献
13.
中子星可以通过重子物质和暗物质的相互作用吸积暗物质,且在一定条件下, 中子星吸积的暗物质粒子可以引发自引力塌缩形成小型黑洞, 生成的黑洞可能会进一步吞噬中子星.依据文献已有模型, 基于以上物理过程给出了在暗物质粒子不同质量下对暗物质粒子--中子的散射截面的限制.使用弱相互作用大质量粒子(Weakly Interacting Massive Particle, WIMP)模型, 并考虑暗物质粒子是玻色子的情形, 讨论了暗物质粒子有无自相互作用以及有无湮灭等条件下对限制暗物质参数的影响.既考虑了已发现的两个中子星系统来给出对暗物质参数空间的限制,也考虑了两个可能存在的年老中子星来预测未来观测可能对暗物质参数空间的限制.对于考虑玻色--爱因斯坦凝聚(Bose-Einstein Condensate, BEC)的玻色子暗物质, 在无自相互作用或有弱自相互作用, 无湮灭或有很小湮灭截面的条件下,中子星给出的间接观测对暗物质粒子-中子散射截面的限制的强度比XENON1T直接探测实验来得更强.未来, 如果在银心附近能观测到年老中子星, 其观测结果可以提升模型给出的对暗物质粒子--中子散射截面的限制, 从而帮助人们进一步理解暗物质. 相似文献
14.
R. G. Martin S. H. Lubow J. E. Pringle M. C. Wyatt 《Monthly notices of the Royal Astronomical Society》2007,378(4):1589-1600
There is evidence for the existence of massive planets at orbital radii of several hundred au from their parent stars where the time-scale for planet formation by core accretion is longer than the disc lifetime. These planets could have formed close to their star and then migrated outwards. We consider how the transfer of angular momentum by viscous disc interactions from a massive inner planet could cause significant outward migration of a smaller outer planet. We find that it is in principle possible for planets to migrate to large radii. We note, however, a number of effects which may render the process somewhat problematic. 相似文献
15.
We propose a kinematic approach to searching for the stars that could be formed with the Sun in a common “parent” open cluster.
The approach consists in preselecting suitable candidates by the closeness of their space velocities to the solar velocity
and analyzing the parameters of their encounters with the solar orbit in the past in a time interval comparable to the lifetime
of stars. We consider stars from the Hipparcos catalog with available radial velocities. The Galactic orbits of stars have
been constructed in the Allen-Santillan potential by taking into account the perturbations from the spiral density wave. We
show that two stars, HIP 87382 and HIP 47399, are of considerable interest in our problem. Their orbits oscillate near the
solar orbit with an amplitude of ≈250 pc; there are short-term close encounters to distances <10 pc. Both stars have an evolutionary
status and metallicity similar to the solar ones. 相似文献
16.
S. I. Grachev 《Astrophysics》1994,37(3):243-246
We consider nonstationary radiative transfer in a line in stellar atmospheres simulated as a stationary semi-infinite plane-parallel medium. We assume complete frequency redistribution in the elementary act of scattering. We assume that the time a photon spends in the medium is determined only by the mean time spent in the absorbed state. We obtain an explicit expression for the resolvent of the nonstationary integral equation of transfer, which is a bilinear expansion with respect to the eigenfunctions found in [12] for the corresponding stationary transfer equation.Translated fromAstrofizika, Vol. 37, No. 3, 1994.I am grateful to the American Astronomical Society for financial support of this work. 相似文献
17.
