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Search indexed NASA NTRS and DOE OSTI research on propulsion, heat transfer, battery materials and energy systems. Follow report and document links to the original sources.

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At least 181 records · Page 10
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRS1984

Transient dips of Cygnus X-1 observed from Tenma

The transient intensity dips of the binary system Cyg X-1 have been observed, using the gas scintillation proportional counter (GSPC) array onboard the Tenma X-ray astronomy satellite. The duration of the dips was in the range from several seconds to 10 minutes, with several dips occurring as much as 15 h before the superior conjunction. Within the dips, complex structures were observed with time scales of several seconds, and, in at least one case, shorter than two seconds. For a dip lasting longer than 10 minutes, a high-quality spectrum was obtained which reveals the K-absorption edge of iron at 7.18 + or - 0.18 keV. On the basis of the observed absorption, it is suggested that the dips are caused by absorption due to relatively cool matter (less than about 30,000 k); the low-energy excess observed during the dips is due either to an extended soft X-ray emitting corona or to partial obscuration of the X-ray source by multiple blobs. From the time structure of the dip, a blob size of the order of 10 to the 9th cm is derived.

Kitamoto, S.↗
NASA NTRS1989

X-ray spectroscopy of the ultrasoft transient 4U 1543 - 47

The X-ray transient 4U 1543 - 47 was observed in August 1983 by the Exosat observatory near the maximum of an outburst. The X-ray spectrum was measured using a gas scintillation proportional counter (GSPC) and a transmission grating spectrometer (TGS). A broad (FWHM about 2.7 keV) line at 5.9 keV is detected in the GSPC, which is interpreted as a redshifted and broadened iron K-alpha line. The line broadening and redshift may arise from either Compton scattering in a cool plasma with small optical depth and/or from Droppler and relativistic effects in the vicinity of compact object. The spectrum below 2 keV, obtained with the TGS, shows evidence for a broad emission feature at 0.74 keV, which may be an iron L-transition complex. However, such an emission feature could be an artifact caused by an anomalously low interstellar absorption by neutral oxygen. The contimuum emission is extremely soft and is well described by an unsaturated Comptonized spectrum from very cool plasma (kT = 0.84 keV) with large scattering depth.

Van Der Woerd, H.↗
NASA NTRS1990

Exosat observations of Cygnus X-2 continuum and line spectrum

An analysis of five Exosat observations of Cyg X-2, taken around a full binary orbit is presented. The data were obtained using all instrumentation (1000 lines/mm Transmission Grating Spectrometer, Channel Multiplier Array + filters, Medium-Energy experiment, and Gas Scintillation Proportional Counter) simultaneously, and span the full energy range 0.5-20 keV. No clear evidence was found for a correlation of any of the source characteristics with orbital phase. During two of the observations, significant iron K emission at 6.7 keV was detected, the relative strength of which seems to correlate with total X-ray intensity during two sharp intensity dips. The previous detection of discrete emission features in the 12-19 A band with the Einstein grating is confirmed.

Chiappetti, L.↗
NASA NTRS1999

The HERO Program: High-Energy Replicated Optics for a Hard-X-Ray Balloon Payload

We are developing high-energy replicated optics for a balloon-borne hard-x-ray telescope. When completed, the telescope will have around 150 square cm of effective collecting area up to 65 keV, and an angular resolution of around 30 arc seconds, half power diameter. When used in conjunction with an array of focal plane imaging detectors, for which Gas Scintillation Proportional Counters are under development, the payload will provide unprecedented sensitivity for pointed observations in the hard-x-ray band. We will present an overview of the High Energy Replicated Optics (HERO) program together with test data from the first mirror units. The overall sensitivity of the full payload, when flown on long- and ultra-long-duration balloon flights, will be compared with past and planned satellite-borne hard-x-ray missions.

