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At least 199 records · Page 11

Evolution of the intergalactic medium - What happened during the epoch z = 3-10?

An attempt is made to model consistently the thermal and dynamic history of the intergalactic medium (IGM) from the era of reheating (z = 10-5) to the present, and to provide a unified explanation for the origin of ordinary galaxies, blue compact objects, and Lyman-alpha clouds. The evolution of the intergalactic gas is analyzed, treating the IGM as perfectly homogeneous at every epoch and taking into account radiative and Compton cooling, adiabatic cooling, shock heating, and heating produced by the diffuse UV flux. It is suggested that the IGM must have been heated to higher than a 10 to the 6th K by shock heasting caused either by explosions of pregalactic objects or expanding voids. The formation of intergalactic clouds by fragmentation of the resulting shells and the subsequent collapse of the shells to form galaxies are studied. An attempt is made to determine model parameters on the basis of an analysis of Lyman-alpha absorption lines.

Ikeuchi, S.↗

Experimental Study of Shock Wave Interference Heating on a Cylindrical Leading Edge

An experimental study of shock wave interference heating on a cylindrical leading edge representative of the cowl of a rectangular hypersonic engine inlet at Mach numbers of 6.3, 6.5, and 8.0 is presented. Stream Reynolds numbers ranged from 0.5 x 106 to 4.9 x 106 per ft. and stream total temperature ranged from 2100 to 3400 R. The model consisted of a 3" dia. cylinder and a shock generation wedge articulated to angles of 10, 12.5, and 15 deg. A fundamental understanding was obtained of the fluid mechanics of shock wave interference induced flow impingement on a cylindrical leading edge and the attendant surface pressure and heat flux distributions. The first detailed heat transfer rate and pressure distributions for two dimensional shock wave interference on a cylinder was provided along with insight into the effects of specific heat variation with temperature on the phenomena. Results show that the flow around a body in hypersonic flow is altered significantly by the shock wave interference pattern that is created by an oblique shock wave from an external source intersecting the bow shock wave produced in front of the body.

Wieting, Allan R.↗

2.1 micron H2 emission - High-spectral-resolution observations of the Orion Nebula

High-resolution (45 km/sec) observations of the 2.12 micrometers molecular hydrogen emission line in the Orion Nebula reveal a single feature with delta V (FWHP) not exceeding 30 km/sec at a LSR velocity of + 9.5 + or - 4 km/sec. The results support the suggestion that the H2 emission is collisionally excited in a thin shock-heated layer inside the cool molecular cloud. For a spherical geometry the shock velocity is, therefore, constrained to be at most 15 km/sec.

Joyce, R. R.↗

A history of mild shocks experienced by the regolith particles on hydrated asteroid Ryugu

Micrometeorites, a possible major source of Earth’s water, are thought to form from explosive dispersal of hydrated chondritic materials during impact events on their parental asteroids. However, this provenance and formation mechanism have yet to be directly confirmed using asteroid returned samples. Here, we report evidence of mild shock metamorphism in the surface particles of asteroid Ryugu based on electron microscopy. All particles are dominated by phyllosilicates but lack dehydration textures, which are indicative of shock-heating temperatures below ~500°C. Microfault-like textures associated with extensively shock-deformed framboidal magnetites and a high-pressure polymorph of Fe–Cr–sulfide have been identified. These findings indicate that the average peak pressure was ~2 GPa. The vast majority of ejecta formed during impact on Ryugu-like asteroids would be hydrated materials, larger than a millimetre, originating far from the impact point. These characteristics are inconsistent with current micrometeorite production models, and consequently, a new formation mechanism is required.

58 GEOSCIENCES↗

Supernovae and the formation of galaxies

Attention is given to the cumulative effect of many SNs in a galaxy, especially a young galaxy, as well as the effect of the blast wave resulting from the combination of all individual SNs on the intergalactic medium (IGM). It is suggested that the IGM can be shock-heated by this process, so that in the late stages of an individual expanding galaxy's shock a shell may form whose mass is many times greater than that of the seed galaxy. If this shell fragments, due to gravitational instability, it will give rise to a new generation of galaxies. SN explosions may thereby provide a hydrodynamic amplifier of some significance in the process of galaxy formation.

Ostriker, J. P.↗

X ray emission from dynamical shock models in hot-star winds

The principal aim of this project was to determine whether x ray emission from instability-generated shocks in dynamical models of highly unstable hot-star winds could explain the x ray flux spectrum observed from such hot stars by Einstein and other x ray satellites. Our initial efforts focused on extending the earlier isothermal simulations of wind instabilities to include an explicit treatment of the energy balance between shock heating and simplified radiative cooling. It was found, however, that direct resolution of cooling regions behind shocks is often impractical, and thus additional, indirect methods for determining this shock x ray emission were also developed. The results indicate that the reverse shocks that dominate simple 1-D instability models typically have too little material undergoing a strong shock to produce the observed x ray emission. Other models with more strongly driven variability from the wind base sometimes show high-speed collisions between relatively dense clumps, and in these instances the computed x ray flux spectrum matches the observed spectrum quite well. This suggests that collisions between relatively large scale wind streams of different speeds may be more suited to producing the observed x rays than the reverse shocks arising from small-scale instabilities.

