Search Publications
Radar sounding of Mars from the orbit of the Mars-Express automatic interplanetary station
Smirnov, V. M.; Yushkova, O. V.; Chernaya, L. F. +1 more
On the base of the laser altimetry results obtained using the orbital altimeter MOLA (the MGS mission) and the data of radio occultation experiments of transionospheric sounding of the Mars ionosphere, a method for interpretation of the planet radar sounding data is developed. The proposed method includes a program package for numerical simulation…
Near-infrared observations of the carbon stars TU Geminorum and SS Virginis at milliarcsecond resolution
Chandrasekhar, T.; Richichi, A.
Aims.High-angular resolution investigations of carbon stars.
Methods. Milliarcsecond resolution observations in the near infrared K band by the method of lunar occultations are presented for the carbon stars
Results. Although a companion to
The Huygens probe—space history in many ways
Lebreton, Jean-Pierre; Schipper, Anne Marie
The European Space Agency's Huygens probe, developed under the prime contractorship of Alcatel Alenia Space, has on the 14th January 2005 arrived at its final destination, Saturn's largest Moon Titan. This event provides a major step in our solar system exploration activities and represents a significant contribution to the exploration of Titan, a…
The ultraluminous X-ray sources NGC 1313 X-1 and X-2
Falomo, R.; Treves, A.; Turolla, R. +3 more
We present a detailed analysis of XMM archival data of two Ultraluminous X-ray Sources (ULXs) in the nearby spiral galaxy NGC 1313: NGC 1313 X-1 and X-2. The spectral continuum of these sources was modeled with a soft thermal component plus a power-law. If the soft component originates from an accretion disk, the inferred mass of the compact remna…
Spectroscopy and Photometry of the Double-lined Binary HD 149420
Henry, Gregory W.; Fekel, Francis C.
We have used new spectroscopic and photometric observations of HD 149420 to obtain an improved orbital element solution and determine some basic properties of the system. This double-lined binary has an orbital period of 3.39430 days, a circular orbit, and a mass ratio of 0.52. The primary is somewhat evolved, with an A9 IV spectral type, while th…
XMM-Newton detection of relativistic Fe emission in the X-ray spectrum of SAX J1711.6-3808
Altieri, B.; Santos-Lleó, M.; Sánchez-Fernández, C. +4 more
The transient system SAX J1711.6-3808 was observed by XMM-Newton during its 2001 outburst, when the source was close to its maximum outburst luminosity. Our observations show that the broad Fe emission line detected in this outburst by In' t Zand et al. (\cite{intZand02}) has indeed a relativistic nature, suggesting that SAX J1711.6-3808 harbors a…
VLF/ELF wave activity in the vicinity of the polar cusp: Cluster observations
Zong, Q. -G.; Lucek, E.; Maksimovic, M. +9 more
Observations by the Cluster spacecraft of VLF/ELF wave activity show distinct signatures for different regions in the vicinity of high altitude polar cusps, which are identified by using magnetic field and plasma data along spacecraft trajectories. These waves include: (1) Broad band magnetic noise observed in the polar cusp at frequencies from se…
Active Spacecraft Potential Control: Results From the Double Star Project
Fazakerley, A.; Torkar, K.; Steiger, W.
The ion emitter instrument "active spacecraft potential control" (ASPOC) has been used successfully in several magnetospheric missions including the European Space Agency Cluster Project. An improved version has been developed for the equatorial spacecraft of the Chinese-European Double Star mission (TC-1) launched in December 2003. The modificati…
The rotational vector of the Local Stellar System
Tsvetkov, A. S.
It is shown that the rotational vector of nearby stars derived from the proper motions of the Hipparcos catalogue is not perpendicular to the Galactic plane. We found that the rotation of stars nearer than 150 pc can be considered as the superposition of the Galactic rotation and the Local Stellar System rotation. The kinematics of stars which are…
The strands of the F ring disturbed by its closest satellites
Mourão, D. C.; Giuliatti Winter, S. M.; Freitas, T. C. A.
Some Voyager images showed that the F ring of Saturn is composed of at least four separate, non-intersecting, strands covering about 45° in longitude. According to Murray et al. [Murray, C.D., Gordon, M., Giuliatti Winter, S.M. Unraveling the strands of Saturn's F ring. Icarus 129, 304, 1997.] this structure may be caused by undetected satellites …