SHRIMP U–Pb ages of diagenetic and hydrothermal xenotime from the Archaean Witwatersrand Supergroup of South Africa     

Gavin L. England  Birger Rasmussen  Neal J. McNaughton  Ian R. Fletcher  David I. Groves  & Bryan Krapez 《地学学报》2001,13(5):360-367

SHRIMP dating of xenotime overgrowths on detrital zircon grains can constrain maximum durations since diagenesis and therefore provide minimum dates of sediment deposition. Thus, xenotime dating has significant economic application to Precambrian sediment-hosted ore deposits, such as Witwatersrand Au–U, for which there are no precise depositional ages. The growth history of xenotime in the Witwatersrand Supergroup is texturally complex, with several phases evident. The oldest authigenic xenotime ²⁰⁷Pb/²⁰⁶Pb age obtained in sandstone underlying the Vaal Reef is 2764 ± 5 Myr (1 σ), and most likely represents a mixture of diagenetic and hydrothermal growth. Nevertheless, this represents the oldest authigenic mineral age yet recorded in the sequence and provides a minimum age of deposition. Other xenotime data record a spread of ages that correspond to numerous post-diagenetic thermotectonic events (including a Ventersdorp event at ≈ 2720 Ma) up to the ≈2020 Ma Vredefort event.  相似文献   

Near-Infrared Imaging Spectrophotometry Of Comet C/1995 O1 (Hale-Bopp) Near Perihelion     

Harker  David E.  Woodward  Charles E.  McMURTRY  Craig W.  Goetz  J. A.  Pipher  J. L.  Forrest  W. J. 《Earth, Moon, and Planets》1997,78(1-3):259-264

We present 1- to 5-μm broadband and CVF images of comet Hale-Bopp taken 1997 February 10.5 UT, 50 days before perihelion. All the images exhibit a nonspherical coma with a bright “ridge” in the direction of the dust tail approximately 10″ from the coma. Synthetic aperture spectrophotometry implies that the optically important grains are of a radius ≤0.4 μm; smallest radius for any comet seen to date. The variation of the integrated surface brightness with radial distance from the coma (ρ) in all the images closely follows the “steady state” ρ⁻¹ model for comet dust ablation (Gehrz and Ney, 1992). The near-infrared colors taken along the dust tail are not constant implying the dust grain properties vary with coma distance. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.  相似文献   

Finite element formulation and algorithms for unsaturated soils. Part II: Verification and application     

Daichao Sheng  David W. Smith  Scott W. Sloan  Antonio Gens 《国际地质力学数值与分析法杂志》2003,27(9):767-790

The finite‐element formulation and integration algorithms developed in Part I are used to analyse a number of practical problems involving unsaturated and saturated soils. The formulation and algorithms perform well for all the cases analysed, with the robustness of the latter being largely insensitive to user‐defined parameters such as the number of coarse time steps and error control tolerances. The efficiency of the algorithms, as measured by the CPU time consumed, does not depend on the number of coarse time steps, but may be influenced by the error control tolerances. Based on the analyses presented here, typical values for the error control tolerances are suggested. It is also shown that the constitutive modelling framework presented in Part I can, by adjusting one constitutive equation and one or two material parameters, be used to simulate soils that expand or collapse upon wetting. Treating the suction as a strain variable instead of a stress variable proves to be an efficient and robust way of solving suction‐dependent plastic yielding. Moreover, the concept of the constitutive stress is a particularly convenient way of handling the transition between saturation and unsaturation. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.  相似文献   

Finding KBO Flyby Targets for New Horizons     

Spencer  John  Buie  Marc  Young  Leslie  Guo  Yanping  Stern  Alan 《Earth, Moon, and Planets》2003,92(1-4):483-491

Development of the New Horizons mission to Pluto and the Kuiper Belt is now fully funded by NASA (Stern and Spencer, this volume). If all goes well, New Horizons will be launched in January 2006, followed by a Jupiter gravity assist in 2007, with Pluto arrival expected in either 2015 or 2016, depending on the launch vehicle chosen. A backup launch date of early 2007, without a Jupiter flyby, would give a Pluto arrival in 2019 or 2020. In either case, a flyby of at least one Kuiper Belt object (KBO) is planned following the Pluto encounter, sometime before the spacecraft reaches a heliocentric distance of 50 AU, in 2021 or 2023 for the 2006 launch, and 2027 or 2029 for the 2007 launch. However, none of the almost 1000 currently-known KBOs will pass close enough to the spacecraft trajectory to be targeted by New Horizons, so the KBO flyby depends on finding a suitable target among the estimated 500,000 KBOs larger than 40 km in diameter. This paper discusses the issues involved in finding one or more KBO targets for New Horizons. The New Horizons team plans its own searches for mission KBOs but will welcome other U.S, or international team who wish to become involved in exchange for mission participation at the KBO.  相似文献   

