| 1. |
- Tinetti, Giovanna, et al.
(författare)
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The EChO science case
- 2015
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Ingår i: Experimental astronomy. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 0922-6435 .- 1572-9508. ; 40:2-3, s. 329-391
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The discovery of almost two thousand exoplanets has revealed an unexpectedly diverse planet population. We see gas giants in few-day orbits, whole multi-planet systems within the orbit of Mercury, and new populations of planets with masses between that of the Earth and Neptune-all unknown in the Solar System. Observations to date have shown that our Solar System is certainly not representative of the general population of planets in our Milky Way. The key science questions that urgently need addressing are therefore: What are exoplanets made of? Why are planets as they are? How do planetary systems work and what causes the exceptional diversity observed as compared to the Solar System? The EChO (Exoplanet Characterisation Observatory) space mission was conceived to take up the challenge to explain this diversity in terms of formation, evolution, internal structure and planet and atmospheric composition. This requires in-depth spectroscopic knowledge of the atmospheres of a large and well-defined planet sample for which precise physical, chemical and dynamical information can be obtained. In order to fulfil this ambitious scientific program, EChO was designed as a dedicated survey mission for transit and eclipse spectroscopy capable of observing a large, diverse and well-defined planet sample within its 4-year mission lifetime. The transit and eclipse spectroscopy method, whereby the signal from the star and planet are differentiated using knowledge of the planetary ephemerides, allows us to measure atmospheric signals from the planet at levels of at least 10(-4) relative to the star. This can only be achieved in conjunction with a carefully designed stable payload and satellite platform. It is also necessary to provide broad instantaneous wavelength coverage to detect as many molecular species as possible, to probe the thermal structure of the planetary atmospheres and to correct for the contaminating effects of the stellar photosphere. This requires wavelength coverage of at least 0.55 to 11 mu m with a goal of covering from 0.4 to 16 mu m. Only modest spectral resolving power is needed, with R similar to 300 for wavelengths less than 5 mu m and R similar to 30 for wavelengths greater than this. The transit spectroscopy technique means that no spatial resolution is required. A telescope collecting area of about 1 m(2) is sufficiently large to achieve the necessary spectro-photometric precision: for the Phase A study a 1.13 m(2) telescope, diffraction limited at 3 mu m has been adopted. Placing the satellite at L2 provides a cold and stable thermal environment as well as a large field of regard to allow efficient time-critical observation of targets randomly distributed over the sky. EChO has been conceived to achieve a single goal: exoplanet spectroscopy. The spectral coverage and signal-to-noise to be achieved by EChO, thanks to its high stability and dedicated design, would be a game changer by allowing atmospheric composition to be measured with unparalleled exactness: at least a factor 10 more precise and a factor 10 to 1000 more accurate than current observations. This would enable the detection of molecular abundances three orders of magnitude lower than currently possible and a fourfold increase from the handful of molecules detected to date. Combining these data with estimates of planetary bulk compositions from accurate measurements of their radii and masses would allow degeneracies associated with planetary interior modelling to be broken, giving unique insight into the interior structure and elemental abundances of these alien worlds. EChO would allow scientists to study exoplanets both as a population and as individuals. The mission can target super-Earths, Neptune-like, and Jupiter-like planets, in the very hot to temperate zones (planet temperatures of 300-3000 K) of F to M-type host stars. The EChO core science would be delivered by a three-tier survey. The EChO Chemical Census: This is a broad survey of a few-hundred exoplanets, which allows us to explore the spectroscopic and chemical diversity of the exoplanet population as a whole. The EChO Origin: This is a deep survey of a subsample of tens of exoplanets for which significantly higher signal to noise and spectral resolution spectra can be obtained to explain the origin of the exoplanet diversity (such as formation mechanisms, chemical processes, atmospheric escape). The EChO Rosetta Stones: This is an ultra-high accuracy survey targeting a subsample of select exoplanets. These will be the bright "benchmark" cases for which a large number of measurements would be taken to explore temporal variations, and to obtain two and three dimensional spatial information on the atmospheric conditions through eclipse-mapping techniques. If EChO were launched today, the exoplanets currently observed are sufficient to provide a large and diverse sample. The Chemical Census survey would consist of > 160 exoplanets with a range of planetary sizes, temperatures, orbital parameters and stellar host properties. Additionally, over the next 10 years, several new ground- and space-based transit photometric surveys and missions will come on-line (e.g. NGTS, CHEOPS, TESS, PLATO), which will specifically focus on finding bright, nearby systems. The current rapid rate of discovery would allow the target list to be further optimised in the years prior to EChO's launch and enable the atmospheric characterisation of hundreds of planets.
