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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 325 records · Page 18
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NASA NTRS1988

Light echoes - Novae

The sudden brilliance of a nova eruption will be reflected on surrounding dust grains to create a phantom nebula. Previous searches for these light echoes have used relatively short exposures with photograhic detectors. This paper reports on a search around eight recent novae with long exposures using a CCD camera. Despite an increase of sensitivity by over an order of magnitude, no light echoes were detected. It is found that the average grain density must be less than about 10 to the -9th per cu cm for distances from 0.1 pc to 1000 pc from the novae. The light echo around Nova Persei 1901 was caused by reflection off clouds with grain densities of several times 10 to the -9th per cu cm which are at distances between 0.1 pc and 10 pc. Echoes from dust in a circumstellar shell or ejected during a previous eruption will be effectively unobservable.

Schaefer, Bradley E.↗
NASA NTRS1988

On the nearest molecular clouds. II - MBM 12 and 16

The paper presents echelle spectra recorded at the D lines of Na I for three stars projected on the high-latitude molecular cloud MBM 16 at l = 172 deg, b = -38 deg. The A stars HD 21142 at about 95 pc and HD 21134 at about 240 pc show strong D-line absorption at the same velocities as the CO emission observed at these positions. The distance to MBM 16 therefore is in the range of 60 to 95 pc. MBM 16 is only 11 deg away from MBM 12, previously placed by the same method at distance of about 65 pc. Consideration is given to the relationship between clouds 12 and 16 and the local hot low-density interstellar gas.

Hobbs, L. M.↗
NASA NTRS1989

Laboratory process control using natural language commands from a personal computer

PC software is described which provides flexible natural language process control capability with an IBM PC or compatible machine. Hardware requirements include the PC, and suitable hardware interfaces to all controlled devices. Software required includes the Microsoft Disk Operating System (MS-DOS) operating system, a PC-based FORTRAN-77 compiler, and user-written device drivers. Instructions for use of the software are given as well as a description of an application of the system.

Will, Herbert A.↗
NASA NTRS1989

Software package for performing experiments about the convolutionally encoded Voyager 1 link

A software package enabling engineers to conduct experiments to determine the actual performance of long constraint-length convolutional codes over the Voyager 1 communication link directly from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) has been developed. Using this software, engineers are able to enter test data from the Laboratory in Pasadena, California. The software encodes the data and then sends the encoded data to a personal computer (PC) at the Goldstone Deep Space Complex (GDSC) over telephone lines. The encoded data are sent to the transmitter by the PC at GDSC. The received data, after being echoed back by Voyager 1, are first sent to the PC at GDSC, and then are sent back to the PC at the Laboratory over telephone lines for decoding and further analysis. All of these operations are fully integrated and are completely automatic. Engineers can control the entire software system from the Laboratory. The software encoder and the hardware decoder interface were developed for other applications, and have been modified appropriately for integration into the system so that their existence is transparent to the users. This software provides: (1) data entry facilities, (2) communication protocol for telephone links, (3) data displaying facilities, (4) integration with the software encoder and the hardware decoder, and (5) control functions.

Cheng, U.↗
NASA NTRS1989

On the nearest molecular clouds. III - MBM 40, 53, 54, and 55

In an attempt to determine the distances to four high-latitude molecular clouds (HLCs), echelle spectra near the Na I D lines, accurate MK spectral types, and photoelectric photometry for 25 nearby stars have been obtained. Fairly firm distance limits may be placed on MBM 40 (d smaller than or equal to 140 pc) and MBM 53 (d greater than or equal to 110 pc and less than or equal to 155 pc), based on the presence or absence of strong interstellar Na I absorption towards stars projected on or near those HLCs. Weak interstellar absorption lines observed toward many of the stars located near MBM 54 and 55 make the distances to those clouds less certain (about 265 pc for both). Interstellar CH absorption at 4300 A was detected in the spectrum of HD 218662, located behind MBM 53 with a CH column density of 2.1 x 10 to the 13th per sq cm, thus implying a CH abundance comparable to that observed in other molecular clouds. Morphological and velocity agreement among CO emission, the Na I absorption, the 100 micron infrared cirrus emission, and the 21 cm H I emission near these HLCs suggest a close association of the interstellar material responsible for those phenomena.

