DOCSLIB.ORG

Murdered Astronomer in Chile)

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text

Load more

Dead or missing astronomers around the world Astrophysicist Professor Kohi-Ichiro Morita (murdered astronomer in Chile) Rodney marks mysterious death at Amundsen-Scott base. Steven Rawlings, death…murder ….connection to one square array telescope Gravity vortex imaging (ALMA in Chile) Hawaii Telescope (Subaru Telescope) Japanese/USNO Kobe University Robert Harrington’s connection to Japanese astronomers and Hawaii telescope Dr Tadashi Mukai. Richard A Muller. Dr Harki Mobi Telescope in Alaska....linked to the Vatican intelligence service SILOE....Vatican space telescope looking for and at HMO..(note : a satellite with a telescope inside it). SIV..........Vatican intelligence service....servizio informazioni del Vaticano. SVS (Secretum Omega) cosmic top secret. Keyhole satellites Nobeyama Radioheliograph Connection asteroids and meteors showers in the coming months IRAS Spitzer Telescope Chandra Spitzer telescope Telescopes around the world …especially in the southern hemisphere Links to some articles plus photographs and videos General bits and pieces not in the general report This report has been a collection of articles placed together to show the systematic cover up of dead astronomers all over the world. Their deaths vary from plane crashes to brain aneurysms. Most if not all these people where researching deep space with either earth based telescopes or space based telescopes. Parts two to five are articles placed together about universities, observatories and corporations connections to these deaths. …Koh-Ichiro Morita - Japanese Astronomer/Scientist… Sometimes in life things can go from bad to worst…..being dead is not particularly good for one’s hair style or chosen profession. In the case of the individual above whom happens to be dead at the moment it was an absolute tragedy….yet when one turns up dead overnight from say, a stab wound to the head or under mysterious circumstances it would be nice in a fair world to have some truth…. But unfortunately this is a mixed up world at the best of times and truth is a word which escapes out once and a while to surface where nobody can find it….that is until now. Facts…: Koh-Ichiro Morita was a Japanese Astronomer/Scientist living in Chile until he was murdered by a stab wound to the head….he died very soon afterwards. Now for the propaganda….below is a remembrance note from Masahiko Hayashi..Director General... National Astronomical Observatory of Japan. Note : That in this remembrance note it says Koh-Ichiro Morita passed away not murdered in cold bloody from a gang member with connection to the military. …In Remembrance of Professor Koh-Ichiro Morita… I deeply regret that Professor Koh-Ichiro Morita passed away suddenly on May 7 (Chilean Time). I would like to extend my heartfelt condolences to his family. Professor Morita was one of the world’s renowned astronomers in the field of aperture synthesis with radio interferometric technique. In the early 1980’s, he served as an assistant professor at the newly-opened Nobeyama Radio Observatory and attempted the first imaging with the aperture synthesis technique using Nobeyama Millimeter Array in Japan. During the years in Nobeyama, he took the lead in proposing a Large Millimeter Array (LMA), pointing out the importance of using a large number of antennas. The LMA Project later developed into an international project in cooperation among Japan, Europe, and North America, which led to the present ALMA (Atacama Large Millimeter/ submillimeter Array) Project under construction in Chile. From 2010, Professor Morita served as System Verification Scientist (Lead) at the Joint ALMA Observatory (JAO). His mission was very important in verifying that images of target objects are properly synthesized at 10 times higher resolution than the Subaru Telescope by receiving radio waves with 66 antennas when completed. Since he was not only a famed expert of aperture synthesis but also a gentle and warm-hearted person, he was respected, admired, and beloved by his colleagues at the JAO. His sudden passing was a huge loss to everyone that knew him and all the NAOJ staff share the deep sadness. Abiding by his will, we reaffirm our determination to move forward, wishing his soul may rest in peace. May 9, 2012 Masahiko Hayashi Director General National Astronomical Observatory of Japan Oh how the mighty have fallen…the propaganda and disinfo on this Japanese astronomer started as soon as he hit the pavement in Chile. His personal web/blog was taken down 6 hours after his death then the disinfo started and from that moment on the powers that be (or where) took over and ran stories to cover up all the facts….. This is the man who stabbed Koh-Ichiro Morita …notice the tattoo on his neck which is gang related. …Steven Rawlings, Astrophysicist… Astrophysicist Steven Rawlings, University of Oxford in the United Kingdom, died under mysterious circumstances on