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| 2. |
- Korablev, O., et al.
(författare)
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The Atmospheric Chemistry Suite (ACS) of Three Spectrometers for the ExoMars 2016 Trace Gas Orbiter
- 2018
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Ingår i: Space Science Reviews. - : Springer. - 0038-6308 .- 1572-9672. ; 214:1
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The Atmospheric Chemistry Suite (ACS) package is an element of the Russian contribution to the ESA-Roscosmos ExoMars 2016 Trace Gas Orbiter (TGO) mission. ACS consists of three separate infrared spectrometers, sharing common mechanical, electrical, and thermal interfaces. This ensemble of spectrometers has been designed and developed in response to the Trace Gas Orbiter mission objectives that specifically address the requirement of high sensitivity instruments to enable the unambiguous detection of trace gases of potential geophysical or biological interest. For this reason, ACS embarks a set of instruments achieving simultaneously very high accuracy (ppt level), very high resolving power (>10,000) and large spectral coverage (0.7 to 17 μm—the visible to thermal infrared range). The near-infrared (NIR) channel is a versatile spectrometer covering the 0.7–1.6 μm spectral range with a resolving power of ∼20,000. NIR employs the combination of an echelle grating with an AOTF (Acousto-Optical Tunable Filter) as diffraction order selector. This channel will be mainly operated in solar occultation and nadir, and can also perform limb observations. The scientific goals of NIR are the measurements of water vapor, aerosols, and dayside or night side airglows. The mid-infrared (MIR) channel is a cross-dispersion echelle instrument dedicated to solar occultation measurements in the 2.2–4.4 μm range. MIR achieves a resolving power of >50,000. It has been designed to accomplish the most sensitive measurements ever of the trace gases present in the Martian atmosphere. The thermal-infrared channel (TIRVIM) is a 2-inch double pendulum Fourier-transform spectrometer encompassing the spectral range of 1.7–17 μm with apodized resolution varying from 0.2 to 1.3 cm−1. TIRVIM is primarily dedicated to profiling temperature from the surface up to ∼60 km and to monitor aerosol abundance in nadir. TIRVIM also has a limb and solar occultation capability. The technical concept of the instrument, its accommodation on the spacecraft, the optical designs as well as some of the calibrations, and the expected performances for its three channels are described.
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| 3. |
- Tinetti, G., et al.
(författare)
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A chemical survey of exoplanets with ARIEL
- 2018
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Ingår i: Experimental Astronomy. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 0922-6435 .- 1572-9508. ; 46:1, s. 135-209
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Thousands of exoplanets have now been discovered with a huge range of masses, sizes and orbits: from rocky Earth-like planets to large gas giants grazing the surface of their host star. However, the essential nature of these exoplanets remains largely mysterious: there is no known, discernible pattern linking the presence, size, or orbital parameters of a planet to the nature of its parent star. We have little idea whether the chemistry of a planet is linked to its formation environment, or whether the type of host star drives the physics and chemistry of the planet’s birth, and evolution. ARIEL was conceived to observe a large number (~1000) of transiting planets for statistical understanding, including gas giants, Neptunes, super-Earths and Earth-size planets around a range of host star types using transit spectroscopy in the 1.25–7.8 μm spectral range and multiple narrow-band photometry in the optical. ARIEL will focus on warm and hot planets to take advantage of their well-mixed atmospheres which should show minimal condensation and sequestration of high-Z materials compared to their colder Solar System siblings. Said warm and hot atmospheres are expected to be more representative of the planetary bulk composition. Observations of these warm/hot exoplanets, and in particular of their elemental composition (especially C, O, N, S, Si), will allow the understanding of the early stages of planetary and atmospheric formation during the nebular phase and the following few million years. ARIEL will thus provide a representative picture of the chemical nature of the exoplanets and relate this directly to the type and chemical environment of the host star. ARIEL is designed as a dedicated survey mission for combined-light spectroscopy, capable of observing a large and well-defined planet sample within its 4-year mission lifetime. Transit, eclipse and phase-curve spectroscopy methods, whereby the signal from the star and planet are differentiated using knowledge of the planetary ephemerides, allow us to measure atmospheric signals from the planet at levels of 10–100 part per million (ppm) relative to the star and, given the bright nature of targets, also allows more sophisticated techniques, such as eclipse mapping, to give a deeper insight into the nature of the atmosphere. These types of observations require a stable payload and satellite platform with broad, instantaneous wavelength coverage to detect many molecular species, probe the thermal structure, identify clouds and monitor the stellar activity. The wavelength range proposed covers all the expected major atmospheric gases from e.g. H2O, CO2, CH4 NH3, HCN, H2S through to the more exotic metallic compounds, such as TiO, VO, and condensed species. Simulations of ARIEL performance in conducting exoplanet surveys have been performed – using conservative estimates of mission performance and a full model of all significant noise sources in the measurement – using a list of potential ARIEL targets that incorporates the latest available exoplanet statistics. The conclusion at the end of the Phase A study, is that ARIEL – in line with the stated mission objectives – will be able to observe about 1000 exoplanets depending on the details of the adopted survey strategy, thus confirming the feasibility of the main science objectives.
