Search Publications
Enrichment of the Hot Intracluster Medium: Observations
Yamaguchi, H.; Simionescu, A.; Kaastra, J. S. +7 more
Four decades ago, the firm detection of an Fe-K emission feature in the X-ray spectrum of the Perseus cluster revealed the presence of iron in its hot intracluster medium (ICM). With more advanced missions successfully launched over the last 20 years, this discovery has been extended to many other metals and to the hot atmospheres of many other ga…
Old-Aged Primary Distance Indicators
Salaris, Maurizio; Matsunaga, Noriyuki; Beaton, Rachael L. +8 more
Old-aged stellar distance indicators are present in all Galactic structures (halo, bulge, disk) and in galaxies of all Hubble types and, thus, are immensely powerful tools for understanding our Universe. Here we present a comprehensive review for three primary standard candles from Population II: (i) RR Lyrae type variables (RRL), (ii) type II Cep…
The Science of Sungrazers, Sunskirters, and Other Near-Sun Comets
Giordano, Silvio; Raymond, John; Mann, Ingrid +16 more
This review addresses our current understanding of comets that venture close to the Sun, and are hence exposed to much more extreme conditions than comets that are typically studied from Earth. The extreme solar heating and plasma environments that these objects encounter change many aspects of their behaviour, thus yielding valuable information o…
Accretion Disks and Coronae in the X-Ray Flashlight
Maccarone, Thomas J.; Li, Jian; Kretschmar, Peter +10 more
Plasma accreted onto the surface of a neutron star can ignite due to unstable thermonuclear burning and produce a bright flash of X-ray emission called a Type-I X-ray burst. Such events are very common; thousands have been observed to date from over a hundred accreting neutron stars. The intense, often Eddington-limited, radiation generated in the…
Electron Power-Law Spectra in Solar and Space Plasmas
Retinò, A.; Khotyaintsev, Y. V.; Eriksson, E. +10 more
Particles are accelerated to very high, non-thermal energies in solar and space plasma environments. While energy spectra of accelerated electrons often exhibit a power law, it remains unclear how electrons are accelerated to high energies and what processes determine the power-law index δ . Here, we review previous observations of the power-law i…
Venus: The Atmosphere, Climate, Surface, Interior and Near-Space Environment of an Earth-Like Planet
Head, James W.; Taylor, Fredric W.; Svedhem, Håkan
This is a review of current knowledge about Earth's nearest planetary neighbour and near twin, Venus. Such knowledge has recently been extended by the European Venus Express and the Japanese Akatsuki spacecraft in orbit around the planet; these missions and their achievements are concisely described in the first part of the review, along with a su…
Imaging Plasma Density Structures in the Soft X-Rays Generated by Solar Wind Charge Exchange with Neutrals
Holmström, M.; Read, A. M.; Wing, S. +32 more
Both heliophysics and planetary physics seek to understand the complex nature of the solar wind's interaction with solar system obstacles like Earth's magnetosphere, the ionospheres of Venus and Mars, and comets. Studies with this objective are frequently conducted with the help of single or multipoint in situ electromagnetic field and particle ob…
Global Non-Potential Magnetic Models of the Solar Corona During the March 2015 Eclipse
Morgan, Huw; Feng, Xueshang; Downs, Cooper +17 more
Seven different models are applied to the same problem of simulating the Sun's coronal magnetic field during the solar eclipse on 2015 March 20. All of the models are non-potential, allowing for free magnetic energy, but the associated electric currents are developed in significantly different ways. This is not a direct comparison of the coronal m…
Abundances, Ionization States, Temperatures, and FIP in Solar Energetic Particles
Reames, Donald V.
The relative abundances of chemical elements and isotopes have been our most effective tool in identifying and understanding the physical processes that control populations of energetic particles. The early surprise in solar energetic particles (SEPs) was 1000-fold enhancements in {}3He/{}4He from resonant wave-particle inter…
The Rotation and Interior Structure Experiment on the InSight Mission to Mars
Golombek, Matthew P.; Asmar, Sami W.; Yseboodt, Marie +5 more
The Rotation and Interior Structure Experiment (RISE) on-board the InSight mission will use the lander's X-band (8 GHz) radio system in combination with tracking stations of the NASA Deep Space Network (DSN) to determine the rotation of Mars. RISE will measure the nutation of the Martian spin axis, detecting for the first time the effect of the li…