ALBERT

Description: NASA and ESA are now planning a reduced version of the joint Europa Jupiter System Mission (EJSM), potentially including a radically descoped Jupiter Europa Orbiter (JEO) but still with magnetometer and plasma instruments. Similar field and plasma instrumentation would also reside on ESA's Jupiter Ganymede Orbiter (JGO), which conceivably could carry out multiple flybys of Europa before entering orbit at Ganymede. We are developing the 3D Ion Mass Spectrometer (IMS) designed to measure both major and minor ion species within the high radiation environment of Jupiter's magnetosphere and the icy Galilean moons. The IMS covers the energy range from 10 eV to 30 keY, wide field-of-view (FOV) capability and 10-60 sec time resolution for major ions. This instrument has two main goals: 1) measure the plasma interaction between Europa and Jupiter's magnetosphere and 2) infer the global surface composition to trace elemental and significant isotopic levels; these goals are also applicable for in-situ measurements at Ganymede and Callisto, and remotely everywhere via the iogenic plasma for 10. The first goal supports the magnetometer (MAG) measurements, primarily directed at detection of Europa's sub-surface ocean, while the second goal gives information about transfer of material between the Galilean moons, e.g. mainly from 10 to the other moons, and further allows detection of oceanic materials emergent to the moon surfaces from subsurface layers putatively including salt water oceans. Outgassed exospheric materials are probed by the IMS by measuring pickup ions accelerated up to spacecraft altitudes of approximately 100-200 km in electric fields extending through the local magnetospheric environment and moon exosphere to the surface. Our 3D hybrid kinetic model of the moon-magnetosphere interaction is used to construct a global model of electric and magnetic fields for tracing of pickup ion trajectories back to the sources at approximate surface resolution of 100 km. We show that Europa's exospheric ionosphere is dominated by pickup ions with energies of 100-1000 eV. We also expect field aligned polar ion outflows driven by ionospheric electrons via the polarization electric field at Europa; the IMS will observe such outflows and thus sample the ionosphere below spacecraft orbit altitude approximately 100 km. Based on previous Ganymede studies, we also comment on IMS applications to a Ganymede orbiter. The IMS and the Europa interaction model are respectively being developed with support from NASA's Astrobiology Instrument Development (ASTID) and Outer Planets Research (OPR) programs.

Description: Red stellar objects for which V-1 was greater than a value of about 2 (supm). 5 were extracted from photographs of 23 program fields. Tabular data for each field show the object name; the 1950 epoch right ascension, declination, galactic longitude, galactic latitude; radial distance from field venter in decimal degrees; color classes; and objects ordered by redness.

Description: Many of the small to medium sized objects in the solar system can be characterized as having surface bounded exospheres, or atmospheres so tenuous that scale lengths for inter-particle collisions are much larger than the dimensions of the objects. The atmospheres of these objects are the product of their surfaces, both the surface composition and the interactions that occur on them and also their interiors when gases escape from there. Thus by studying surface bounded exospheres it is possible to develop insight into the composition and processes that are taking place on the surface and interiors of these objects. The Moon and Mercury are two examples of planetary bodies with surface bounded exospheres that have been studied through spectroscopic observations of sodium, potassium, and, on the moon, mass spectrometric measurements of lunar gases such as argon and helium.

Description: The active-nucleus galaxy Centaurus A has been studied at 2 keV-2.3 MeV using data from the UCSD/MIT hard X-ray and low-energy gamma-ray instrument and the GSFC/CIT cosmic X-ray experiment on HEAO-1. It is found that an E exp -1.60 + or - 0.03 power law spectrum breaking to E exp -2.0 + or - 0.2 at 140 keV best describes the January and July 1978 data. The average intensity was 50% higher during the January observations. Upper limits to unresolved lines at 511 keV and 1.6 MeV were found to be 6.5 x 10 to the -4th photons/sq cm-s and 2.2 x 10 to the -4th photons/sq cm-s, respectively, at the 90% confidence level. The present data are consistent with the detailed calculations of the synchrotron self-Compton mechanism; they may also agree, marginally, with the predictions of emission from spherical accretion onto black holes.

Description: The Tycho SNR was observed with the scanning modulation collimator experiment on board the HEAO 1 satellite. A soft extended source was detected. The extended X-ray source is best fitted with a thin spherical shell model of approximately 3.8 arc minute radius. The presence of a brighter, less extended structure in the western side of the remnant is suggested by our data.

Description: The region of the binary system V861 Scorpii, whose secondary has been suggested as a black hole candidate, was observed with the HEAO 1 X-ray observatory during an 8-hour pointed observation on September 4, 1978. An upper limit of 1.0 micro Jy (within three standard deviations) is placed on X-ray emission from V861 Sco during this observation. This effectively removes the secondary from the list of black hole candidates. The presence of a 38 sec pulsar in the region is confirmed, precise (0.63 sq arcmin) positions are given, and a search for the optical counterpart is described.

Description: The Cassini Plasma Spectrometer (CAPS) instrument is scheduled to observe the plasma environment at Titan October 26,2004 from the Cassini Orbiter. Preliminary CAPS ion measurements from this encounter will be compared with measurements made by the Voyager I Plasma Science Instrument (PSI). The comparison will be used to evaluate previous interpretations and predictions of the Titan plasma environment that have been made using PSI measurements. The comparisons will focus on the composition and nature of the ambient plasma and pickup ions. Using the CAPS ion measurements, some of the questions to be addressed, as stimulated by the previous interpretations and predictions made evaluating PSI data, are the following: A) Are H+ and N+ the major ion components of Saturn's rotating magnetosphere in the vicinity of Titan? B) Are other ambient ions present? C) Are finite gyroradius effects apparent in ambient N+ as the result of its interaction with Titans atmosphere? D) Are the principal pickup ions composed of H+, H2+, N+, N2+ and CH4+? E) Is the dominant pickup ion closest to Titan's ionopause N2+? F) Is there evidence of slowing down of the ambient plasma due to pickup ion mass loading? F) If so, does the ambient plasma slow down rapidly, as the ionopause is approached and heavier pickup ions like N2+ are added? During the Voyager I flyby, Titan was in Saturn's magnetosphere. If Titan is in Saturn's magnetosheath or the solar wind at the encounter, questions similar to the above will be addressed as appropriate.

Description: Data from the scanning modulation collimator on HEAO 1 are presented which firmly establish high-excitation emission-line galaxies as a class of X-ray source. For NGC 5506 and M82, the X-ray emission (1-13 keV) is shown to originate in the nuclear region of the galaxy; NGC 2992 and NGC 526a are also identified as X-ray emitters, but are not resolved. The latter is a new identification for 2A 0120-353, previously associated with the NGC 526/527 group. In these four particular cases, the observed X-ray-emitting galaxies have a close companion, and the X-ray emission may have been triggered by a close encounter

Description: Two brief (about 12 hr) X-ray flares from the direction of the Large Magellanic Cloud have been observed with the HEAO 1 scanning modulation collimator. It is argued that both originated from the recurrent fast transient A0538-66, first observed with the Ariel 5 satellite. A precise position for the source is obtained, and a B2 Iab star in the Large Magellanic Cloud is suggested as the optical counterpart. Evidence for a 16.66-day periodicity in the outburst times is presented and discussed.