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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 1,207 records · Page 67
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2013

Identification of five interacting binaries in the galactic bulge survey

We present optical light curves, spectroscopy, and classification of five X-ray sources in the Chandra Galactic Bulge Survey (CXOGBS J174009.1–284725 (CX5), CXOGBS J173935.7–272935 (CX18), CXOGBS J173946.9–271809 (CX28), CXOGBS J173729.1–292804 (CX37), CXOGBS J174607.6–261547 (CX561)). These objects were selected based on bright optical counterparts which were quickly found to have emission lines in their optical spectra. This paper presents an illustration of GBS optical follow-up, targeting emission line objects. Of these five objects, four exhibit photometric variability in the Sloan r' band. CX5 shows a tentative period of 2.1 hr and is clearly an intermediate polar (IP). CX28 and CX37 both exhibit flickering with no clear period. Both are also suggested to be IPs. CX18 was observed to undergo two dwarf nova outbursts. Finally, CX561 shows no detectable variability, although its characteristics would be consistent with either a quiescent low-mass X-ray binary or cataclysmic variable.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
NASA NTRS1988

The search for an identification of amino acids, nucleobases and nucleosides in samples returned from Mars

The Mars Sample Return mission will provide us with a unique source of material from our solar system; material which could advance our knowledge of the processes of chemical evolution. As has been pointed out, Mars geological investigations based on the Viking datasets have shown that primordial Mars was in many biologically important ways similar to the primordial Earth; the presence of surface liquid water, moderate surface temperatures, and atmosphere of carbon dioxide and nitrogen, and high geothermal heat flow. Indeed, it would seem that conditions on Earth and Mars were fundamentally similar during the first one billion years or so. As has been pointed out, Mars may well contain the best preserved record of the events that transpired on the early planets. Examination of that early record will involve searching for many things, from microfossils to isotopic abundance data. We propose an investigation of the returned Mars samples for biologically important organic compounds, with emphases on amino acids, the purine and pyrimidine bases, and nucleosides.

Gehrke, Charles W.↗
NASA NTRS1993

VLBI astrometric identification of the radio emitting region in Algol and determination of the orientation of the close binary

A minute displacement of the radio source in Algol was measured by VLBI during two consecutive orbital revolutions of the close binary. The magnitude of the displacement unambiguously indicates that the less massive star of the close binary, a K subgiant, is the star responsible for the nonthermal radio emission of the system. This is consistent with the idea that the radio emission in Algol is related to the strong magnetic activity of the subgiant. The orientation and sense of the displacement on the sky that are directly deduced from our astrometric VLBI observations imply: (1) that the orbital plane of the close binary is at P.A. = +52 deg +/- 5 deg; and (2) that the sense of circulation of the close binary is clockwise, as seen on the sky. Thus, the long-period and close binary orbital motions are almost orthogonal and counterrevolving and this is relevant for evolution and dynamical studies.

Lestrade, Jean-Francois↗
NASA NTRS2013

On Using Intensity Interferometry for Feature Identification and Imaging of Remote Objects

We derive an approximation to the intensity covariance function of two scanning pinhole detectors, facing a distant source (e.g., a star) being occluded partially by an absorptive object (e.g., a planet). We focus on using this technique to identify or image an object that is in the line-of-sight between a well-characterized source and the detectors. We derive the observed perturbation to the intensity covariance map due to the object, showing that under some reasonable approximations it is proportional to the real part of the Fourier transform of the source's photon-flux density times the Fourier transform of the object's intensity absorption. We highlight the key parameters impacting its visibility and discuss the requirements for estimating object-related parameters, e.g., its size, velocity or shape. We consider an application of this result to determining the orbit inclination of an exoplanet orbiting a distant star. Finally, motivated by the intrinsically weak nature of the signature, we study its signal-to-noise ratio and determine the impact of system parameters.

quantum optics↗
DOE OSTI2011

THE ARECIBO LEGACY FAST ALFA SURVEY: THE {alpha}.40 H I SOURCE CATALOG, ITS CHARACTERISTICS AND THEIR IMPACT ON THE DERIVATION OF THE H I MASS FUNCTION

We present a current catalog of 21 cm H I line sources extracted from the Arecibo Legacy Fast Arecibo L-band Feed Array (ALFALFA) survey over {approx}2800 deg{sup 2} of sky: the {alpha}.40 catalog. Covering 40% of the final survey area, the {alpha}.40 catalog contains 15,855 sources in the regions 07{sup h}30{sup m} < R.A. < 16{sup h}30{sup m}, +04 Degree-Sign < decl. <+16 Degree-Sign , and +24 Degree-Sign < decl. <+28 Degree-Sign and 22{sup h} < R.A. < 03{sup h}, +14 Degree-Sign < decl. <+16 Degree-Sign , and +24 Degree-Sign < decl. < + 32 Degree-Sign . Of those, 15,041 are certainly extragalactic, yielding a source density of 5.3 galaxies per deg{sup 2}, a factor of 29 improvement over the catalog extracted from the H I Parkes All-Sky Survey. In addition to the source centroid positions, H I line flux densities, recessional velocities, and line widths, the catalog includes the coordinates of the most probable optical counterpart of each H I line detection, and a separate compilation provides a cross-match to identifications given in the photometric and spectroscopic catalogs associated with the Sloan Digital Sky Survey Data Release 7. Fewer than 2% of the extragalactic H I line sources cannot be identified with a feasible optical counterpart; some of those may be rare OH megamasers at 0.16 < z < 0.25. A detailed analysis is presented of the completeness, width-dependent sensitivity function and bias inherent of the {alpha}.40 catalog. The impact of survey selection, distance errors, current volume coverage, and local large-scale structure on the derivation of the H I mass function is assessed. While {alpha}.40 does not yet provide a completely representative sampling of cosmological volume, derivations of the H I mass function using future data releases from ALFALFA will further improve both statistical and systematic uncertainties.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
NASA NTRS1989