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| 4. |
- Hartogh, P., et al.
(författare)
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HIFI observations of water in the atmosphere of comet C/2008 Q3 (Garradd)
- 2010
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Ingår i: Astronomy and Astrophysics. - : EDP Sciences. - 0004-6361 .- 1432-0746. ; 518:Article Number: L150
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- High-resolution far-infrared and sub-millimetre spectroscopy of water lines is an important tool to understand the physical and chemical properties of cometary atmospheres. We present observations of several rotational ortho- and para-water transitions in comet C/2008 Q3 (Garradd) performed with HIFI on Herschel. These observations have provided the first detection of the 2(12)-1(01) (1669 GHz) ortho and 1(11)-0(00) (1113 GHz) para transitions of water in a cometary spectrum. In addition, the ground-state transition 1(10)-1(01) at 557 GHz is detected and mapped. By detecting several water lines quasi-simultaneously and mapping their emission we can constrain the excitation parameters in the coma. Synthetic line profiles are computed using excitation models which include excitation by collisions, solar infrared radiation, and radiation trapping. We obtain the gas kinetic temperature, constrain the electron density profile, and estimate the coma expansion velocity by analyzing the map and line shapes. We derive water production rates of 1.7-2.8 x 10(28) s(-1) over the range r(h) = 1.83-1.85 AU.
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| 5. |
- Yao, Yuhan, et al.
(författare)
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The Tidal Disruption Event AT2021ehb : Evidence of Relativistic Disk Reflection, and Rapid Evolution of the Disk-Corona System
- 2022
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Ingår i: Astrophysical Journal. - : American Astronomical Society. - 0004-637X .- 1538-4357. ; 937:1
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- We present X-ray, UV, optical, and radio observations of the nearby (≈78 Mpc) tidal disruption event AT2021ehb/ZTF21aanxhjv during its first 430 days of evolution. AT2021ehb occurs in the nucleus of a galaxy hosting a≈107 M⊙ black hole (MBH inferred from host galaxy scaling relations). High-cadence Swift and Neutron Star Interior Composition Explorer (NICER) monitoring reveals a delayed X-ray brightening. The spectrum first undergoes a gradual soft → hard transition and then suddenly turns soft again within 3 days at δt≈272 days during which the X-ray flux drops by a factor of 10. In the joint NICER+NuSTAR observation (δt = 264 days, harder state), we observe a prominent nonthermal component up to 30 keV and an extremely broad emission line in the iron K band. The bolometric luminosity of AT2021ehb reaches a maximum of 6.0+10.4-3.8%LEdd when the X-ray spectrum is the hardest. During the dramatic X-ray evolution, no radio emission is detected, the UV/optical luminosity stays relatively constant, and the optical spectra are featureless. We propose the following interpretations: (i) the soft → hard transition may be caused by the gradual formation of a magnetically dominated corona; (ii) hard X-ray photons escape from the system along solid angles with low scattering optical depth (∼a few) whereas the UV/optical emission is likely generated by reprocessing materials with much larger column density—the system is highly aspherical; and (iii) the abrupt X-ray flux drop may be triggered by the thermal–viscous instability in the inner accretion flow, leading to a much thinner disk.
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| 6. |
- Bearden, IG, et al.