Ramsey, B. D.↗
NASA NTRS2000

Background Simulation of the MSFC GSPC Balloon Payload

Numerical simulations are used to predict the cosmic-ray induced background in a passively shielded gas scintillation proportional counter to be used as the focal plane instrument of a balloon-borne hard x-ray telescope system. The predicted background in the 20-75 keV operating range of the detector shows a spectral shape characteristic of a power law photoelectrically absorbed by the stainless steel pressure vessel walls. It is found that the dominant background radiation component is simply cosmic diffuse and atmospheric gamma-ray leakage though there is a contribution from nuclear interactions of energetic particles in the walls and nearby payload structures. The correlation between shielding properties and background flux is examined parametrically using one-dimensional slab models, within material and weight constraints, in order to optimize predicted sensitivity. The addition of a few mm thick Sn passive shielding reduces the primary photon contribution by up to 50% at the spectral peak, E 150 keV, and adds only negligibly to the flux due to photon production within the high-Z shields at lower energies.

Swartz, D. A.↗
NASA NTRS2000

HERO: High Energy Replicated Optics for a Hard-X-Ray Balloon Payload

We are developing high-energy grazing-incidence replicated optics for a balloon-borne hard-x-ray telescope. When completed, the instrument will have 170 cm2 of effective collecting area at 40 keV and 130 square cm at 60 keV with <= 30 arc seconds half power diameter. This payload will offer unprecedented sensitivity in the hard-x-ray region, with around 250 microCrab sensitivity on long-duration flights and 50-100 microCrab on ultra- long-duration balloon missions The payload consists of 16 mirror modules, each with 14 nested mirrors made from a high-strength nickel alloy, and a corresponding array of 16 focal plane detectors. An engineering demonstration flight is scheduled for the Spring of 2000, using just two mirror modules each with 3 shells, above a pair of gas-scintillation-proportional counters. This flight is intended to test a newly designed gondola pointing and aspect system and the stability of the optical bench design. The first scientific flight of the full payload is scheduled for the Fall of 2002. Full details of the payload and its capabilities will be presented together with data from various mirror-module tests. If available data from the first flight will also be presented.

Ramsey, B.↗
NASA NTRS2013

High Energy Replicated Optics to Explore the Sun: Hard X-Ray Balloon-Borne Telescope

Set to fly in the Fall of 2013 from Ft. Sumner, NM, the High Energy Replicated Optics to Explore the Sun (HEROES) mission is a collaborative effort between the NASA Marshall Space Flight Center and the Goddard Space Flight Center to upgrade an existing payload, the High Energy Replicated Optics (HERO) balloon-borne telescope, to make unique scientific measurements of the Sun and astrophysical targets during the same flight. The HEROES science payload consists of 8 mirror modules, housing a total of 109 grazing-incidence optics. These modules are mounted on a carbon-fiber - and Aluminum optical bench 6 m from a matching array of high pressure xenon gas scintillation proportional counters, which serve as the focal-plane detectors. The HERO gondola utilizes a differential GPS system (backed by a magnetometer) for coarse pointing in the azimuth and a shaft angle encoder plus inclinometer provides the coarse elevation. The HEROES payload will incorporate a new solar aspect system to supplement the existing star camera, for fine pointing during both the day and night. A mechanical shutter will be added to the star camera to protect it during solar observations. HEROES will also implement two novel alignment monitoring system that will measure the alignment between the optical bench and the star camera and between the optics and detectors for improved pointing and post-flight data reconstruction. The overall payload will also be discussed. This mission is funded by the NASA HOPE (Hands On Project Experience) Training Opportunity awarded by the NASA Academy of Program/Project and Engineering Leadership, in partnership with NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Office of the Chief Engineer and Office of the Chief Technologist

Gaskin, Jessica↗
NASA NTRS1985

On method of muon spectrum measurements by the scintillation detectors of a large thickness T4t sub o

Various methods for the study of muon spectrum are presented. The direct ones include the muon energy measurements by magnetic spectrometers. The indirect ones deal with the reconstruction of the muon spectrum from the spectrum of secondary particles obtained by burst or calorimeter technique. The burst technique is based on the measurement of the number of cascade particles, mainly in the cascade maximum, by the detectors of small thickness T sub 0. The calorimeter method consist in determination of the cascade energy with help of the cascade curve shape. The multilayer detectors are used for this purpose. They are usually comprised of proportional counters, X-ray emulsion chambers or scintillation counters with the target material placed between them. The scintillation detectors of a large thickness measures the total cascade energy directly and the detector works as a true calorimeter. When the total energy is detected, the cascade spectrum differs from the muon one.