Welty, D. E.↗
NASA NTRS1990

Physical conditions in photodissociation regions - Application to galactic nuclei

A procedure is outlined which determines the physical characteristics of the neutral interstellar medium in the nuclei of luminous galaxies. The method uses millimeter and IR observations to find the mass and density of the molecular and atomic gas components as well as the UV flux incident on clouds. The area and volume filling factors and approximate number of clouds and cloud radii are also found. For the Galactic center, about 100 clouds of radius about 0.4 pc and density about 100,000/cu cm are found within about 5 pc. The atomic gas temperature is about 700 K and the FUV field on clouds is about 100,000 times the local Galactic FUV field. The flux is consistent with a central source of luminosity of 2-3 x 10 to the 7th solar. Roughly 100,000 clouds of radius roughly 0.4 pc are found within the roughly 330 pc nuclear region of M82. The large number of clouds produces a projected area filling factor approaching unity. Cloud heating may be dominated by an intense interstellar UV flux.

Wolfire, Mark G.↗
NASA NTRS1990

Velocity dispersion and the stellar population in the central 1.2 parsecs of the Galaxy

New observations of the 2.3 micron absorption band head of CO in integrated stellar light in the central 1.2 pc of the Galaxy are presented. These data confirm that the velocity dispersion of the stars increases toward the Galactic center and totally dominates their systematic rotation at small radii. The velocity dispersion is constant an average value of 125 km/s within about 30 arcsec projected diameter central region. The strength of the CO features decreases in the integrated faint light within the same region. These observations are all consistent with the hypothesis that both the diffuse 2 micron light and the bright 2 micron point sources in the central region are dominated by sources that have little or no CO absorption feature. The observed CO feature at projected distances less than 0.6 pc thus actually arises in stars that are at true radii greater than 0.6 pc. The mass distribution at radius between 3.7 and 0.6 pc from IRS 16 is strong evidence for an increasing mass/2 micron radiation ratio toward the Galactic center.

Sellgren, K.↗
NASA NTRS1991

Interface Circuit For Printer Port

Electronic circuit, called printer-port interface circuit (PPI) developed to overcome certain disadvantages of previous methods for connecting IBM PC or PC-compatible computer to other equipment. Has both reading and writing modes of operation. Very simple, requiring only six integrated circuits. Provides for moderately fast rates of transfer of data and uses existing unmodified circuit card in IBM PC. When used with appropriate software, circuit converts printer port on IBM PC, XT, AT, or compatible personal computer to general purpose, 8-bit-data, 16-bit address bus that connects to multitude of devices.

Tucker, Jerry H.↗
NASA NTRS1992

The dynamic cusp

Results of a study of satellite and ground-based data acquired near the dayside cusp during a period when the IMF was inferred to have a strong northward component are presented. The presence of Pc 1 bursts, Pc 4-5 pulsations, and a tailward traveling twin vortex pattern of ionospheric convection suggests that the magnetosphere may have been temporarily compressed. Magnetic field data acquired at a synchronous altitude from GOES 5 and on the ground from Huanacayo support this suggestion. Plasma with ion dispersion characteristics associated with a cusp during southward IMF was detected by Viking over a 3.5-deg range of latitude. The presence of standing Alfven waves and ring current ions suggests that this 'cusplike' plasma was observed on closed geomagnetic field lines. It is suggested that the magnetosphere, during a northward IMF, is temporarily compressed by a solar wind pressure enhancement that produces the Pc 1 bursts, Pc 4-5 pulsations, and ionospheric vortices.

