Engineering topics

Post, R. S.

Publications and source records attributed to Post, R. S..

3 records

DOE OSTI2024

The complex circumstellar environment of supernova 2023ixf

The early evolution of a supernova (SN) can reveal information about the environment and the progenitor star. When a star explodes in vacuum, the first photons to escape from its surface appear as a brief, hours-long shock-breakout flare, followed by a cooling phase of emission. However, for stars exploding within a distribution of dense, optically thick circumstellar material (CSM), the first photons escape from the material beyond the stellar edge and the duration of the initial flare can extend to several days, during which the escaping emission indicates photospheric heating. Early serendipitous observations that lacked ultraviolet (UV) data were unable to determine whether the early emission is heating or cooling and hence the nature of the early explosion event. Here, in this study, we report UV spectra of the nearby SN 2023ixf in the galaxy Messier 101 (M101). Using the UV data as well as a comprehensive set of further multiwavelength observations, we temporally resolve the emergence of the explosion shock from a thick medium heated by the SN emission. We derive a reliable bolometric light curve that indicates that the shock breaks out from a dense layer with a radius substantially larger than typical supergiants.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

DOE OSTI2023

The ASAS-SN bright supernova catalogue – V. 2018–2020

We catalogue the 443 bright supernovae (SNe) discovered by the All-Sky Automated Survey for Supernovae (ASAS-SN) in 2018−2020 along with the 519 SNe recovered by ASAS-SN and 516 additional m peak ≤ 18 mag SNe missed by ASAS-SN. Our statistical analysis focuses primarily on the 984 SNe discovered or recovered in ASAS-SN g-band observations. The complete sample of 2427 ASAS-SN SNe includes earlier V-band samples and unrecovered SNe. For each SN, we identify the host galaxy, its UV to mid-IR photometry, and the SN’s offset from the centre of the host. Updated peak magnitudes, redshifts, spectral classifications, and host galaxy identifications supersede earlier results. With the increase of the limiting magnitude to g ≤ 18 mag, the ASAS-SN sample is nearly complete up to m peak = 16.7 mag and is 90 per cent complete for m peak ≤ 17.0 mag. This is an increase from the V-band sample, where it was roughly complete up to m peak = 16.2 mag and 70 per cent complete for m peak ≤ 17.0 mag.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

NASA NTRS1986

A plasma generator utilizing the high intensity ASTROMAG magnets

The magnet configuration for the proposed particle astrophysics magnet facility (ASTROMAG) on the space station includes a cusp magnetic field with an intensity of a few tesla. With these large magnets (or others) located in the outer ionosphere, many quite interesting and unique plasma physics experiments become possible. First there are studies utilizing the magnet alone to examine the supersonic, sub-Alfvenic interaction with the ambient medium; the scale length for the magnet perturbation is approx. 20 m. The magnetic field geometry when combined with the Earth's and their relative motion will give rise to a host of plasma phenomena: ring nulls, x-points, ion-acoustic and lower-hybrid shocks, electron heating (possible shuttle glow without a surface) launching of Alfvenwaves, etc. Second, active experiments are possible for a controlled study of fundamental plasma phenomena. A controlled variable species plasma can be made by using an RF ion source; use of two soft iron rings placed about the line cusp would give an adequate resonance zone (ECH or ICH) and a confining volume suitable for gas efficiency. The emanating plasma can be used to study free expansion of plasma along and across field lines (polar wind), plasma flows around the space platform, turbulent mixing in the wake region, long wavelength spectrum of convecting modes, plasma-dust interactions, etc.

Sullivan, James D.↗