| 1. |
- Coustenis, A., et al.
(författare)
-
TandEM : Titan and Enceladus mission
- 2009
-
Ingår i: Experimental astronomy. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 0922-6435 .- 1572-9508. ; 23:3, s. 893-946
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- TandEM was proposed as an L-class (large) mission in response to ESA's Cosmic Vision 2015-2025 Call, and accepted for further studies, with the goal of exploring Titan and Enceladus. The mission concept is to perform in situ investigations of two worlds tied together by location and properties, whose remarkable natures have been partly revealed by the ongoing Cassini-Huygens mission. These bodies still hold mysteries requiring a complete exploration using a variety of vehicles and instruments. TandEM is an ambitious mission because its targets are two of the most exciting and challenging bodies in the Solar System. It is designed to build on but exceed the scientific and technological accomplishments of the Cassini-Huygens mission, exploring Titan and Enceladus in ways that are not currently possible (full close-up and in situ coverage over long periods of time). In the current mission architecture, TandEM proposes to deliver two medium-sized spacecraft to the Saturnian system. One spacecraft would be an orbiter with a large host of instruments which would perform several Enceladus flybys and deliver penetrators to its surface before going into a dedicated orbit around Titan alone, while the other spacecraft would carry the Titan in situ investigation components, i.e. a hot-air balloon (MontgolfiSre) and possibly several landing probes to be delivered through the atmosphere.
|
|
| 2. |
- Amils, R. I., et al.
(författare)
-
Compact cryogenic wide-band balanced amplifiers with superconducting 90° hybrids for the IF of submillimeter-wave SIS mixers
- 2019
-
Ingår i: ISSTT 2019 - 30th International Symposium on Space Terahertz Technology, Proceedings Book. ; , s. 57-62
-
Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- The pressing demand for mm-wave cryogenic radio astronomy receivers with increasing instantaneous bandwidth has spurred interest in more complex intermediate frequency amplifier configurations, like the balanced amplifier, as the traditional options have increasing difficulties to comply either with the noise or the input matching specifications. This solution is typically penalized by the slight increment in noise produced by the quadrature hybrid losses. We propose a balanced amplifier using a novel 3 dB quadrature hybrid coupler design with superconducting lines. The prototype unit built for the 4-12 GHz band integrates in the same module the hybrid coupler chips, the low noise amplifiers and the bias circuitry. The mechanical design allows for an independent testing of the individual amplifiers. The average noise temperature is 4.4 K, only 0.3 K more than the average of its amplifiers. The input reflection improves more than 10 dB. This compact balanced amplifier is also compared with a non-integrated version, showing an improvement in noise and reflection. It has been tested in a complete mm-wave receiver, with advantage over other IF schemes.
|
|
| 3. |
- Fernández-Remolar, David C., et al.
(författare)
-
Preservation of underground microbial diversity in ancient subsurface deposits (>6 ma) of the rio tinto basement
- 2021
-
Ingår i: Microorganisms. - : MDPI AG. - 2076-2607. ; 9:8
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The drilling of the Rio Tinto basement has provided evidence of an underground microbial community primarily sustained by the Fe and S metabolism through the biooxidation of pyrite orebodies. Although the gossan is the microbial activity product, which dates back to the Oligocene (25 Ma), no molecular evidence of such activity in the past has been reported yet. A Time of Flight Secondary Ion Mass Spectrometry (ToF-SIMS) molecular analysis of a subsurface sample in the Peña de Hierro basement has provided novel data of the ancient underground microbial community. It shows that the microbial remains are preserved in a mineral matrix composed of laminated Fe-oxysulfates and K-and Na-bearing sulfates alternating with secondary silica. In such a mineral substrate, the biomolecule traces are found in five different microstructure associations, (1) <15 micron-sized nodular microstructures composed of POn(2≤n≤4)−, (2) <30 micron-size mi-cronodules containing fatty acids, acylglycerides, and alkanol chains, (3) <20 micro-sized nodules containing NOn −(2≤n≤3) ions, (4) 40-micron size nodules with NH4+ and traces of peptides, and (5) >200-micron thick layer with N-bearing adducts, and sphingolipid and/or peptide traces. It suggests the mineralization of at least five microbial preserved entities with different metabolic ca-pabilities, including: (1) Acidiphilium/Tessaracoccus-like phosphate mineralizers, (2) microbial patches preserving phosphate-free acylglycerides bacteria, (3) nitrogen oxidizing bacteria (e.g., Acidovorax sp.), (4) traces of heterotrophic ammonifying bacteria, and (5) sphingolipid bearing bacteria (e.g., Sphin-gomonadales, and δ-Proteobacteria) and/or mineralized biofilms. The primary biooxidation process acted as a preservation mechanism to release the inorganic ions that ultimately mineralized the microbial structures.