Potemra, T. A.↗
NASA NTRS1992

Dense clumps of ionized gas near Pi Scorpii, as revealed by the fine-structure excitation of N II

The column density and the emission of the ionized gas along the line of sight toward the B1 V + B2 V binary star Pi Sco are measured on the basis of the fine-structure absorption lines of the ground state N II. It is found that the bulk of this ionized gas must be clumped on a length scale of 0.025 pc, which is far smaller than the observed size of the diffuse H II region surrounding Pi Sco of about 6 pc. The observed column density of S III toward Pi Sco yields an upper limit on the distance of the absorbing, clumped gas from the star of less than about 0.02 pc, assuming that both the N II and S III absorption arise from the same gas. The possibility that the ionized gas originates from a photoevaporating circumstellar disk directly surrounding Pi Sco is excluded, since such a disk would have an unusual size of order 0.025 pc and would have had to survive for the estimated age of Pi Sco of 5-8 Myr. The derived mean density of the clumped gas is of order 40/cu cm, so that the gas is at a pressure that far exceeds the mean pressure in the H II region. It is concluded that the ionized gas could originate from evaporation flows off a cluster of compact neutral objects that evaporate due to the ionizing radiation of Pi Sco.

Bertoldi, Frank↗
NASA NTRS1993

Vibration Pattern Imager (VPI): A control and data acquisition system for scanning laser vibrometers

The Vibration Pattern Imager (VPI) system was designed to control and acquire data from scanning laser vibrometer sensors. The PC computer based system uses a digital signal processing (DSP) board and an analog I/O board to control the sensor and to process the data. The VPI system was originally developed for use with the Ometron VPI Sensor, but can be readily adapted to any commercially available sensor which provides an analog output signal and requires analog inputs for control of mirror positioning. The sensor itself is not part of the VPI system. A graphical interface program, which runs on a PC under the MS-DOS operating system, functions in an interactive mode and communicates with the DSP and I/O boards in a user-friendly fashion through the aid of pop-up menus. Two types of data may be acquired with the VPI system: single point or 'full field.' In the single point mode, time series data is sampled by the A/D converter on the I/O board (at a user-defined sampling rate for a selectable number of samples) and is stored by the PC. The position of the measuring point (adjusted by mirrors in the sensor) is controlled via a mouse input. The mouse input is translated to output voltages by the D/A converter on the I/O board to control the mirror servos. In the 'full field' mode, the measurement point is moved over a user-selectable rectangular area. The time series data is sampled by the A/D converter on the I/O board (at a user-defined sampling rate for a selectable number of samples) and converted to a root-mean-square (rms) value by the DSP board. The rms 'full field' velocity distribution is then uploaded for display and storage on the PC.

Rizzi, Stephen A.↗
NASA NTRS1993

Thin Rechargeable Batteries for CMOS SRAM Memory Protection

New rechargeable battery technology is described and compared with classical primary battery back-up of SRAM PC cards. Thin solid polymer electrolyte cells with the thickness of TSOP memory components (1 mm nominal, 1.1 mm max) and capacities of 14 mAh/sq cm can replace coin cells. The SRAM PC cards with permanently installed rechargeable cells and optional electrochromic low battery voltage indicators will free the periodic PC card user from having to 'feed' their PC cards with coin cells and will allow a quick visual check of stored cards for their battery voltage status.

Crouse, Dennis N.↗
NASA NTRS1992

The low filling factor of dust in the Galaxy

The neighborhood of 745 luminous stars in the IRAS Skyflux plates was examined for the presence of dust heated by the nearby star. One-hundred twenty-three dust clouds were found around only 106 of the stars with a volume filling factor of 0.006 and an intercloud separation of 46 pc. Nowhere was a region found where the dust is smoothly distributed through the volume of space heated by the star; hence an upper limit of 0.06/cu cm is placed on the equivalent gas density in the intercloud regions. Due to the lack of IR emission near the star, it is found that less than 1 percent of the stellar luminosity is reprocessed within 10 pc of the star. The clouds have an average density of 0.22/cu cm and a radius of 1.9 pc, albeit with wide variations in their properties. Two different scale heights of 140 and 540 pc were found for the number of clouds around different groups of stars, which are interpreted as evidence for different distributions of dust in and out of the Galactic disk.