Owocki, Stanley P.↗

Tree-based solvers for adaptive mesh refinement code FLASH – III: a novel scheme for radiation pressure on dust and gas and radiative transfer from diffuse sources

Radiation is an important contributor to the energetics of the interstellar medium, yet its transport is difficult to solve numerically. We present a novel approach towards solving radiative transfer of diffuse sources via backwards ray tracing. Here, we focus on the radiative transfer of infrared radiation and the radiation pressure on dust. The new module, TREERAY/RADPRESSURE, is an extension to the novel radiative transfer method TREERAY implemented in the grid-based Magneto-Hydrodynamics code FLASH. In TREERAY/RADPRESSURE, every cell and every star particle is a source of infrared radiation. We also describe how gas, dust, and radiation are coupled via a chemical network. This allows us to compute the local dust temperature in thermal equilibrium, leading to a significantly improvement over the classical grey approximation. In several tests, we demonstrate that the scheme produces the correct radiative intensities as well as the correct momentum input by radiation pressure. Subsequently, we apply our new scheme to model massive star formation from a collapsing, turbulent core of 150 M ⊙ . We include the effects of both, ionizing and infrared radiation on the dynamics of the core. We find that the newborn massive star prevents fragmentation in its proximity due to radiative heating. Over time, dust and radiation temperature equalize, while the gas temperature can be either warmer due to shock heating or colder due to insufficient dust–gas coupling. Compared to gravity, the effects of radiation pressure are insignificant for the stellar mass on the simulated time-scale in this work.

(ISM:) HII regions↗

Shock models of high-velocity interstellar Si III

Recent Copernicus observations of high-velocity interstellar Si III have been interpreted as evidence for collisionally ionized gas at 30,000 to 80,000 K. In this paper, these observations are summarized, and conductive-interface and shock-heating mechanisms are investigated as sources for the temperatures, column densities, and velocity fields. The conductive mechanism evidently cannot reproduce the observations, but radiatively cooling shocks of 50 to 100 km/s, produced by supernova remnants or stellar winds, may provide a viable explanation. Time-dependent calculations of the cooling and ionization behind such shocks show the importance of initial ionization conditions at 100,000 K and produce results substantially different from those of calculations which start at 1 million K.

Shull, J. M.↗

The Distribution of Radioactive Ti-44 in Cassiopeia A

The distribution of elements produced in the innermost layers of a supernova explosion is a key diagnostic for studying the collapse of massive stars. Here we present the results of a 2.4 Ms NuSTAR observing campaign aimed at studying the supernova remnant Cassiopeia A (Cas A). We perform spatially resolved spectroscopic analysis of the Ti-44 ejecta, which we use to determine the Doppler shift and thus the three-dimensional (3D) velocities of the Ti-44 ejecta. We find an initial Ti-44 mass of (1.54 +/- 0.21) x 10(exp. -4) Solar Mass, which has a present-day average momentum direction of 340 degrees +/- 15 degrees projected onto the plane of the sky (measured clockwise from celestial North) and is tilted by 58 degrees +/- 20 degrees into the plane of the sky away from the observer, roughly opposite to the inferred direction of motion of the central compact object. We find some Ti-44 ejecta that are clearly interior to the reverse shock and some that are clearly exterior to it. Where we observe Ti-44 ejecta exterior to the reverse shock we also see shock-heated iron; however, there are regions where we see iron but do not observe Ti-44. This suggests that the local conditions of the supernova shock during explosive nucleosynthesis varied enough to suppress the production of Ti-44 by at least a factor of two in some regions, even in regions that are assumed to be the result of processes like Alpha-rich freezeout that should produce both iron and titanium.

rays: general – ISM: supernova remnants – nucl↗

X-Ray Illumination of the Ejecta of Supernova 1987A

When a massive star explodes as a supernova, substantial amounts of radioactive elements-primarily Ni-56, Ni-57 and Ti-44 are produced. After the initial from shock heating, the light emitted by the supernova is due to the decay of these elements. However, after decades, the energy powering a supernova remnant comes from the shock interaction between the ejecta and the surrounding medium. The transition to this phase has hitherto not been observed: supernovae occur too infrequently in the Milky Way to provide a young example, and extragalactic supernovae are generally too faint and too small. Here we report observations that show this transition in the supernova SN 1987A in the Large Magellan Cloud. From 1994 to 200l, the ejecta faded owing to radioactive decay of Ti-44 as predicted. Then the flux started to increase, more than doubling by the end of 2009. We show that this increase is the result of heat deposited by X-rays produced as the ejecta interacts with the surrounding material. In time, the X-rays will penetrate farther into the ejects, enabling us to analyse the structure and chemistry of the vanished star.

