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Moffet, A. T.

Publications and source records attributed to Moffet, A. T..

Aperture-synthesis observations of carbon monoxide in the Egg Nebula

Observations of the 2.6-mm CO emission of the bipolar nebular CRL 2688, obtained with resolution 7 arcsec using the mm-wave interferometer at Owens Valley during December 1982-June 1983, are reported. The emission of a 10 x 15-arcsec core, centered on the optical reflection nebula and probably surrounded by a large cloud of cooler gas, is found to have a main-axis velocity gradient of 3 km/s arcsec and an excitation temperature of about 70 K.

Heiligman, G. M.↗

VLBI maps of 3C 273 and 3C 345 at 2.3 GHz

Maps of the quasars 3C 273 and 3C 345 made at 2.3 GHz with an eight station VLBI array are presented. Five compact components spanning 45 milli-arcsec are seen in 3C 273, and four are seen in 3C 345. Comparisons with maps at higher and lower frequencies show that in both sources the core, which dominates the high-frequency 'core-jet' structure, is strongly self-absorbed at 2.3 GHz and below. The jet components have flat spectra, peaking between 2 and 5 GHz. In both sources the VLBI jet curves toward the direction of the arcsecond-scale outer jet.

Cohen, M. H.↗

Spacecraft-Doppler gravity-wave detection. II - Results

A description is presented of the results of experiments conducted to detect very-low-frequency (VLF)-band gravitational radiation. The experiments are based on Doppler tracking of the Voyager I spacecraft. There were basically two kinds of experiments performed. The first was concerned with the detection of solitary bursts of gravitational radiation such as might emanate from a single violent astrophysical event. There were no positive results of the search for such burst events at a level of 3 x 10 to the -14th, nearly two orders of magnitude away from the required sensitivity. The second kind of experiment performed was related to an attempt to detect the isotropic background of cosmic gravitational radiation. The negative results fail by a little over an order of magnitude to limit radiation below the existing limits due to cosmic evolution. In summary, there was no detection of gravitational radiation at an amplitude of 3 x 10 to the -14th for VLF waves of frequency around 0.001 Hz.

Hellings, R. W.↗

Possible detection of interstellar deuterium

The abundance of deuterium relative to hydrogen is an important parameter in constructing models of the early expansion of the universe in Big-Bang cosmologies. Calculations by Wagoner et al. (1967) and by Wagoner (1973) show that the deuterium abundance would be very sensitive to the density of baryons in the fireball and hence to the present mean mass density of the universe. Reeves et al. (1973) use data on the abundance of deuterium in the solar system to deduce a ratio of n sub D/n sub H = 1.8 plus or minus 0.8 x 10 to the minus 5 power, and note that other authors have pointed out that processing of matter in stars slowly reduces the deuterium abundance in the galaxy.

Cesarsky, D. A.↗