Christopher M. Hirata 《Monthly notices of the Royal Astronomical Society》2009,399(2):1074-1087
We investigate the effect of orientation-dependent selection effects on galaxy clustering in redshift space. It is found that if galaxies are aligned by large-scale tidal fields, then these selection effects give rise to a dependence of the observed galaxy density on the local tidal field, in addition to the well-known dependences on the matter density and radial velocity gradient. This alters the galaxy power spectrum in a way that is different for Fourier modes parallel to and perpendicular to the line of sight. These tidal galaxy alignments can thus mimic redshift space distortions (RSD), and thus result in a bias in the measurement of the velocity power spectrum. If galaxy orientations are affected only by the local tidal field, then the tidal alignment effect has exactly the same scale and angular dependence as the RSDs in the linear regime, so it cannot be projected out or removed by masking small scales in the analysis. We consider several toy models of tidal alignments and orientation-dependent selection, normalize their free parameter (an amplitude) to recent observations, and find that they could bias the velocity amplitude f ( z ) G ( z ) by 5–10 per cent in some models, although most models give much smaller contamination. We conclude that tidal alignments may be a significant systematic error in RSD measurements that aim to test general relativity via the growth of large-scale structure. We briefly discuss possible mitigation strategies. 相似文献
18.
Several physical and observational effects may contribute to the significant imbalances of magnetic flux that are often observed in active regions. We consider an effect not previously treated: the influence of electric currents in the photosphere. Electric currents can cause a line-of-sight flux imbalance because of the directionality of the magnetic field they produce. Currents associated with magnetic flux tubes produce larger imbalances than do smoothly-varying distributions of flux and current. We estimate the magnitude of this effect for current densities, total currents, and magnetic geometry consistent with observations. The expected imbalances lie approximately in the range 0–15%, depending on the character of the current-carrying fields and the angle from which they are viewed. Observationally, current-induced flux imbalances could be indicated by a statistical dependence of the imbalance on angular distance from disk center. A general study of magnetic flux balance in active regions is needed to determine the relative importance of other - probably larger -effects such as dilute flux (too weak to measure or rendered invisible by radiative transfer effects), merging with weak background fields, and long-range connections between active regions.Operated for the National Science Foundation by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy. 相似文献
19.
Margarita Petkova Volker Springel 《Monthly notices of the Royal Astronomical Society》2009,396(3):1383-1403
We present a novel numerical implementation of radiative transfer in the cosmological smoothed particle hydrodynamics (SPH) simulation code gadget . It is based on a fast, robust and photon-conserving integration scheme where the radiation transport problem is approximated in terms of moments of the transfer equation and by using a variable Eddington tensor as a closure relation, following the Optically Thin Variable Eddington Tensor suggestion of Gnedin & Abel. We derive a suitable anisotropic diffusion operator for use in the SPH discretization of the local photon transport, and we combine this with an implicit solver that guarantees robustness and photon conservation. This entails a matrix inversion problem of a huge, sparsely populated matrix that is distributed in memory in our parallel code. We solve this task iteratively with a conjugate gradient scheme. Finally, to model photon sink processes we consider ionization and recombination processes of hydrogen, which is represented with a chemical network that is evolved with an implicit time integration scheme. We present several tests of our implementation, including single and multiple sources in static uniform density fields with and without temperature evolution, shadowing by a dense clump and multiple sources in a static cosmological density field. All tests agree quite well with analytical computations or with predictions from other radiative transfer codes, except for shadowing. However, unlike most other radiative transfer codes presently in use for studying re-ionization, our new method can be used on-the-fly during dynamical cosmological simulation, allowing simultaneous treatments of galaxy formation and the re-ionization process of the Universe. 相似文献
20.
《New Astronomy》2003,8(5):495-505
We present general analytic expressions for GRB afterglow light curves arising from a variable external density profile and/or a variable energy in the blast wave. The former could arise from a clumpy ISM or a variable stellar wind; The latter could arise from refreshed shocks or from an angular dependent jet structure (patchy shell). Both scenarios would lead to a variable light curve. Our formalism enables us to invert the observed light curve and obtain possible density or energy profiles. The optical afterglow of GRB 021004 was detected 537 s AB (after the burst) [GCN (2002) 1564]. Extensive follow up observations revealed a significant temporal variability. We apply our formalism to the R-band light curve of GRB 021004 and we find that several models provide a good fit to the data. We consider the patchy shell model with p=2.2 as the most likely explanation. According to this model our line of sight was towards a ‘cold spot’ that has lead to a relativity low γ-ray flux and an initially weak afterglow (while the X-ray afterglow flux after a day was above average). Observations above the cooling frequency, νc, could provide the best way to distinguish between our different models. 相似文献