Murthy, Jayant↗
NASA NTRS1993

Kiloparsec-scale molecular gas excitation in spiral galaxies

We combine beam-matched (C-13)O, (C-12)O J = 3 - 2 and J = 2 - 1 line data to infer the molecular gas excitation conditions in the central 500 to 1600 pc diameters of a small sample of IR-bright external galaxies: NGC 253, IC 342, M83, Maffei 2, and NGC 6946. We find that the central 170 to 530 pc diameter regions have typical molecular gas densities ranging from approximately less than 10,000/cu cm (in M83) to approximately greater than 100,000/cu cm (in NGC 253) and that, outside of these regions, the densities are likely to be approximately less than 10,000/cu cm. The molecular clouds outside the inner 170-530 pc are at least as warm as the molecular clouds in our Galaxy. Column densities derived from integrated (C-13)O line strengths and H-alpha surface brightnesses suggest that the star formation rate is enhanced in the central 170-530 pc diameters by an order of magnitude over that inferred for the outer star-forming disks in spiral galaxies.

Wall, W. F.↗
NASA NTRS1994

Direct imaging of planetary systems with a ground-based radio telescope array

The National Radio Astronomy Observatory's proposed Millimeter Array (MMA) will bring unprecedented sensitivity, angular resolution, and image dynamic range to the millimeter wavelength region of the spectrum. An obvious question is whether such an instrument could be used to detect planets orbiting nearby stars. The techniques of aperture synthesis imaging developed for centimeter wavelength radio arrays are capable of producing images whose dynamic ranges greatly exceed the brightness ratio of a solar-type star and a Jupiter-like planet at sub-millimeter or millimeter wavelengths. The angular resolution required to separate a star and planet at a few pc distance can be obtained with baselines of several km. The greatest challenge is sensitivity. At the highest possible observing frequencies (approximately 300 GHz for typical high, dry sites, and approximately 900 GHz from the Antarctic plateau), the proposed MMA will be unable to detect the thermal emission from a Jupiter-like planet a few pc away. An upgraded MMA operating near 300 GHz with twice the currently proposed number of antennas, a 20% fractional bandwidth, and improved receivers could detect Jupiter at 4 pc in a few months. Building such an array on the Antarctic plateau and operating at approximately 900 GHz would allow Jupiter at 4 pc to be detected in approximately one day of observing time.

Jones, Dayton L.↗
NASA NTRS1994

The solar neighborhood, 1: Standard spectral types (K5-M8) for northern dwarfs within eight parsecs

Spectral types on a standard system are presented for late-type dwarfs within 8 pc. All known main-sequence stars north of -25 deg and with M(sub V) greater than or = 8.00 have been observed, resulting in 92 spectra. Based upon the stellar system density to 5 pc, we estimate that approximately 35 systems in the 8 pc sample are 'missing.' In an effort to reveal these systems, we use an empirical spectral type-M(sub V) relation to estimate distances to additional stars that may lie within 8 pc.

