Search Publications
Sporadic formation of slope streaks on Mars
Schorghofer, Norbert; King, Christina M.
Slope streaks are a form of gravity-driven mass-movements that frequently occur on Mars today. The cause of slope streak formation remains unclear; both, dry and wet processes have been suggested. Here, we observationally constrain the time of the year during which slope streaks form. Imagery from four Mars-orbiting cameras is mined to identify lo…
A Spitzer Infrared Spectrograph Detection of Crystalline Silicates in a Protostellar Envelope
Fischer, William J.; Hartmann, Lee; Calvet, Nuria +12 more
We present the Spitzer Space Telescope Infrared Spectrograph spectrum of the Orion A protostar HOPS-68. The mid-infrared spectrum reveals crystalline substructure at 11.1, 16.1, 18.8, 23.6, 27.9, and 33.6 µm superimposed on the broad 9.7 and 18 µm amorphous silicate features; the substructure is well matched by the presence of the oliv…
Plaskett's star: analysis of the CoRoT photometric data
Auvergne, M.; Gosset, E.; Baudin, F. +13 more
Context. The second short run (SRa02) of the CoRoT space mission for asteroseismology was partly devoted to stars belonging to the Mon OB2 association. An intense monitoring has been performed on Plaskett's star (HD 47129) and the unprecedented quality of the light curve allows us to shed new light on this very massive, non-eclipsing binary system…
The Surface Composition of Large Kuiper Belt Object 2007 OR10
Brown, M. E.; Burgasser, A. J.; Fraser, W. C.
We present photometry and spectra of the large Kuiper belt object 2007 OR10. The data show significant near-infrared absorption features due to water ice. While most objects in the Kuiper belt with water ice absorption this prominent have the optically neutral colors of water ice, 2007 OR10 is among the reddest Kuiper belt objects known. One other…
A deep wide-field sub-mm survey of the Carina Nebula complex
Menten, K. M.; Preibisch, T.; Zinnecker, H. +3 more
Context. The Great Nebula in Carina is one of the most massive (Mast,total ⪆ 25 000 M_⊙) star-forming complexes in our Galaxy and contains several stars with (initial) masses exceeding ≈ 100 M_⊙; it is therefore a superb location in which to study the physics of violent massive star-formation and the resulting feedback effects, includin…
Long- and short-term variability of Saturn's ionic radiation belts
Krupp, N.; Dougherty, M. K.; Jones, G. H. +7 more
Earlier studies of Saturn's inner ionic radiation belts revealed that their content was surprisingly constant while their evolution appeared decoupled from dynamics of the Saturnian magnetosphere. Saturn's icy moons in combination with the neutral gas and dust that surround the planet seem to effectively restrict radial transport of energetic ions…
Four New T Dwarfs Identified in Pan-STARRS 1 Commissioning Data
Price, P. A.; Magnier, Eugene A.; Goldman, Bertrand +14 more
A complete well-defined sample of ultracool dwarfs is one of the key science programs of the Pan-STARRS 1 optical survey telescope (PS1). Here we combine PS1 commissioning data with the Two Micron All Sky Survey (2MASS) to conduct a proper motion search (0farcs1-2farcs0 yr-1) for nearby T dwarfs, using optical+near-IR colors to select o…
Chemical abundances in the protoplanetary disc LV 2 (Orion): clues to the causes of the abundance anomaly in H II regions
Tsamis, Y. G.; Walsh, J. R.; Vílchez, J. M. +1 more
Optical integral field spectroscopy of the archetype protoplanetary disc LV 2 in the Orion nebula is presented, taken with the Very Large Telescope (VLT) FLAMES/Argus fibre array. The detection of recombination lines (RLs) of C II and O II from this class of objects is reported, and the lines are utilized as abundance diagnostics. The study is com…
The martian mesosphere as revealed by CO 2 cloud observations and General Circulation Modeling
González-Galindo, Francisco; Määttänen, Anni; Forget, François +1 more
Different missions have observed mesospheric clouds on Mars in the last years. The presence of these clouds implies, among other conditions, mesospheric temperatures below CO 2 condensation temperature. We use a General Circulation Model to study the mesospheric temperatures and compare the observed distribution of the mesospheric cloud…
Spitzer 24 µm Survey for Dust Disks around Hot White Dwarfs
Volk, Kevin; Rauch, Thomas; De Marco, Orsola +6 more
Two types of dust disks around white dwarfs (WDs) have been reported: small dust disks around cool metal-rich WDs consisting of tidally disrupted asteroids and a large dust disk around the hot central WD of the Helix planetary nebula (PN) possibly produced by collisions among Kuiper-Belt-like objects. To search for more dust disks of the latter ty…