Larsson, J.↗

Ar-40/Ar-39 dating, Ar diffusion properties, and cooling rate determinations of severely shocked chondrites

The ages of Ar-40/Ar-39 chondrites were computed to be 4.29 to 1.0 Gyr, with degassing times of 0.5 to 1.0 Gyr. The values of the diffusion parameter for Ar in Arrhenius plots show linear relationships which correspond to the degassing of different mineral phases with distinct K/Ca ratios and different average temperatures for Ar release. The experimental values of the diffusion parameter for the high-temperature phase of severely shocked chondrites are 10 to the -7th to 10 to the -5th/s for the shock-heating temperatures in the 950-1200 C range; the inferred reheating temperatures and the fraction of the Ar-40 loss during the reheating event suggest post-shock cooling rates and burial depths of 0.01-0.0001 C/s and 0.5-2m, respectively.

Bogard, D. D.↗

A study of low emissions gas turbine combustions

Analytical studies have been conducted to determine the best methods of reducing NO(x) emissions from proposed civilian supersonic transports. Modifications to the gas turbine engine combustors and the use of additives were both explored. It was found that combustors which operated very fuel rich or lean appear to be able to meet future emissions standards. Ammonia additives were also effective in removing NO(x), but residual ammonia remained a problem. Studies of a novel combustor which reduces emissions and improves performance were initiated. In a related topic, a study was begun on the feasibility of using supersonic aircraft to obtain atmospheric samples. The effects of shock heating and compression on sample integrity were modeled. Certain chemical species, including NO2, HNO3, and ClONO2 were found to undergo changes to their composition after they passed through shock waves at Mach 2. The use of detonation waves to enhance mixing and combustion in supersonic airflows was also investigated. This research is important to the use of airbreathing propulsion to obtain orbital speeds and access to space. Both steady and pulsed detonation waves were shown to improve engine performance.

Adelman, Henry G.↗

A Computational Study of the Thermodynamic Conditions Leading to Autoignition in Nanosecond Pulsed Discharges

Nanosecond pulsed discharges have attracted the attention of engine manufacturers due to the possibility of attaining distributed ignition sites that accelerate burn rates while resulting in very little electrode erosion. Multidimensional modeling tools currently capture the electrical structure of such discharges accurately, but resolving the chemical structure remains a challenging problem owing to the disparity of time-scales in streamer propagation (nanoseconds) and ignition phenomena (microseconds). The purpose of this study is to extend multidimensional results toward resolving the chemical structure in the wake of streamers (or the afterglow) by using a batch reactor model (BRM). This can afford the use of very detailed chemical kinetic information. The full nonequilibrium nature of the electrons is taken into account, along with fast gas heating, shock wave propagation, and thermal diffusion. The results shed light on ignition phenomena brought about by such discharges.

42 ENGINEERING↗

Infrared diagnostics of interstellar shocks

The observations and theoretical models concerning interstellar shock waves are discussed. Interstellar shock waves are generated by the supersonic injection of mass into the interstellar medium by young stellar objects, by stellar winds, and by supernovae. Infrared emission lines from the heated, shocked gas provide valuable diagnostics of the density, temperature, velocity field, elemental abundances and extent of the emitting region. It is shown that the comparison of observed spectra from shocked regions with theoretical shock models can provide an estimate of the shock speed and the physical conditions in the preshock gas, including the ionization fraction and the magnetic field strength.

Hollenbach, D. J.↗

Organic Biomarker-Based Assays to Evaluate Total Bioburden and Organic Compounds on Space Flight Hardware

Meeting planetary protection (PP) requirements for space flight hardware may involve bioburden reduction by dry heat microbial reduction (DHMR). The NASA standard assay to demonstrate the reduction of organisms involves the swabbing of surfaces, heat shock of the extracted samples, plating of the samples on Trypticase Soy Agar (TSA), and counting colony forming units after an incubation period. The standard assay uses enumeration of heat tolerant spore-formers as a proxy for total bioburden and is generally expected to provide a lower limit. We suggest that a better estimate of the total bioburden could be obtained through sampling and analysis of organic biomarkers. As biological organisms are fundamentally organic in chemistry (i.e. carbon containing materials) it is important to characterize the biomarker compounds that are released from organisms that 1) exist on flight hardware before microbial reduction and 2) left behind from the killed organisms following microbial reduction.

Locke, Darren R.↗