Henry, Todd J.↗
NASA NTRS1994

An IUE survey of interstellar H I Ly alpha absorption. 2: Interpretations

We present an analysis of interstellar neutral hydrogen column densities obtained from archival Ly alpha absorption line data toward the complete sample of B2 and hotter stars observed at high spectral resolution with the IUE satellite. The full sample includes 554 stars and more than doubles the number of lines of sight previously observed. Many of the B2 and B1.5 stars exhibit contamination from stellar Ly alpha absorption, and were excluded from the subsequent analysis. The final working sample includes 393 stars. We present statistical averages for a number of quantities derived for the sample. The stars range in distance from 0.12 to 11 kpc with an average distance of 2.1 kpc. Values for average sight-line density range from 0.017 to 8.62 atoms cm(exp -3), with an overall average of 0.23 atoms cm(exp -3). Neutral hydrogen and dust are well correlated, with N(H I)/E(B - V) = 4.93 x 10(exp 21) cm(exp -2) mag(exp -1), and N(H I)/E(Bump) = 2.17 x 10(exp 21) cm(exp -2) mag(exp -1). There is an increase in the H I to dust ratios for the densest sight lines. Evidently, the H I to dust ratios in dense clouds are higher than in the lower density medium between the clouds and in interarm directions. The effect is probably an indication of dust modification in the dense clouds. The H I to dust ratios are approx. 17% smaller for the sight lines to O stars compared to the ratios found toward B stars. We have identified sight lines with anomalously large and small values of N(H I)/E(B - V) and H(H I)/E(Bump). Some of these sight lines are well-known examples of peculiar extinction (i.e., HD 147933 and HD 37061 (NU Ori)). Others are less well known and may provide important new examples of regions with highly modified dust. The number of stars with anomalously low H I to dust ratios is disproportionately larger than the number of stars with anomalously high H I to dust ratios. The distribution of the gas away form the Galactic plane for the sample of objects is complex. For the subset of 375 stars whose lines of sight have a statistically low probablility of intersecting a large cloud, the distribution may be roughly approximated by an exponential density distribution, with a midplane density of 0.366 atoms cm(exp -3), a scale height of 195 pc, and a random logarithmic scattering parameter sigma (sub p) of 0.159 dex. For the same sample of stars, interstellar dust is found to be confined closer to the plane than the H I, with (E(B - V)/r)(sub 0) = 0.257 mag kpc(exp -1), scale height h = 152 pc, and sigma(sub p) = 0.263 dex. The dust distribution is more inhomogeneous than the gas distribution. The observed distribution of H I away from the Galactic plane can also be fitted with a two-component exponential model including the effects of patchiness. Unfortunately, the foreground contamination produced by the cloudy and more confined component of H I makes it difficult to estimate the scale height of the extended component without invoking an independent estimate of its midplane density. Assuming n(sub 2)(0) = 0.16 cm(exp -3) from the Copernicus satellite H I/H(sub 2) survey, we obtain n(sub 1)(0) = 0.247 cm(exp -3), h(sub 1) = 73 PC, and h(sub 2) + 357 pc.

Diplas, Athanassios↗
NASA NTRS1994

HST photometry of the trapezium cluster

We have obtained images of 11 fields in the Trapezium cluster with the Planetary Camera (PC) of the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) in order to extend Herbig & Terndrup's (1986) study of this prototype, dense embedded cluster to fainter magnitudes than is possible from the ground. Using these images, we have identified 319 stars within an area of approximately 12 sq arc min corresponding roughly to a volume of approximately 0.065 cu pc assuming the cluster is approximately spherically symmetric. Our completeness limits for star identification in V-band and I-band images are V approximately = 20 and I(sub c) approximately = 19 respectively, corresponding to a mass limit of approximately 0.15 solar mass if the faintest stars have the same average A(sub v) as that estimated for the brighter stars in the cluster. We have compared the V versus V-I color-magnitude diagram derived from the HST photometry to new theoretical isochrones. Star formation in the Trapezium appears to be remarkably coeval, with greater than or = 80% of the stars having inferred ages less than 1 Myr. Over the somewhat limited mass range of the observations, there is no evidence for 'bimodal' star formation-the high- and low-mass stars appear to have the same ages. The sharp cores of the HST images and the small angular size of the PC pixels has allowed us to identify 35 new visual binaries in the cluster with separations from approximately 0.06 arc sec (approximately 26 AU) to approximately 1.0 arc sec (approximately 440 AU). For the range of binary separations that we are sensitive to, the observed binary frequency for the Trapezium is essentially identical to that estimated for field low-mass stars by Duquennoy & Mayor (1991). The most straightfoward inference from this result is that binaries in this separation are unlikely to be formed by a tidal capture process. We have also identified three stars which have associated compact nebulosity visible in the HST images. One of these star + nebulosity cases was previously identified by O'Dell, Wen, & Hu (1993)-these objects appear to form a class of objects whose circumstellar matter is being 'lit up', most likely by Theta(sup 1) Ori C, enabling the gas to be observable at both optical and radio wavelengths (Felli et al. 1993a, b). We provide a brief summary of the optical properties of the other radio sources which appear in our PC images.

Prosser, Charles F.↗