Search Publications
X-ray spectra of XMM-Newton serendipitous medium flux sources
Page, M. J.; Barcons, X.; Carrera, F. J. +7 more
We report on the results of a detailed analysis of the X-ray spectral properties of a large sample of sources detected serendipitously with the XMM-Newton observatory in 25 selected fields, for which optical identification is in progress. The survey covers a total solid angle of ~3.5 deg2 and contains 1137 sources with ~10-15…
Biologically Enhanced Energy and Carbon Cycling on Titan?
Grinspoon, David H.; Schulze-Makuch, Dirk
With the Cassini-Huygens Mission in orbit around Saturn, the large moon Titan, with its reducing atmosphere, rich organic chemistry, and heterogeneous surface, moves into the astrobiological spotlight. Environmental conditions on Titan and Earth were similar in many respects 4 billion years ago, the approximate time when life originated on Earth. …
INTEGRAL IGR J18135-1751 = HESS J1813-178: A New Cosmic High-Energy Accelerator from keV to TeV Energies
Walter, R.; Bird, A. J.; Ubertini, P. +10 more
We report the discovery of a soft gamma-ray source, namely, IGR J18135-1751, detected with IBIS, the Imager on Board the INTEGRAL Satellite. The source is persistent and has a 20-100 keV luminosity of ~5.7× 1034 ergs s-1 (assuming a distance of 4 kpc). This source is coincident with one of the eight unidentified objects recen…
Chandra and XMM-Newton observations of NGC 6251
Hardcastle, M. J.; Croston, J. H.; Birkinshaw, M. +2 more
We present new X-ray observations of the nucleus, jet and extended emission of the nearby radio galaxy NGC 6251 using the Chandra/ACIS-S camera, together with a reanalysis of archival Chandra/ACIS-I and XMM-Newton/EPIC data. We find that the nuclear X-ray spectrum is well fitted with an absorbed power law, and that there is tentative, but not high…
System Parameters of the Transiting Extrasolar Planet HD 209458b
Henry, Gregory W.; Butler, R. P.; Wittenmyer, Robert A. +10 more
We derive improved system parameters for the HD 209458 system using a model that simultaneously fits both photometric transit and radial velocity observations. The photometry consists of previous Hubble Space Telescope STIS and FGS observations, 12 I-band transits observed between 2001 and 2003 with the Mount Laguna Observatory 1 m telescope, and …
A New Variety of Coronal Mass Ejection: Streamer Puffs from Compact Ejective Flares
Bemporad, A.; Poletto, G.; Moore, Ronald L. +1 more
We report on SOHO UVCS, LASCO, EIT, and MDI observations of a series of narrow ejections that occurred at the solar limb. These ejections originated from homologous compact flares whose source was an island of included polarity located just inside the base of a coronal streamer. Some of these ejections result in narrow CMEs (``streamer puffs'') th…
FUSE Measurements of Far-Ultraviolet Extinction. II. Magellanic Cloud Sight Lines
Martin, P. G.; Gordon, Karl D.; Sofia, Ulysses J. +8 more
We present an extinction analysis of nine reddened/comparison star pairs in the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds (LMC and SMC) based on Far-Ultraviolet Spectroscopic Explorer (FUSE) FUV observations. To date, just two LMC sight lines have probed dust grain composition and size distributions in the Magellanic Clouds using spectral data for wavelen…
The Atmospheres of Saturn and Titan in the Near-Infrared First Results of Cassini/vims
Sotin, C.; Brown, R. H.; Baines, K. H. +21 more
The wide spectral coverage and extensive spatial, temporal, and phase-angle mapping capabilities of the Visual Infrared Mapping Spectrometer (VIMS) onboard the Cassini-Huygens Orbiter are producing fundamental new insights into the nature of the atmospheres of Saturn and Titan. For both bodies, VIMS maps over time and solar phase angles provide in…
X-Ray Observations of the Black Hole Transient 4U 1630-47 during 2 Years of X-Ray Activity
Kaaret, Philip; Goldwurm, Andrea; Tomsick, John A. +1 more
The black hole candidate (BHC) X-ray transient 4U 1630-47 continuously produced strong X-ray emission for more than 2 years during its 2002-2004 outburst, which is one of the brightest and longest outbursts ever seen from this source. We use more than 300 observations made with the Rossi X-Ray Timing Explorer (RXTE) to study the source throughout …
Thermal infrared (8 13 µm) spectra of 29 asteroids: the Cornell Mid-Infrared Asteroid Spectroscopy (MIDAS) Survey
Bell, James F.; Hayward, Thomas L.; Lim, Lucy F. +1 more
We report the results of the Cornell Mid-IR Asteroid Spectroscopy (MIDAS) survey, a program of ground-based observations designed to characterize the 8-13 µm spectral properties of a statistically significant sample of asteroids from a wide variety of visible to near-IR spectral classes. MIDAS is conducted at Palomar Observatory using the Sp…