Similarities between Circular Polarization in Galactic Jet Sources and AGN     

Jean-Pierre Macquart  Kinwah Wu  Diana C. Hannikainen  Robert J. Sault  David L. Jauncey 《Astrophysics and Space Science》2003,288(1-2):105-119

We compare the observational properties of the circular polarization in Galactic jet sources with that observed in AGN, and outline the constraints they place on the mechanism responsible for the circular polarization. We also discuss the implications of the time scale of polarization variations on the mechanism responsible for the circular polarization.  相似文献   

Spinor: Visible and Infrared Spectro-Polarimetry at the National Solar Observatory     

Hector Socas-Navarro  David Elmore  Anna Pietarila  Anthony Darnell  Bruce W. Lites  Steven Tomczyk  Steven Hegwer 《Solar physics》2006,235(1-2):55-73

The Spectro-Polarimeter for Infrared and Optical Regions (SPINOR) is a new spectro-polarimeter that will serve as a facility instrument for the Dunn Solar Telescope at the National Solar Observatory. This instrument is capable of achromatic polarimetry over a very broad range of wavelengths, from 430 to 1600 nm, allowing for the simultaneous observation of several visible and infrared spectral regions with full Stokes polarimetry. Another key feature of the design is its flexibility to observe virtually any combination of spectral lines, limited only by practical considerations (e.g., the number of detectors available, space on the optical bench, etc.). Visiting Astronomers, National Solar Observatory, operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Inc. (AURA), under cooperative agreement with the National Science Foundation.  相似文献   

Shapelets – II. A method for weak lensing measurements     

Alexandre Refregier  David Bacon 《Monthly notices of the Royal Astronomical Society》2003,338(1):48-56

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Palaeo-ice streams: an introduction     

Chris D. Clark  David J. A. Evans  Jan A. Piotrowski 《Boreas: An International Journal of Quaternary Research》2003,32(1):1-3

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Impact of the seasonal variations of composition on the temperature field of Titan’s stratosphere     

Sébastien Lebonnois  Frédéric Hourdin  David Luz 《Icarus》2003,163(1):164-174

We investigate the role of seasonal variations of Titan’s stratospheric composition on the temperature. We use a general circulation model coupled with idealized chemical tracers that reproduce variations of ethane (C₂H₆), acetylene (C₂H₂), and hydrogen cyanide (HCN). Enhancement of the mole fractions of these compounds, at high latitudes in the winter hemisphere relative to their equatorial values, induces a relative decrease in temperature above approximately 0.2 mbar, with a peak amplitude around −20 K, and a relative increase in temperature below, around 1 mbar, with a peak amplitude around +7 K. These thermal effects are mainly due to the variations of the cooling to space induced by the varying distributions. The ethane, acetylene, and hydrogen cyanide variations affect the cooling rates in a similar way, with the dominant effect being due to ethane, though its latitudinal variations are small.  相似文献   

Steady-state size distributions for collisional populations:: analytical solution with size-dependent strength     

David P. O'Brien  Richard Greenberg 《Icarus》2003,164(2):334-345

The steady-state population of bodies resulting from a collisional cascade depends on how material strength varies with size. We find a simple expression for the power-law index of the population, given a power law that describes how material strength varies with size. This result is extended to the case relevant for the asteroid belt and Kuiper belt, in which the material strength is described by 2 separate power laws—one for small bodies and one for larger bodies. We find that the power-law index of the small body population is unaffected by the strength law for the large bodies, and vice versa. Simple analytical expressions describe a wave that is superimposed on the large body population because of the transition between the two power laws describing the strength. These analytical results yield excellent agreement with a numerical simulation of collisional evolution. These results will help to interpret observations of the asteroids and KBOs, and constrain the strength properties of those objects.  相似文献