Ryazhskaya, O. G.↗
NASA NTRS1985

Study of muons near shower cores at sea level using the E594 neutrino detector

The E594 neutrino detector has been used to study the lateral distribution of muons of energy 3 GeV near shower cores. The detector consists of a 340 ton fine grain calorimeter with 400,000 cells of flash chamber and dimensions of 3.7 m x 20 m x 3.7 m (height). The average density in the calorimeter is 1.4 gm/sq cm, and the average Z is 21. The detector was triggered by four 0.6 sq m scintillators placed immediately on the top of the calorimeter. The trigger required at least two of these four counters. The accompanying extensive air showers (EAS) was sampled by 14 scintillation counters located up to 15 m from the calorimeter. Several off line cuts have been applied to the data. Demanding five particles in at least two of the trigger detectors, a total of 20 particles in all of them together, and an arrival angle for the shower 450 deg reduced the data sample to 11053 events. Of these in 4869 cases, a computer algorithm found at least three muons in the calorimeter.

Goodman, J. A.↗
NASA NTRS1975

A balloon-borne ionization spectrometer with very large aperture for the detection of high energy cosmic rays

A balloon experiment which was used to determine the chemical composition of very high-energy cosmic rays up to and beyond 100 GeV/nucleon is described. The detector had a geometric factor of 1 sq m sr and a total weight on the balloon of 2100 kg. The apparatus consisted of an ionization spectrometer, spark chambers, and plastic scintillation and Cherenkov counters. It was calibrated at CERN up to 24 GeV/c protons and at DESY up to 7 GeV/c electrons. In October 1972 it was flown successfully on a stratospheric balloon.

Atallah, K.↗
NASA NTRS1978

X-ray spectrometer experiment aboard the ISEE-C /Heliocentric/ spacecraft

This experiment is designed to provide continuous coverage of solar flare X-ray bursts and transient cosmic gamma-ray bursts. A proportional counter and a scintillation detector together cover the energy range from 5 to 228 keV with good sensitivity, large dynamic range, and high temporal resolution. This experiment provides data storage capability and good absolute timing so that in conjunction with similar experiments on other spacecraft, accurate source locations can be obtained for cosmic gamma-ray bursts.

Anderson, K. A.↗
NASA NTRS1980

Comparative energy spectra of z equals 3-8 nuclei in the energy range 200 MeV/nuc to 3 GeV/nuc

The energy spectra and charge ratios of Li, Be, B, C, N, and O nuclei in the energy range 200 MeV/nuc to 3 GeV/nuc are examined with measurements obtained during a 50 hour balloon flight in 1977 from a telescope containing several scintillation and Cerenkov counters. The ratios Li/C, Be/C, and B/C are compared with predictions based on the leaky box interstellar propagation model showing that the ratios steadily increase in the apparent interstellar matter path length down to energies of about 400 to 600 MeV/nuc, where it is between 6.5 and 7.5 g/square cm. The effects of solar modulation upon the ratios are considered for energies less than about 1 GeV/nuc as well as for a modulation parameters of phi not less than 400 MV. By examining the ratios Li/Be, Li/B, and Be/B as a function of energy, it is shown that the Li/Be ratio is most sensitive to the solar modulation effects, and that the observed changes in this ratio with energy can be explained by a relatively large modulation consistent with a phi equal to 400 MV in 1977.

Webber, W. R.↗
NASA NTRS1981

High resolution determination of elemental abundances for Z equals 8-28 at 1.2-2.4 GeV/n

Results are reported from a series of high-altitude balloon flights of a combination scintillator-double Cerenkov counter telescope to obtain abundances for the nuclei oxygen through nickel corrected to the top of the atmosphere. Over this charge range unambiguous element separation, including the rare element cobalt, has been achieved. Final results are presented of an analysis giving relative abundances over this charge and energy range and compared with other recent experiments.