Wednesday, January 11, 2012. Rawlings, age 50, was a key figure in the Square Kilometre Array(SKA) Telescope Project (read Nature’s News Feature on the SKA). Rawlings’ body was found at a bungalow in Southmoor, a small town on the outskirts of Oxford. A 49-year-old man, who was arrested on suspicion of murder, has been released on bail. Astronomer George Miley at Leiden Observatory in the Netherlands, a friend of Rawlings for more than 20 years and vice-president of the executive committee of the International Astronomical Union described Rawlings as “the kind of person you’d want to sit down and have a beer with.” According to Miley, Rawlings was a “brilliant scientist whose death will be a great loss to SKA.” Again, the greatest fear a cover-up has is an uncontrolled unraveling. There are many with good hearts, who want the public know what they are privy to as the cataclysm precursors heat up. Was Rawlings’ death a message to others of like mind? Again, you be the judge! South Pole Death Mystery - Who killed Dr Rodney Marks? Scientist Rodney Marks died at the South Pole in May 2000. Months later, tests showed he had been poisoned by a lethal dose of methanol. Dogged efforts by New Zealand authorities to investigate his puzzling death have been stonewalled by Marks' American employers. Now documents obtained under America's Freedom of Information Act suggest diplomatic heat is being brought to bear on the NZ inquiry. Andrea Hotere reports. An American government department appears to be applying diplomatic pressure to the New Zealand police investigation into the mysterious death of an Australian scientist poisoned at the South Pole. Police have said Dr Rodney Marks, a brilliant young astrophysicist who died in 2000 from a lethal dose of methanol, may have been murdered. They said suicide was "the least likely scenario" to explain his death. But New Zealand investigators have been frustrated by a lack of co-operation from the National Science Foundation (NSF), the US body that runs the US Antarctic programme and for whom Marks, 32, worked. The death is being investigated in New Zealand with the agreement of American and Australian authorities, and Christchurch coroner Richard McElrea has adjourned his inquest. Documents obtained by the Sunday Star-Times under America's Freedom of Information Act include a letter sent last month by Christchurch investigating officer, detective senior sergeant Grant Wormald, to the NSF. Wormald wrote: "I am aware that Mr Blum (actually Bloom) of the United States State Department has written to Mr Trevor Hughes from the New Zealand Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade (MFAT) questioning my perseverance in the conducting of this enquiry." Wormald had earlier told the inquest into Marks' death that police had spent four years trying to get information from the American authorities that appeared to have investigated the death, but it was unclear how far their inquiries went. No significant reports from NSF, or its contractor, Raytheon Polar Services, who ran the South Pole station, were available. Raytheon Polar Services is an offshoot of the multi- billion-dollar Raytheon Company Ltd, a US defence and aerospace systems supplier. Any information would have helped police and consequently the coroner's inquiry, Wormald said. Last week, Wormald would not comment on why he had written in those terms to NSF, but Green Party foreign affairs spokesman Keith Locke said the letter's content appeared to indicate diplomatic pressure. He said whatever doubts American authorities had about jurisdiction issues, they had a moral obligation to "offer the fullest cooperation and encourage full investigation, especially when a person dies in strange circumstances". MFAT's policy unit head Trevor Hughes said the letter expressed Wormald's interpretation, which he said was incorrect. Hughes said the NSF had done more than it was obliged to do to co-operate with the New Zealand police investigation; his legal advice was that the NSF only had to cooperate voluntarily. The Freedom of Information Act documents add to the police's confusion about what investigations were done into Marks' death by the US organisations. NSF spokesman Jeff Nesbit last week told the Star-Times that the NSF had not investigated Marks' death; the only investigation done was medical. But a letter dated June 15, 2005, by Dr Karl Erb, Director of the Office of Polar Programmes, states: "A great deal of time and effort has gone into the analysis (of Marks' death)." Another letter, dated December 1, 2006 from Wormald to the NSF, suggests his most recent inquiries from people at the station when Marks died revealed that all ethanol bottles and a still for producing alcohol of some sort had been found and repatriated to the US by the NSF. The documents also include the police survey sent to the 50 people at the Pole when Marks died.
Recommended publications
  • Is the Universe Expanding?: an Historical and Philosophical Perspective for Cosmologists Starting Anew

