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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 397 records · Page 22
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRS1993

A new approach to the study of the turbulence layer

Turbulent thermal convection is of considerable importance in fluid dynamical transport phenomena occurring, for example, in the planetary boundary layer of the Earth, the interiors of stars, and accretion disks. In particular, during a significant portion of the evolutionary phase of many stars having convectively unstable cores or outer envelopes, a substantial fraction of energy is transported from the central layers to the outer layers by thermal convection. Moreover, as much of the interior of a star is in highly turbulent motion, a complete theory of stellar structure and evolution requires the explicit consideration of turbulence in order to have expressions for the turbulent quantities arising in the stellar structure equations, and particularly, the turbulent fluxes that appear in the total flux conservation equation, such as the convective flux, kinetic energy flux, etc. A reliable quantification of these fluxes continues to present a challenge in astrophysical fluid dynamics, primarily because astrophysical turbulence is almost always fully-developed and nearly inviscid, and therefore governed by strong nonlinear interactions that distribute the energy among a very wide spectrum of eddies with scales ranging from the characteristic dimension of the flow to those sufficiently small to be affected by viscous dissipation. Furthermore, astrophysical flows are invariably compressible, anisotropic, and inhomogeneous, which requires the consideration of the dynamics of longitudinal modes and their interaction with the transverse modes, as well as complicated boundary conditions. In order to reach a compromise between analytical and numerical tractability and the basic physics of turbulent convection, we have constructed a model of stationary turbulent convection that yields various turbulence statistics, including the convective flux, that are required in stellar evolution models.

Levenson, Ruth A.↗
NASA NTRS1977

Compact sources of EUV radiation

Contrary to classical theoretical expectations extreme ultraviolet emissions from a number of stellar objects have been recently discovered. A combined EUV and optical study of these sources has revealed a wealth of new information on stellar structure and evolution especially for what regards the transition stage between planetary nebulae and white dwarfs. The current status of research in this field is reviewed with emphasis on the impact these observations are having on our view of the later stages of stellar evolution and on the future possibility that could be awaiting a sensitive all sky survey of the EUV spectrum.

Paresce, F.↗
NASA NTRS2008

An Eccentric Binary Millisecond Pulsar in the Galactic Plane

Binary pulsar systems are superb probes of stellar and binary evolution and the physics of extreme environments. In a survey with the Arecibo telescope, we have found PSR J1903+0327, a radio pulsar with a rotational period of 2.15 milliseconds in a highly eccentric (e = 0.44) 95-day orbit around a solar mass (M.) companion. Infrared observations identify a possible main-sequence companion star. Conventional binary stellar evolution models predict neither large orbital eccentricities nor main-sequence companions around millisecond pulsars. Alternative formation scenarios involve recycling a neutron star in a globular cluster, then ejecting it into the Galactic disk, or membership in a hierarchical triple system. A relativistic analysis of timing observations of the pulsar finds its mass to be 1.74 +/- 0.04 Solar Mass, an unusually high value.

Champion, David J.↗
NASA NTRS2021

Improved Constraints for the XUV Luminosity Evolution of Trappist-1

We re-examine the XUV luminosity evolution of TRAPPIST-1 utilizing new observational constraints of the current stellar parameters (XUV and bolometric luminosity) from multi-epoch X-ray/UV photometry. Following the formalism presented on Fleming et al. (2020), we infer that TRAPPIST-1maintained a saturated XUV luminosity, relative to the bolometric luminosity, of log10(LXUV/Lbol)=−3.03+0.25−0.23at early times for a period of tsat= 3.14+2.22−1.46Gyr. After the saturation phase, we find LXUV decayed over time by an exponential rate ofβXUV=−1.17+0.27−0.28. Compared to our inferred age of the system, age = 7.96+1.78−1.87Gyr, our result for tsat suggests that there is only a∼4% chance thatTRAPPIST-1 still remains in the saturated phase today, which is significantly lower than the previous estimate of 40%. Despite this reduction in tsat, our results remain consistent in the conclusion that the TRAPPIST-1 planets likely received an extreme amount XUV energy—an estimated integrated XUV energy of∼1030−1032erg over the star’s lifetime—that is∼15% lower than the original result.

Stellar evolution↗
NASA NTRS1986

A unified N-body and statistical treatment of stellar dynamics. III - Early postcollapse evolution of globular clusters

The period immediately following the core collapse phase in the evolution of a globular cluster is studied using a hybrid N-body/Fokker-Planck stellar dynamical code. Several core oscillations of the type predicted in earlier work are seen. The oscillations are driven by the formation, hardening, and ejection of binaries by three-body processes, and appear to decay on a timescale of about 10 to the 7th yr, for the choice of 'typical' cluster parameters made here. There is no evidence that they are gravothermal in nature. The mechanisms responsible for the decay are discussed in some detail. The distribution of hard binaries produced by the oscillations is compared with theoretical expectations and the longer term evolution of the system is considered.

Mcmillan, S. L. W.↗
DOE OSTI2024

Stellar wind impact on early atmospheres around unmagnetized Earth-like planets

ABSTRACT Stellar rotation at early ages plays a crucial role in the survival of primordial atmospheres around Earth-mass exoplanets. Earth-like planets orbiting fast-rotating stars may undergo complete photoevaporation within the first few hundred Myr driven by the enhanced stellar XUV [X-rays and extreme ultraviolet (EUV)] radiation, while planets orbiting slow-rotating stars are expected to experience difficulty in losing their primordial envelopes. Besides the action of stellar radiation, stellar winds induce additional erosion on these primordial atmospheres, altering their morphology, extent, and causing supplementary atmospheric losses. In this paper, we study the impact of activity-dependent stellar winds on primordial atmospheres to evaluate the extent to which the action of these winds can be significant in the whole planetary evolution at early evolutionary stages. We performed 3D magnetohydrodynamical (MHD) simulations of the interaction of photoevaporating atmospheres around unmagnetized Earth-mass planets in the time span between 50 and 500 Myr, analysing the joint evolution of stellar winds and atmospheres for both fast- and slow-rotating stars. Our results reveal substantial changes in the evolution of primordial atmospheres when influenced by fast-rotating stars, with a significant reduction in extent at early ages. In contrast, atmospheres embedded in the stellar winds from slow-rotating stars remain largely unaltered. The interaction of the magnetized stellar winds with the ionized upper atmospheres of these planets allows us to evaluate the formation and evolution of different MHD structures, such as double bow shocks and induced magnetospheres. This work will shed light on the first evolutionary stages of Earth-like exoplanets, which are of crucial relevance in terms of planet habitability.

Astronomy & Astrophysics↗