ALBERT

Description: NASA launched the Chandra X-ray Observatory in July 1999. Soon after first light in August 1999, however, degradation in the energy resolution and charge transfer efficiency of the Advanced CCD Imaging Spectrometer (ACIS) x-ray detectors was observed. The source of the degradation was quickly identified as radiation damage in the charge-transfer channel of the front-illuminated CCDs, by weakly penetrating ( soft , 100 500 keV) protons as Chandra passed through the Earth s radiation belts and ring currents. As soft protons were not considered a risk to spacecraft health before launch, the only on-board radiation monitoring system is the Electron, Proton, and Helium Instrument (EPHIN) which was included on Chandra with the primary purpose of monitoring energetic solar particle events. Further damage to the ACIS detector has been successfully mitigated through a combination of careful mission planning, autonomous on-board radiation protection, and manual intervention based upon real-time monitoring of the soft-proton environment. The AE-8 and AP-8 trapped radiation models and Chandra Radiation Models are used to schedule science operations in regions of low proton flux. EPHIN has been used as the primary autonomous in-situ radiation trigger; but, it is not sensitive to the soft protons that damage the front-illuminated CCDs. Monitoring of near-real-time space weather data sources provides critical information on the proton environment outside the Earth s magnetosphere due to solar proton events and other phenomena. The operations team uses data from the Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellites (GOES) to provide near-real-time monitoring of the proton environment; however, these data do not give a representative measure of the soft-proton (〈 1 MeV) flux in Chandra s high elliptical orbit. The only source of relevant measurements of sub-MeV protons is the Electron, Proton, and Alpha Monitor (EPAM) aboard the Advanced Composition Explorer (ACE) satellite at L1, with real-time data provided by NOAA s Space Weather Prediction Center. This presentation describes the radiation mitigation strategies to minimize the proton damage in the ACIS CCD detectors and the importance of real-time data sources that are used to protect the ACIS detector system from space weather events.

Description: The Transient Astrophysics Probe (TAP) is a wide-field multi-wavelength transient mission proposed for flight starting in the late 2020s. The mission instruments include unique ``Lobster-eye'' imaging soft X-ray optics that allow an approximately 1600-degrees-squared Field of View (FoV); a high sensitivity, 1-degree-squared FoV soft X-ray telescope; a 1-degree-squared FoV Infrared telescope with bandpass 0.6 to 3 microns; and a set of 8 NaI gamma-ray detectors. TAP's most exciting capability will be the observation of tens per year of X-ray and Infrared counterparts of gravitational waves (GWs) involving stellar-mass black holes and neutron stars detected by LIGO (Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory ) / Virgo / KAGRA (Kamioka (Japan) Gravitational Wave Detector) / LIGO-India, and possibly several per year X-ray counterparts of GWs from supermassive black holes, detected by LISA (Laser Interferometer Space Antenna) and Pulsar Timing Arrays. TAP will also discover hundreds of X-ray transients related to compact objects, including tidal disruption events, supernova shock breakouts, and Gamma-Ray Bursts from the epoch of reionization.

Description: This article provides supplemental information for a Letter reporting the rate of (BBH) coalescences inferred from 16 days of coincident Advanced LIGO observations surrounding the transient (GW) signal GW150914. In that work wereported various rate estimates whose 90% confidence intervals fell in the range 2600 Gpc(exp -3) yr(exp -1). Here we givedetails on our method and computations, including information about our search pipelines, a derivation of ourlikelihood function for the analysis, a description of the astrophysical search trigger distribution expected frommerging BBHs, details on our computational methods, a description of the effects and our model for calibrationuncertainty, and an analytic method for estimating our detector sensitivity, which is calibrated to our measurements.

Description: Analyses with a scanning transmission x-ray microscope (STXM) using x-ray absorption near edge structure (XANES) spectroscopy were applied for the molecular characterization of two kinds of carbonaceous particles of unknown origin, termed category 3, which were collected from the Hayabusa spacecraft sample catcher. Carbon-XANES spectra of the category 3 particles displayed typical spectral patterns of heterogeneous organic macromolecules; peaks corresponding to aromatic/olefinic carbon, heterocyclic nitrogen and/or nitrile, and carboxyl carbon were all detected. Nitrogen-XANES spectra of the particles showed the presence of N-functional groups such as imine, nitrile, aromatic nitrogen, amide, pyrrole, and amine. An oxygen-XANES spectrum of one of the particles showed a ketone group. Differences in carbon- and nitrogen-XANES spectra of the category 3 particles before and after transmission electron microscopic (TEM) observations were observed, which demonstrates that the carbonaceous materials are electron beam sensitive. Calcium-XANES spectroscopy and elemental contrast mapping identified a calcium carbonate grain from one of the category 3 particles. No fluorine-containing molecular species were detected in fluorine-XANES spectra of the particles. The organic macromolecular features of the category 3 particles were distinct from commercial and/or biological fresh (non-degraded) polymers, but the category 3 molecular features could possibly reflect degradation of contaminant polymer materials or polymer materials used on the Hayabusa spacecraft. However, an extraterrestrial origin for these materials cannot currently be ruled out.