    Is the Universe Expanding?: an Historical and Philosophical Perspective for Cosmologists Starting Anew

    Western Michigan University ScholarWorks at WMU Master's Theses Graduate College 6-1996 Is the Universe Expanding?: An Historical and Philosophical Perspective for Cosmologists Starting Anew David A. Vlosak Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.wmich.edu/masters_theses Part of the Cosmology, Relativity, and Gravity Commons Recommended Citation Vlosak, David A., "Is the Universe Expanding?: An Historical and Philosophical Perspective for Cosmologists Starting Anew" (1996). Master's Theses. 3474. https://scholarworks.wmich.edu/masters_theses/3474 This Masters Thesis-Open Access is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate College at ScholarWorks at WMU. It has been accepted for inclusion in Master's Theses by an authorized administrator of ScholarWorks at WMU. For more information, please contact [email protected]. IS THEUN IVERSE EXPANDING?: AN HISTORICAL AND PHILOSOPHICAL PERSPECTIVE FOR COSMOLOGISTS STAR TING ANEW by David A Vlasak A Thesis Submitted to the Faculty of The Graduate College in partial fulfillment of the requirements forthe Degree of Master of Arts Department of Philosophy Western Michigan University Kalamazoo, Michigan June 1996 IS THE UNIVERSE EXPANDING?: AN HISTORICAL AND PHILOSOPHICAL PERSPECTIVE FOR COSMOLOGISTS STARTING ANEW David A Vlasak, M.A. Western Michigan University, 1996 This study addresses the problem of how scientists ought to go about resolving the current crisis in big bang cosmology. Although this problem can be addressed by scientists themselves at the level of their own practice, this study addresses it at the meta­ level by using the resources offered by philosophy of science. There are two ways to resolve the current crisis.
  • Extrasolar Planets

    Extrasolar Planets

    Extrasolar Planets to appear in Encyclopedia of Time, Sage Publishing, in preparation, H.J. Birx (Ed.) The term extrasolar planets or exoplanets stands for planets outside our Solar System, i.e. not orbiting the Sun, but other stars. Planets in our Solar System are defined as objects with enough mass to be spherical and round by their own gravity and to be alone on their orbit around the Sun, i.e. to be the dominant object in a particular orbit, and not to be a moon or asteroid (see the entry Planet in this encyclopedia for the official definition, the historical debate, and a discussion of the planets of our Solar System). Most exoplanets are discovered by observing the stellar motion around the common center of mass of the star+planet system, i.e. by observing somehow the motion of the objects in orbit around each other, i.e. by measuring precisely the periodic variation of certain values, e.g. radial velocity or brightness, with time, e.g. the first extrasolar planets were found with the timing technique around a pulsating neutron star. The recent definition of Planets of our Solar System by the International Astronomical Union deals mainly with the question of the minimum mass for an object to qualify as planet and excludes Pluto. This matter was raised by the fact that more and more objects similar to Pluto were discovered by larger and larger telescopes. The questions of maximum mass and formation of planets were left out in this new definition, possibly partly because there is not yet a consensus in the international community.
  • The Slow Spin of the Young Sub-Stellar Companion GQ Lupi B and Its Orbital Configuration Henriette Schwarz1?, Christian Ginski1, Remco J

    The Slow Spin of the Young Sub-Stellar Companion GQ Lupi B and Its Orbital Configuration Henriette Schwarz1?, Christian Ginski1, Remco J

    Astronomy & Astrophysics manuscript no. AA-2016-28908-preprint c ESO 2016 July 4, 2016 The slow spin of the young sub-stellar companion GQ Lupi b and its orbital configuration Henriette Schwarz1?, Christian Ginski1, Remco J. de Kok1; 2, Ignas A. G. Snellen1, Matteo Brogi3; 5, and Jayne L. Birkby4; 6 1 Leiden Observatory, Leiden University, PO Box 9513, 2300 RA Leiden, The Netherlands 2 SRON Netherlands Institute for Space Research, Sorbonnelaan 2, 3584 CA Utrecht, The Netherlands 3 Center for Astrophysics and Space Astronomy, University of Colorado at Boulder, CO 80309 Boulder, USA 4 Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, 60 Garden Street, MA 02138 Cambridge, USA 5 NASA Hubble Fellow 6 NASA Sagan Fellow ABSTRACT The spin of a planet or brown dwarf is related to the accretion process, and therefore studying spin can help promote our understand- ing of the formation of such objects. We present the projected rotational velocity of the young sub-stellar companion GQ Lupi b, along with its barycentric radial velocity. The directly imaged exoplanet or brown dwarf companion joins a small but growing en- semble of wide-orbit sub-stellar companions with a spin measurement. The GQ Lupi system was observed at high spectral resolution (R ∼100 000), and in the analysis we made use of both spectral and spatial filtering to separate the signal of the companion from that of the host star. We detect both CO (S/N=11.6) and H2O (S/N=7.7) in the atmosphere of GQ Lupi b by cross-correlating with model +0:9 −1 spectra, and we find it to be a slow rotator with a projected rotational velocity of 5:3−1:0 km s .
  • POPULATION PROPERTIES of BROWN DWARF ANALOGS to EXOPLANETS∗ Jacqueline K

