Cassini CIRS retrievals of ammonia in Jupiter's upper troposphere     

Richard K. Achterberg  Barney J. Conrath 《Icarus》2006,182(1):169-180

The zonal mean ammonia abundance on Jupiter between the 400- and 500-mbar pressure levels is inferred as a function of latitude from Cassini Composite Infrared Spectrometer data. Near the Great Red Spot, the ammonia abundance is mapped as a function of latitude and longitude. The Equatorial Zone is rich in ammonia, with a relative humidity near unity. The North and South Equatorial Belts are depleted relative to the Equatorial Zone by an order of magnitude. The Great Red Spot shows a local maximum in the ammonia abundance. Ammonia abundance is highly correlated with temperature perturbations at the same altitude. Under the assumption that anomalies in ammonia and temperature are both perturbed from equilibrium by vertical motion, we find that the adjustment time constant for ammonia equilibration is about one third of the radiative time constant.  相似文献   

Low-mass binary-induced outflows from asymptotic giant branch stars     

J. Nordhaus  E. G. Blackman 《Monthly notices of the Royal Astronomical Society》2006,370(4):2004-2012

A significant fraction of planetary nebulae (PNe) and protoplanetary nebulae (PPNe) exhibit aspherical, axisymmetric structures, many of which are highly collimated. The origin of these structures is not entirely understood, however, recent evidence suggests that many observed PNe harbour binary systems, which may play a role in their shaping. In an effort to understand how binaries may produce such asymmetries, we study the effect of low-mass  (<0.3 M_⊙)  companions (planets, brown dwarfs and low-mass main-sequence stars) embedded into the envelope of a  3.0-M_⊙  star during three epochs of its evolution [red giant branch, asymptotic giant branch (AGB), interpulse AGB]. We find that common envelope evolution can lead to three qualitatively different consequences: (i) direct ejection of envelope material resulting in a predominately equatorial outflow, (ii) spin-up of the envelope resulting in the possibility of powering an explosive dynamo-driven jet and (iii) tidal shredding of the companion into a disc which facilitates a disc-driven jet. We study how these features depend on the secondary's mass and discuss observational consequences.  相似文献   

Neutrino radiation from a collapsing galactic nucleus     

V. I. Dokuchaev 《Astronomy Letters》2002,28(8):522-526

We discuss the possible observational manifestation of the formation of massive black holes in galactic nuclei in the form of an intense high-energy neutrino flux. A short-lived (≤10 yr) hidden neutrino source results from the natural dynamicalal evolution of a central star cluster in the galactic nucleus before its gravitational collapse. The central star cluster at the final evolutionary stage consists of degenerate compact stars (neutron stars and stellar-mass black holes) and is embedded in a massive gaseous envelope produced by destructive collisions of normal stars. Multiple fireballs from frequent collisions of neutron stars give rise to a tenuous quasi-stationary cavity in the central part of the massive envelope. The cavity is filled with shock waves on which an effective cosmic-ray acceleration takes place. Allthe accelerated particles, except the secondary high-energy neutrinos, are absorbed in the dense envelope. The neutrino signal that carries information on the dynamicals of the collapsing galactic nucleus can be recorded by a neutrino detector with an effective area S∼1 km².  相似文献   

Comprehensive studies of solar activity on the CORONAS-F satellite     

V. N. Oraevsky  I. I. Sobelman 《Astronomy Letters》2002,28(6):401-410

The first results of comprehensive CORONAS-F observations of solar activity are presented. The CORONAS-F instrumentation and principal scientific objectives are briefly described and examples of the first results of data reduction are given.  相似文献   

Spectral analysis of the background in ground-based, long-slit spectroscopy     

Frédéric Zagury 《Journal of Astrophysics and Astronomy》2005,26(4):377-394

This paper examines the variations, because of atmospheric extinction, of broad-band visible spectra, obtained from long-slit spectroscopy, in the vicinity of some stars, nebulae, and one faint galaxy.  相似文献   