Dwyer, R.↗
NASA NTRS1983

11-year cycle solar modulation of cosmic ray intensity inferred from C-14 content variation in dated tree rings

A liquid scintillation-photomultiplier tube counter system was used to measure the Delta-C-14 values of 60 tree rings, dating from 1866 to 1925, that were taken from a white spruce grown in Canada at 68 deg N, 130 deg W. A 10-percent variation is found which is anticorrelated with sunspot numbers, although the amplitude of the variation is 2-3 times higher than expected in trees grown at lower latitudes. A large dip in the data at about 1875 suggests an anomalously large modulation of cosmic ray intensity during the 1867-1878 AD solar cycle, which was the most active of the 19th century.

Fan, C. Y.↗
NASA NTRS1987

Cosmic-ray elemental abundances from 1 to 10 GeV per amu for boron through nickel

The relative abundances of cosmic-ray nuclei in the charge range boron through nickel over the energy range 1-10 GeV per amu were measured with a balloon-borne detector. The instrument consists of a scintillation and Cerenkov counter telescope with a multiwire proportional chamber hodoscope and has been flown in four high-altitude balloon flights. Good charge resolution (sigma = 0.2 charge units at iron) and high statistical accuracy have been achieved. These data are used to derive the energy dependence of the leakage path length using the leaky box model of propagation and confinement in the galaxy. This energy dependence is found to be best fit by lambda = E(tot) exp -n, where n = 0.49 + or - 0.06 over 1-10 GeV per amu. Relative abundances at the source are consistent with an energy-independent composition.

Dwyer, Robert↗
NASA NTRS2008

Neutron Stars and Black Holes Seen with the Rossi X-Ray Timing Explorer (RXTE)

Astrophysical X-rays bring information about location, energy, time, and polarization. X-rays from compact objects were seen in the first explorations to vary in time. Eclipses and pulsations have simple explanations that identified the importance of X-ray binaries and magnetic neutron stars in the first decade of X-ray astronomy. The dynamics of accretion onto stellar and supermassive black holes and onto neutron stars with relatively low magnetic fields shows up as more complex variations, quasi-periodic oscillations, noise with characteristic frequency spectra, broad-band changes in the energy spectra. To study these variations, RXTE instruments needed to have large area and operational flexibility to find transient activity and observe when it was present. Proportional counters and Phoswich scintillators provided it in a modest mission that has made textbook level contributions to understanding of compact objects. The first seen, and the brightest known, X-ray binary, Sco X-1 is one of a class of neutron stars with low mass companions. Before RXTE, none of these had been seen to show pulsations, though they were hypothesized to be the precursors of radio pulsars with millisecond periods and low magnetic fields. RXTE's large area led to identifying coherent millisecond pulsars in a subset which are relatively faint transients. It also led to identifying short episodes of pulsation during thermonuclear bursts, in sources where a steady signal is not seen. The X-ray stage verifies the evolution that produces millisecond radio pulsars.Masses and radii of neutron stars are being determined by various techniques, constraining the equation of state of matter at nuclear densities. Accretion should lead to a range of neutron star masses. An early stage of superstrong magnetic field neutron stars is now known to produce X-ray and gamma-ray bursts in crust quakes and magnetic field reconnection releases of energy. Soft Gamma Repeaters, Anomolous X-ray Pulsars, and high magnetic field rotation-powered pulsars are all now called magnetars, because they have pulse periods indicating they are slowing down as they would with magnetic dipole radiation for a surface field above 5x1013 gauss. The accretion disk has been connected to the launching of radio jets from black holes, and even from neutron stars. Estimates of the angular momenta of black holes are being made from different approaches, modelling a high frequency oscillation that may be related to how close the inner part of the accretion disk is to the black hole, modelling the continua spectra of the X-ray emission, and modeling the emission of red-shifted iron that may be emitted from the accretion disk. These investigations require early discovery of the black hole transient with the All Sky Monitor on RXTE or other monitoring information, frequent extended observations, and coordinated observations with missions that give higher energy resolution, or radio and infrared information.

Swank, Jean↗