    POPULATION PROPERTIES of BROWN DWARF ANALOGS to EXOPLANETS∗ Jacqueline K

    Draft version May 26, 2016 Preprint typeset using LATEX style emulateapj v. 01/23/15 POPULATION PROPERTIES OF BROWN DWARF ANALOGS TO EXOPLANETS∗ Jacqueline K. Faherty1,2,9, Adric R. Riedel2,3, Kelle L. Cruz2,3,11, Jonathan Gagne1, 10, Joseph C. Filippazzo2,4,11, Erini Lambrides2, Haley Fica2, Alycia Weinberger1, John R. Thorstensen8, C. G. Tinney7,12, Vivienne Baldassare2,5, Emily Lemonier2,6, Emily L. Rice2,4,11 Draft version May 26, 2016 ABSTRACT We present a kinematic analysis of 152 low surface gravity M7-L8 dwarfs by adding 18 new parallaxes (including 10 for comparative field objects), 38 new radial velocities, and 19 new proper motions. We also add low- or moderate-resolution near-infrared spectra for 43 sources confirming their low- surface gravity features. Among the full sample, we find 39 objects to be high-likelihood or new bona fide members of nearby moving groups, 92 objects to be ambiguous members and 21 objects that are non-members. Using this age calibrated sample, we investigate trends in gravity classification, photometric color, absolute magnitude, color-magnitude, luminosity and effective temperature. We find that gravity classification and photometric color clearly separate 5-130 Myr sources from > 3 Gyr field objects, but they do not correlate one-to-one with the narrower 5 -130 Myr age range. Sources with the same spectral subtype in the same group have systematically redder colors, but they are distributed between 1-4σ from the field sequences and the most extreme outlier switches between intermediate and low-gravity sources either confirmed in a group or not.
  • The Search for Another Earth – Part II

    The Search for Another Earth – Part II

    GENERAL ARTICLE The Search for Another Earth – Part II Sujan Sengupta In the first part, we discussed the various methods for the detection of planets outside the solar system known as the exoplanets. In this part, we will describe various kinds of exoplanets. The habitable planets discovered so far and the present status of our search for a habitable planet similar to the Earth will also be discussed. Sujan Sengupta is an 1. Introduction astrophysicist at Indian Institute of Astrophysics, Bengaluru. He works on the The first confirmed exoplanet around a solar type of star, 51 Pe- detection, characterisation 1 gasi b was discovered in 1995 using the radial velocity method. and habitability of extra-solar Subsequently, a large number of exoplanets were discovered by planets and extra-solar this method, and a few were discovered using transit and gravi- moons. tational lensing methods. Ground-based telescopes were used for these discoveries and the search region was confined to about 300 light-years from the Earth. On December 27, 2006, the European Space Agency launched 1The movement of the star a space telescope called CoRoT (Convection, Rotation and plan- towards the observer due to etary Transits) and on March 6, 2009, NASA launched another the gravitational effect of the space telescope called Kepler2 to hunt for exoplanets. Conse- planet. See Sujan Sengupta, The Search for Another Earth, quently, the search extended to about 3000 light-years. Both Resonance, Vol.21, No.7, these telescopes used the transit method in order to detect exo- pp.641–652, 2016. planets. Although Kepler’s field of view was only 105 square de- grees along the Cygnus arm of the Milky Way Galaxy, it detected a whooping 2326 exoplanets out of a total 3493 discovered till 2Kepler Telescope has a pri- date.
  • An Upper Limit on the Mass of the Circumplanetary Disk for DH Tau B