Description: Author(s): Alessandro Manzotti, Scott Dodelson, and Youngsoo Park Planned cosmic microwave background (CMB) experiments will improve what we know about neutrino physics, inflation, and dark energy. The low level of noise, together with improved angular resolution, will increase the signal-to-noise ratio of the CMB polarized data as well as the reconstructed lensin… [Phys. Rev. D 93, 063009] Published Mon Mar 28, 2016

Description: Ginga and Rossi X-Ray Timing Explorer observations have allowed an unprecedented view of the recurrent systematic pulse shape changes associated with the 35 day cycle of Hercules X-1, a phenomenon currently unique among the known accretion-powered pulsars. We present observations of the pulse shape evolution. An explanation for the pulse evolution in terms of a freely precessing neutron star is reviewed and shown to have several major difficulties in explaining the observed pulse evolution pattern. Instead, we propose a phenomenological model for the pulse evolution based on an occultation of the pulse-emitting region by the tilted, inner edge of a precessing accretion disk. The systematic and repeating pulse shape changes require a resolved occultation of the pulse emission region. The observed pulse profile motivates the need for a pulsar beam consisting of a composite coaxial pencil and fan beam, but the observed evolution pattern requires the fan beam to be focused around the neutron star and beamed in the antipodal direction. The spectral hardness of the pencil beam component suggests an origin at the magnetic polar cap, with the relatively softer fan beam emission produced by backscattering from within the accretion column, qualitatively consistent with several theoretical models for X-ray emission from the accretion column of an accreting neutron star.

Description: During the past decade interplanetary dust particles (IDPS) have been collected in the earth's stratosphere. Isotopic studies of these particles have demonstrated that many of them are greatly enriched in deuterium and at least some of them carry this enrichment in smaller subcomponents. Deuterium enrichments of a similar magnitude are seen in simple molecules in interstellar clouds. Deuterium enrichment in IDPs can be taken as evidence for the presence of interstellar material. It is not clear at this time whether the carriers of the isotopic anomalies represent true, unaltered interstellar dust grains, or whether they represent an altered component with a molecular 'memory' of original interstellar grains. The spectra of different components in the collected dust provide suggestive matches to similar components evident in the astronomical spectra of dust in comets, dense molecular clouds, and emission nebulae. The known extraterrestrial nature of the particles, the possible presence of interstellar material in them, and their spectral similarity to many astronomical objects all argue that the collected IDPs provide useful analogs for the modelling of interstellar dust.

Description: We compare production rates of H20 derived from International Ultraviolet Explorer (IUE) spectra from multiple apparitions of 2 comets, 2P/Encke and 9P/Tempel 1, whose orbits are in near-resonance with that of the Earth. Since model-induced errors are primarily a function of observing geometry, the close geometrical matches afforded by the resonance condition results in the cancellation of such errors when taking ratios of production rates. Giving careful attention to the variation of model parameters with solar activity, we find marginal evidence of change in 2P/Encke: a 1-sigma pre-perihelion decrease averaging 4%/revolution over 4 apparitions from 1980-1994, and a 1-sigma post-perihelion increase of 16%/revolution for 2 successive apparitions in 1984 and 1987. We find for 9P/Tempel 1, however, a 7-sigma decrease of 29%/revolution over 3 apparitions from 1983-1994, even after correcting for a tracking problem which made the fluxes systematically low. We speculate on a possible association of the character of long-term brightness variations with physical properties of the nucleus, and discuss implications for future research.

Description: One of the primary tasks of the Astrochemistry Laboratory at Ames Research Center is to use laboratory simulations to study the chemical processes that occur in dense interstellar clouds. Since new stars are formed in these clouds, their materials may be responsible for the delivery of organics to new habitable planets and may play important roles in the origin of life. These clouds are extremely cold (less than 50 kelvin), and most of the volatiles in these clouds are condensed onto dust grains as thin ice mantles. These ices are exposed to cosmic rays and ultraviolet (UV) photons that break chemical bonds and result in the production of complex molecules when the ices are warmed (as they would be when incorporated into a star-forming region). Using cryovacuum systems and UV lamps, this study simulates the conditions of these clouds and studies the resulting chemistry. Some of the areas of progress made in 1999 are described below. It shows some of the types of molecules that may be formed in the interstellar medium. Laboratory simulations have already confirmed that many of these compounds are made under these conditions.

Description: The cosmic deuterium to hydrogen (D/H) ratio is of key importance from a cosmological and stellar evolution perspective since deuterium originates from big-bang nucleosynthesis and is destroyed by stellar thermonuclear reactions. Further, from the interstellar perspective, the galactic distribution of deuterium and the D/H ratio among various molecular species also traces interstellar chemical evolution. Over the past few decades, radio observations have enabled the study of a handful of small, deuterated interstellar species. However, the number of deuterated species detected and environments probed are limited, raising issues of selection effects that hamper generalization and applications to other environments. Infrared spectroscopy of the interstellar medium offers a distinct advantage in this regard as the extent of deuteration of entire chemical families, rather than one species, can be probed. These observations require spaceborne telescopes because the molecular vibrations involving D which produce the strongest IR bands fall in spectral regions which are obscured by terrestrial CO2 absorption. Here we report the tentative detection of the C-D stretching vibration from deuterated interstellar polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in the Orion nebula. Since the PAH emission features are widespread and probe many different types of cosmic environments, follow up observations of deuterated PAHs will provide fundamental, far reaching new insight and perspective into galactic and extragalactic processes.