Search Publications
Spectral characteristics of protons in the Earth's plasmasheet: statistical results from Cluster CIS and RAPID
Fränz, M.; Dandouras, I.; Daly, P. W. +4 more
We present a study of the spectral characteristics of protons in the Earth's plasma sheet for various geomagnetic disturbance levels. The study is based on about 5400 h of data combined from the Cluster RAPID and CIS instruments obtained during the tail season (July-October). The overall proton spectral shape is generally that of a κ distribution,…
Transiting exoplanets from the CoRoT space mission. XII. CoRoT-12b: a short-period low-density planet transiting a solar analog star
Mazeh, T.; Aigrain, S.; Alonso, R. +50 more
We report the discovery by the CoRoT satellite of a new transiting giant planet in a 2.83 days orbit about a V = 15.5 solar analog star (M_* = 1.08 ± 0.08 M_⊙, R_* = 1.1 ± 0.1 R_⊙, Teff = 5675 ± 80 K). This new planet, CoRoT-12b, has a mass of 0.92 ± 0.07 MJup and a radius of 1.44 ± 0.13 RJup. Its low density can b…
Stationarity in Solar Wind Flows
Perri, S.; Balogh, A.
By using single-point measurements in space physics it is possible to study a phenomenon only as a function of time. This means that we cannot have direct access to information about spatial variations of a measured quantity. However, the investigation of the properties of turbulence and of related phenomena in the solar wind widely makes use of a…
Herschel observations of ortho- and para-oxidaniumyl (H2O+) in spiral arm clouds toward Sagittarius B2(M)
Menten, K. M.; Falgarone, E.; Martin, P. G. +56 more
H2O+ has been observed in its ortho- and para- states toward the massive star forming core Sgr B2(M), located close to the Galactic center. The observations show absorption in all spiral arm clouds between the Sun and Sgr B2. The average o/p ratio of H2O+ in most velocity intervals is 4.8, which correspo…
Exoplanetary Transits of Limb-brightened Lines: Tentative Si IV Absorption by HD 209458b
Schlawin, E.; Agol, E.; Walkowicz, L. M. +2 more
Transit light curves for stellar continua have only one minimum and a "U" shape. By contrast, transit curves for optically thin chromospheric emission lines can have a "W" shape because of stellar limb brightening. We calculate light curves for an optically thin shell of emission and fit these models to time-resolved observations of Si IV absorpti…
Dissecting the Lyman α emission halo of LAB1
Morris, Simon L.; de Zeeuw, P. T.; Geach, James E. +4 more
We report observations of Lyman alpha blob 1 (LAB1) in the SSA 22 protocluster region (z = 3.09) with the integral-field spectrograph SAURON. We increased the signal-to-noise ratio in the spectra by more than a factor of 3 compared to our previous observations. This allows us to probe the structure of the LAB system in detail, examining its struct…
A multi-wavelength study of the 2009 impact on Jupiter: Comparison of high resolution images from Gemini, Keck and HST
de Pater, Imke; Wong, Michael H.; Fletcher, Leigh N. +6 more
Within several days of A. Wesley's announcement that Jupiter was hit by an object on UT 19 July 2009, we observed the impact site with (1) the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) at UV through visible (225-924 nm) wavelengths, (2) the 10-m W.M. Keck II telescope in the near-infrared (1-5 µm), and (3) the 8-m Gemini-North telescope in the mid-infrar…
First detection of the Sunyaev Zel'dovich effect increment at λ < 650 µm
Kneib, J. -P.; Smith, G. P.; Lutz, D. +28 more
The Sunyaev-Zel'dovich (SZ) effect is a spectral distortion of the cosmic microwave background as observed through the hot plasma in galaxy clusters. This distortion is a decrement in the CMB intensity for λ > 1.3 mm, an increment at shorter wavelengths, and small again by λ ~ 250 µm. As part of the Herschel Lensing Survey (HLS) we have m…
A Detailed look at Chemical Abundances in Magellanic Cloud Planetary Nebulae. I. The Small Magellanic Cloud
Villaver, Eva; Balick, Bruce; Shaw, Richard A. +8 more
We present an analysis of elemental abundances of He, N, O, Ne, S, and Ar in Magellanic Cloud planetary nebulae (PNe) and focus initially on 14 PNe in the Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC). We derive the abundances from a combination of deep, high-dispersion optical spectra, as well as mid-infrared (IR) spectra from the Spitzer Space Telescope. A detai…
The OGLE view of microlensing towards the Magellanic Clouds - II. OGLE-II Small Magellanic Cloud data
Soszyński, I.; Udalski, A.; Szymański, M. K. +8 more
The primary goal of this paper is to provide evidence that can prove true or false the hypothesis that dark matter in the Galactic halo can clump into stellar-mass compact objects. If such objects exist, they would act as lenses to external sources in the Magellanic Clouds, giving rise to an observable effect of microlensing. We present the result…