    An Upper Limit on the Mass of the Circumplanetary Disk for DH Tau B

    Draft version August 28, 2021 Preprint typeset using LATEX style emulateapj v. 12/16/11 AN UPPER LIMIT ON THE MASS OF THE CIRCUM-PLANETARY DISK FOR DH TAU B* Schuyler G. Wolff1, Franc¸ois Menard´ 2, Claudio Caceres3, Charlene Lefevre` 4, Mickael Bonnefoy2,Hector´ Canovas´ 5,Sebastien´ Maret2, Christophe Pinte2, Matthias R. Schreiber6, and Gerrit van der Plas2 Draft version August 28, 2021 ABSTRACT DH Tau is a young (∼1 Myr) classical T Tauri star. It is one of the few young PMS stars known to be associated with a planetary mass companion, DH Tau b, orbiting at large separation and detected by direct imaging. DH Tau b is thought to be accreting based on copious Hα emission and exhibits variable Paschen Beta emission. NOEMA observations at 230 GHz allow us to place constraints on the disk dust mass for both DH Tau b and the primary in a regime where the disks will appear optically thin. We estimate a disk dust mass for the primary, DH Tau A of 17:2 ± 1:7 M⊕, which gives a disk- to-star mass ratio of 0.014 (assuming the usual Gas-to-Dust mass ratio of 100 in the disk). We find a conservative disk dust mass upper limit of 0.42M⊕ for DH Tau b, assuming that the disk temperature is dominated by irradiation from DH Tau b itself. Given the environment of the circumplanetary disk, variable illumination from the primary or the equilibrium temperature of the surrounding cloud would lead to even lower disk mass estimates. A MCFOST radiative transfer model including heating of the circumplanetary disk by DH Tau b and DH Tau A suggests that a mass averaged disk temperature of 22 K is more realistic, resulting in a dust disk mass upper limit of 0.09M⊕ for DH Tau b.
  • EPSC2018-126, 2018 European Planetary Science Congress 2018 Eeuropeapn Planetarsy Science Ccongress C Author(S) 2018

    EPSC2018-126, 2018 European Planetary Science Congress 2018 Eeuropeapn Planetarsy Science Ccongress C Author(S) 2018

    EPSC Abstracts Vol. 12, EPSC2018-126, 2018 European Planetary Science Congress 2018 EEuropeaPn PlanetarSy Science CCongress c Author(s) 2018 Stellar wind interaction with the expanding atmosphere of Gliese 436b A.G. Berezutskiy (1), I.F. Shaikhislamov (1), M.L. Khodachenko (2,3) and I.B. Miroshnichenko (1,4) (1) Institute of Laser Physics, Siberian Brunch Russian Academy of Science, Novosibirsk, Russia; (2) Space Research Institute, Austrian Academy of Science, Graz, Austria; (3) Skobeltsyn Institute of Nuclear Physics, Moscow State University, Moscow, Russia (4) Novosibirsk State Technical University, Novosibirsk, Russia ([email protected]) Abstract the escaping planetary upper atmospheric material are also taken into account. We study an exosphere of a Neptune-size exoplanet Gliese 436b, orbiting the red dwarf at an extremely 3. Results close distance (0.028 au), taking into account its interaction with the stellar wind plasma flow. It was At the initial state of the simulations, the atmosphere shown that Gliese 436 b has a bowshock region of Gliese 436b is assumed to consist of the molecular between planetary and stellar wind which localized hydrogen and helium atoms at a ratio NHe / NH2 = 1/5 on the distance of ~33 Rp, where density of planetary with the temperature 750 K. We consider the case of -3 atoms slightly dominates over the protons. a weak stellar wind (SW) with nsw=100 cm , Tsw=1 МК, Vsw=70 km/s, which is much less intense than 1. Introduction the solar wind. Because of this fact, , we did not consider generation of Energetic Neutral Atoms The modelled planet Gliese 436b has a mass (ENAs).
  • Space-VLBI Observations 1