Hubble Space Telescope imaging polarimetry of Mars during the 2003 opposition     

Yu. Shkuratov  M. Kreslavsky  V. Kaydash  J. Bell III  M. Hubbard  A. Lubenow 《Icarus》2005,176(1):1-11

We report results of polarimetric imaging observations of Mars with the Hubble Space Telescope during the 2003 opposition. Through careful calibration, the observations with the ACS camera allow measurements of the polarization degree with an absolute accuracy better than 0.5% and detection of features with polarization degree contrast as small as 0.2%. The general distribution of linear polarization parameters over the Mars disk and their dependence on phase angle and wavelength are well explained qualitatively by a combination of scattering separately by the martian surface and atmosphere. We have discovered transient polarization phenomena interpreted as clouds that are best observed in ultraviolet light. These clouds are optically thin but strongly polarizing, and their origin may be related to atmospheric ice condensation processes.  相似文献   

The origin of the initial mass function and its dependence on the mean Jeans mass in molecular clouds     

Matthew R. Bate  Ian A. Bonnell 《Monthly notices of the Royal Astronomical Society》2005,356(4):1201-1221

We investigate the dependence of stellar properties on the mean thermal Jeans mass in molecular clouds. We compare the results from the two largest hydrodynamical simulations of star formation to resolve the fragmentation process down to the opacity limit, the first of which was reported by Bate, Bonnell & Bromm. The initial conditions of the two calculations are identical except for the radii of the clouds, which are chosen so that the mean densities and mean thermal Jeans masses of the clouds differ by factors of 9 and 3, respectively.
We find that the denser cloud, with the lower mean thermal Jeans mass, produces a higher proportion of brown dwarfs and has a lower characteristic (median) mass of the stars and brown dwarfs. This dependence of the initial mass function (IMF) on the density of the cloud may explain the observation that the Taurus star-forming region appears to be deficient in brown dwarfs when compared with the Orion Trapezium cluster. The new calculation also produces wide binaries (separations >20 au), one of which is a wide binary brown dwarf system.
Based on the hydrodynamical calculations, we develop a simple accretion/ejection model for the origin of the IMF. In the model, all stars and brown dwarfs begin with the same mass (set by the opacity limit for fragmentation) and grow in mass until their accretion is terminated stochastically by their ejection from the cloud through dynamically interactions. The model predicts that the main variation of the IMF in different star-forming environments should be in the location of the peak (due to variations in the mean thermal Jeans mass of the cloud) and in the substellar regime. However, the slope of the IMF at high masses may depend on the dispersion in the accretion rates of protostars.  相似文献   

HT Camelopardalis: the simplest intermediate polar spin pulse     

P. A. Evans  Coel Hellier 《Monthly notices of the Royal Astronomical Society》2005,359(4):1531-1536

The intermediate polar (IP) HT Cam is unusual in that it shows no evidence for dense absorption in its spectrum. We analyse an XMM–Newton observation of this star, which confirms the absence of absorption and shows that the X-ray spin pulse is energy independent. The modulation arises solely from occultation effects and can be reproduced by a simple geometrical model in which the lower accretion footprint is fainter than the upper one.
We suggest that the lack of opacity in the accretion columns of HT Cam, and also of EX Hya and V1025 Cen, results from a low accretion rate owing to their being below the cataclysmic variable period gap.  相似文献   

GRS 1915+105: the brightest Galactic black hole     

Chris Done  Grzegorz Wardzi&#;ski  Marek Gierli&#;ski 《Monthly notices of the Royal Astronomical Society》2004,349(2):393-403

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Structural properties of discs and bulges of early-type galaxies     

Roelof S. de Jong  Luc Simard  Roger L. Davies  R. P. Saglia  David Burstein  Matthew Colless  Robert McMahan  Gary Wegner 《Monthly notices of the Royal Astronomical Society》2004,355(4):1155-1170

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