(författare)
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Deuteron and triton production with high energy sulphur and lead beams
- 2002
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Ingår i: European Physical Journal C. Particles and Fields. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 1434-6044. ; 23:2, s. 237-247
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Proton and deuteron production has been observed in S+S and S+Pb collisions at 200 A-GeV and in Pb+Pb reactions at 158 A-GeV at the CERN SPS accelerator. For Pb+Pb triton production was also measured. The p and d spectra as well as the p and t spectra were observed in similar rapidity ranges and over similar ranges of transverse momenta per nucleon, making it possible to interpret the cross sections of the composite particles in terms of coalescence mechanisms. Volumes of homogeneity were extracted and compared to pion-pair HBT interferometry results. Special attention is given to the dependence on transverse mass, centrality and rapidity.
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| 7. |
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| 8. |
- Bearden, IG, et al.
(författare)
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Particle production in central Pb+Pb collisions at 158A GeV/c
- 2002
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Ingår i: Physical Review C (Nuclear Physics). - 0556-2813. ; 66:4
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The NA44 experiment has measured single-particle inclusive spectra for charged pions, kaons, and protons as a function of transverse mass near midrapidity in 158A GeV/c Pb+Pb collisions. From the particle mass dependence of the observed m(T) distributions, we are able to deduce a value of about 120 MeV for the temperature at thermal freeze-out. From the observed ratios of the rapidity densities, we find values of the chemical potentials for light and strange quarks and a chemical freeze-out temperature of approximately 140 MeV.
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| 9. |
- Pinches, S. D., et al.
(författare)
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Implementation of plasma simulators and plasma reconstruction workflows in ITER’s Integrated Modelling & Analysis Suite (IMAS)
- 2017
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Ingår i: 44th EPS Conference on Plasma Physics, EPS 2017. - : European Physical Society (EPS).
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- IMAS has been installed within the majority of the ITER Members and is being used to support ITPA activities including code benchmarking and validation. Sophisticated workflows, such as Plasma Simulators and those describing H&CD systems, have been adapted to IMAS and applied to ITER scenarios. The framework is considered sufficiently flexible to handle all foreseen approaches to the integrated (probabilistic) determination of measurement parameters (and their errors). The inclusion of UDA within the IMAS data Access Layer has allowed the fetching of IDSs directly from experimental databases and the demonstration of the first plasma reconstruction chain. An interactive Live Display in which signals are selected through a web interface has also been demonstrated.
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| 10. |
- Radovanovic, S., et al.
(författare)
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Comparison of brain activity during different types of proprioceptive inputs : a positron emission tomography study
- 2002
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Ingår i: Experimental Brain Research. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 0014-4819 .- 1432-1106. ; 143:3, s. 276-285
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- It has been shown that the primary and secondary somatosensory cortex, as well as the supplementary motor area (SMA), are involved in central processing of proprioceptive signals during passive and active arm movements. However, it is not clear whether different cortical areas are involved in processing of different proprioceptive inputs (skin, joint, muscle receptors), what their relative contributions might be, where kinesthetic sensations are formed within the CNS, and how they interact when the full peripheral proprioceptive machinery acts. In this study we investigated the representation of the brain structures involved in the perception of passive limb movement and illusory movement generated by muscle tendon vibration. Changes in cortical activity as indicated by changes in regional cerebral blood flow (rCBF) were measured using positron emission tomography (PET). Twelve subjects were studied under four conditions: (1) passive flexion-extension movement (PM) of the left forearm; (2) induced illusions of movements (VI) similar to the real PM, induced by alternating vibration of biceps and triceps tendons (70-80 Hz) at the elbow; (3) alternating vibration of biceps and triceps tendons (with 20-50 Hz) without induced kinesthetic illusions (VN); and (4) rest condition (RE). The results show different patterns of cortex activation. In general, the activation during passive movement was higher in comparison with both kinds of vibration, and activation during vibrations with induced illusions of movement was more prominent than during vibrations without induced illusions. When the PM condition was contrasted with the other conditions we found the following areas of activation -- the primary motor (MI) and somatosensory area (SI), the SMA and the supplementary somatosensory area (SSA). In conditions where passive movements and illusory movements were contrasted with rest, some temporal areas, namely primary and associative auditory cortex, were activated, as well as secondary somatosensory cortex (SII). Our data show that different proprioceptive inputs, which induce sensation of movement, are associated with differently located activation patterns in the SI/MI and SMA areas of the cortex. In general, the comparison of activation intensities under different functional conditions indicates the involvement of SII in stimulus perception generation and of the SI/MI and SMA areas in the processing of proprioceptive input. Activation of the primary and secondary auditory cortex might reflect the interaction between somatosensory and auditory systems in movement sense generation. SSA might also be involved in movement sense generation and/or maintenance.
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