    Space-VLBI Observations 1

    View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by CERN Document Server Space-VLBI observations 1 1999 Mon. Not. R. Astron. Soc. 000, 1{7 (2000) Space-VLBI observations of OH maser OH34.26+0.15: low interstellar scattering V.I. Slysh,1 M.A. Voronkov,1 V. Migenes,2 K.M. Shibata,3 T. Umemoto,3 V.I. Altunin,4 I.E. 1Astro Space Centre of Lebedev Physical Institute, Profsoyuznaya 84/32, 117810 Moscow, Russia 2University of Guanajuato, Department of Astronomy, Apdo Postal 144, Guanajuato, CP36000, GTO, Mexico 3National Astronomical Observatory, 2-21-1 Osawa, Mitaka, Tokyo 181, Japan 4Jet Propulsion Laboratory, 4800 Oak Grove Dr., Pasadena, CA 91109, USA 5National Radio Astronomy Observatory, 520 Edgemont Rd., Charlottesville, VA 22903, USA 6Special Research Bureau, Moscow Power Engineering Institute, Krasnokazarmennaya st. 14, 111250 Moscow, Russia 7Dominion Radio Astrophysical Observatory, Herzberg Institute of Astrophysics, National Research Council, PO Box 248, Penticton, BC, Canada V2A 6K3 8Australia Telescope National Facility, PO Box 76, Epping, NSW 2121, Australia 9Shanghai Astronomical Observatory, 80 Nandan Rd, Shanghai 200080, China 10Institute of Applied Astronomy, Zhdanovskaya str. 8, 197042 St.Petersburg, Russia Received date; accepted date ABSTRACT We report on the first space-VLBI observations of the OH34.26+0.15 maser in two main line OH transitions at 1665 and 1667 MHz. The observations involved the space radiotelescope on board the Japanese satellite HALCA and an array of ground radio telescopes. The map of the maser region and images of individual maser spots were pro- duced with an angular resolution of 1 milliarcsec which is several times higher than the angular resolution available on the ground.
  • Exoplanet Meteorology: Characterizing the Atmospheres Of

    Exoplanet Meteorology: Characterizing the Atmospheres Of

    Exoplanet Meteorology: Characterizing the Atmospheres of Directly Imaged Sub-Stellar Objects by Abhijith Rajan A Dissertation Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy Approved April 2017 by the Graduate Supervisory Committee: Jennifer Patience, Co-Chair Patrick Young, Co-Chair Paul Scowen Nathaniel Butler Evgenya Shkolnik ARIZONA STATE UNIVERSITY May 2017 ©2017 Abhijith Rajan All Rights Reserved ABSTRACT The field of exoplanet science has matured over the past two decades with over 3500 confirmed exoplanets. However, many fundamental questions regarding the composition, and formation mechanism remain unanswered. Atmospheres are a window into the properties of a planet, and spectroscopic studies can help resolve many of these questions. For the first part of my dissertation, I participated in two studies of the atmospheres of brown dwarfs to search for weather variations. To understand the evolution of weather on brown dwarfs we conducted a multi- epoch study monitoring four cool brown dwarfs to search for photometric variability. These cool brown dwarfs are predicted to have salt and sulfide clouds condensing in their upper atmosphere and we detected one high amplitude variable. Combining observations for all T5 and later brown dwarfs we note a possible correlation between variability and cloud opacity. For the second half of my thesis, I focused on characterizing the atmospheres of directly imaged exoplanets. In the first study Hubble Space Telescope data on HR8799, in wavelengths unobservable from the ground, provide constraints on the presence of clouds in the outer planets. Next, I present research done in collaboration with the Gemini Planet Imager Exoplanet Survey (GPIES) team including an exploration of the instrument contrast against environmental parameters, and an examination of the environment of the planet in the HD 106906 system.
  • Glossary of Terms Absorption Line a Dark Line at a Particular Wavelength Superimposed Upon a Bright, Continuous Spectrum

    Glossary of Terms Absorption Line a Dark Line at a Particular Wavelength Superimposed Upon a Bright, Continuous Spectrum