|
|
| 4. |
- Fernández-Remolar, David C., et al.
(författare)
-
Unveiling microbial preservation under hyperacidic and oxidizing conditions in the Oligocene Rio Tinto deposit
- 2021
-
Ingår i: Scientific Reports. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 2045-2322 .- 2045-2322. ; 11:1
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The preservation of biosignatures on Mars is largely associated with extensive deposits of clays formed under mild early Noachian conditions (> 3.9 Ga). They were followed by widespread precipitation of acidic sulfates considered adverse for biomolecule preservation. In this paper, an exhaustive mass spectrometry investigation of ferric subsurface materials in the Rio Tinto gossan deposit (~ 25 Ma) provides evidence of well-preserved molecular biosignatures under oxidative and acidic conditions. Time of flight secondary ion mass spectrometry (ToF–SIMS) analysis shows a direct association between physical-templating biological structures and molecular biosignatures. This relation implies that the quality of molecular preservation is exceptional and provides information on microbial life formerly operating in the shallow regions of the Rio Tinto subsurface. Consequently, low-pH oxidative environments on Mars could also record molecular information about ancient life in the same way as the Noachian clay-rich deposits.
|
|
| 5. |
- Gurvits, L. I., et al.
(författare)
-
The science case and challenges of spaceborne sub-millimeter interferometry: the study case of TeraHertz Exploration and Zooming-in for Astrophysics (THEZA)
- 2021
-
Ingår i: Proceedings of the International Astronautical Congress, IAC. - 0074-1795. ; A7
-
Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- Ultra-high angular resolution in astronomy has always been an important vehicle for making fundamental discoveries. Recent results in direct imaging of the vicinity of the super-massive black hole in the nucleus of the radio galaxy M87 by the millimeter VLBI system Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) and various pioneering results of the Space VLBI mission RadioAstron provided new momentum in high angular resolution astrophysics. In both mentioned cases, the angular resolution reached the values of about 10−20 microrcseconds (0.05−0.1 nanoradian). Angular resolution is proportional to the observing wavelength and inversely proportional to the interferometer baseline length. In the case of Earth-based EHT, the highest angular resolution was achieved by combining the shortest possible wavelength of 1.3 mm with the longest possible baselines, comparable to the Earth’s diameter. For RadioAstron, operational wavelengths were in the range from 92 cm down to 1.3 cm, but the baselines were as long as ∼350,000 km. However, these two highlights of radio astronomy, EHT and RadioAstron do not”saturate” the interest to further increase in angular resolution. Quite opposite: the science case for further increase in angular resolution of astrophysical studies becomes even stronger. A natural and, in fact, the only possible way of moving forward is to enhance mm/sub-mm VLBI by extending baselines to extraterrestrial dimensions, i.e. creating a mm/sub-mm Space VLBI system. The inevitable move toward space-borne mm/sub-mm VLBI is a subject of several concept studies. In this presentation we will focus on one of them called TeraHertz Exploration and Zooming-in for Astrophysics (THEZA), prepared in response to the ESA’s call for its next major science program Voyage 2050 (Gurvits et al. 2021). The THEZA rationale is focused at the physics of spacetime in the vicinity of super-massive black holes as the leading science drive. However, it will also open up a sizable new range of hitherto unreachable parameters of observational radio astrophysics and create a multi-disciplinary scientific facility and offer a high degree of synergy with prospective “single dish” space-borne sub-mm astronomy (e.g., Wiedner et al. 2021) and infrared interferometry (e.g., Linz et al. 2021). As an amalgam of several major trends of modern observational astrophysics, THEZA aims at facilitating a breakthrough in high-resolution high image quality astronomical studies.
|
|