    Glossary of terms absorption line A dark line at a particular wavelength superimposed upon a bright, continuous spectrum. Such a spectral line can be formed when electromag- netic radiation, while travelling on its way to an observer, meets a substance; if that substance can absorb energy at that particular wavelength then the observer sees an absorption line. Compare with emission line. accretion disk A disk of gas or dust orbiting a massive object such as a star, a stellar-mass black hole or an active galactic nucleus. An accretion disk plays an important role in the formation of a planetary system around a young star. An accretion disk around a supermassive black hole is thought to be the key mecha- nism powering an active galactic nucleus. active galactic nucleus (agn) A compact region at the center of a galaxy that emits vast amounts of electromagnetic radiation and fast-moving jets of particles; an agn can outshine the rest of the galaxy despite being hardly larger in volume than the Solar System. Various classes of agn exist, including quasars and Seyfert galaxies, but in each case the energy is believed to be generated as matter accretes onto a supermassive black hole. adaptive optics A technique used by large ground-based optical telescopes to remove the blurring affects caused by Earth’s atmosphere. Light from a guide star is used as a calibration source; a complicated system of software and hardware then deforms a small mirror to correct for atmospheric distortions. The mirror shape changes more quickly than the atmosphere itself fluctuates.
  • Asteroid Regolith Weathering: a Large-Scale Observational Investigation

    Asteroid Regolith Weathering: a Large-Scale Observational Investigation

    University of Tennessee, Knoxville TRACE: Tennessee Research and Creative Exchange Doctoral Dissertations Graduate School 5-2019 Asteroid Regolith Weathering: A Large-Scale Observational Investigation Eric Michael MacLennan University of Tennessee, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://trace.tennessee.edu/utk_graddiss Recommended Citation MacLennan, Eric Michael, "Asteroid Regolith Weathering: A Large-Scale Observational Investigation. " PhD diss., University of Tennessee, 2019. https://trace.tennessee.edu/utk_graddiss/5467 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate School at TRACE: Tennessee Research and Creative Exchange. It has been accepted for inclusion in Doctoral Dissertations by an authorized administrator of TRACE: Tennessee Research and Creative Exchange. For more information, please contact [email protected]. To the Graduate Council: I am submitting herewith a dissertation written by Eric Michael MacLennan entitled "Asteroid Regolith Weathering: A Large-Scale Observational Investigation." I have examined the final electronic copy of this dissertation for form and content and recommend that it be accepted in partial fulfillment of the equirr ements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, with a major in Geology. Joshua P. Emery, Major Professor We have read this dissertation and recommend its acceptance: Jeffrey E. Moersch, Harry Y. McSween Jr., Liem T. Tran Accepted for the Council: Dixie L. Thompson Vice Provost and Dean of the Graduate School (Original signatures are on file with official studentecor r ds.) Asteroid Regolith Weathering: A Large-Scale Observational Investigation A Dissertation Presented for the Doctor of Philosophy Degree The University of Tennessee, Knoxville Eric Michael MacLennan May 2019 © by Eric Michael MacLennan, 2019 All Rights Reserved.
  • Dynamical Evolution of the Gliese 436 Planetary System Kozai Migration As a Potential Source for Gliese 436B’S Eccentricity

    Dynamical Evolution of the Gliese 436 Planetary System Kozai Migration As a Potential Source for Gliese 436B’S Eccentricity

    A&A 545, A88 (2012) Astronomy DOI: 10.1051/0004-6361/201219183 & c ESO 2012 Astrophysics Dynamical evolution of the Gliese 436 planetary system Kozai migration as a potential source for Gliese 436b’s eccentricity H. Beust1, X. Bonfils1, G. Montagnier2,X.Delfosse1, and T. Forveille1 1 UJF-Grenoble 1 / CNRS-INSU, Institut de Planétologie et d’Astrophysique de Grenoble (IPAG) UMR 5274, 38041 Grenoble, France e-mail: [email protected] 2 European Organization for Astronomical Research in the Southern Hemisphere (ESO), Casilla 19001, Santiago 19, Chile Received 7 March 2012 / Accepted 1 August 2012 ABSTRACT Context. The close-in planet orbiting GJ 436 presents a puzzling orbital eccentricity (e 0.14) considering its very short orbital period. Given the age of the system, this planet should have been tidally circularized a long time ago. Many attempts to explain this were proposed in recent years, either involving abnormally weak tides, or the perturbing action of a distant companion. Aims. In this paper, we address the latter issue based on Kozai migration. We propose that GJ 436b was formerly located further away from the star and that it underwent a migration induced by a massive, inclined perturber via Kozai mechanism. In this context, the perturbations by the companion trigger high-amplitude variations to GJ 436b that cause tides to act at periastron. Then the orbit tidally shrinks to reach its present day location. Methods. We numerically integrate the 3-body system including tides and general relativity correction. We use a modified symplectic integrator as well as a fully averaged integrator.