Nearby and bright star samples from the Einstein Observatory stellar X-ray catalog

Results from the study of nearby and/or bright star samples are presented based on the finalized catalog of identified stellar X-ray sources observed with the Imaging Proportional Counter (IPC) onboard the Einstein Observatory. Out of a total of about 10,000 X-ray sources whose data are organized in a relational database for easily accomplishing their analysis, data of X-ray sources identified with bright or nearby optical counterparts are presented. A brief summary of the major results known to date is presented, relevant properties of the optical catalogs used for the identifications are discussed, some new spectral results are shown, and a hint is given on expectations of future X-ray observations based on present best knowledge of X-ray emission from stellar sources.

Sciortino, S.↗
DOE OSTI2024

Radioisotope Identification with List-Mode Gamma Ray Data: A rigorous assessment on the value of temporal information applied to radioisotope identification.

This work explores the potential of utilizing temporal data from gamma-ray detectors, known as list-mode data, to enhance radioisotope identification. Traditional identification methods, which rely on full gamma-ray spectrum analysis, often require long dwell times and struggle with “confuser” sources, or spectra with similarly spaced spectral peaks. We hypothesize that by leveraging the probabilistic nature of nuclear decay and the time-encoded information from decay sequences and interactions with surrounding materials, we can improve classification accuracy over static spectral analysis. This research rigorously examines the temporal content of list-mode data through exploratory data analysis via correlation discovery and information theory. We further propose a basic classification model that can utilize spectral or temporal data (or both) to determine if the incorporation of temporal information can improve radioisotope identification. The findings suggest that the temporal information present in list-mode gamma-ray data has merit and should be further investigated.

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗
DOE OSTI2018

Use of an ion mobility spectrometer for detecting uranium compounds

The safeguards community currently lacks a method to rapidly determine the chemical form of radioactive and non-radioactive compounds in real time during inspection activities. Chemical speciation identification can provide important information on both the types of materials that are collected during environmental sampling and can inform inspectors as to where to focus efforts during inspections or complementary access visits. Ion Mobility Spectrometry (IMS) is an established field technique for the detection of explosives, narcotics, and other organic compounds. More recently, electrospray ionization (ESI) has been used to introduce inorganic compounds to IMS instruments for analysis. These techniques have shown the ability to supply chemical information about the compounds being analyzed. Although these laboratory based instruments use a liquid-based injection system, there is evidence in the literature of unaltered and intact pharmaceutical tablets being volatilized and ionized in open atmosphere using heat and a Ni-63 source. Lastly, this work determined that a commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) IMS could be used for the identification of solid uranium compounds directly after sampling using a COTS sample swipe.

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗
DOE OSTI2023

HETDEX Public Source Catalog 1: 220 K Sources Including Over 50 K Ly$α$ Emitters from an Untargeted Wide-area Spectroscopic Survey*

We present the first publicly released catalog of sources obtained from the Hobby-Eberly Telescope Dark Energy Experiment (HETDEX). HETDEX is an integral field spectroscopic survey designed to measure the Hubble expansion parameter and angular diameter distance at 1.88 < z < 3.52 by using the spatial distribution of more than a million Lyα-emitting galaxies over a total target area of 540 deg 2 . The catalog comes from contiguous fiber spectra coverage of 25 deg 2 of sky from 2017 January through 2020 June, where object detection is performed through two complementary detection methods: one designed to search for line emission and the other a search for continuum emission. The HETDEX public release catalog is dominated by emission-line galaxies and includes 51,863 Ly$α$-emitting galaxy (LAE) identifications and 123,891 [O ii]-emitting galaxies at z < 0.5. Also included in the catalog are 37,916 stars, 5274 low-redshift (z < 0.5) galaxies without emission lines, and 4976 active galactic nuclei. The catalog provides sky coordinates, redshifts, line identifications, classification information, line fluxes, [O ii] and Ly$α$ line luminosities where applicable, and spectra for all identified sources processed by the HETDEX detection pipeline. Extensive testing demonstrates that HETDEX redshifts agree to within Δz < 0.02, 96.1% of the time to those in external spectroscopic catalogs. We measure the photometric counterpart fraction in deep ancillary Hyper Suprime-Cam imaging and find that only 55.5% of the LAE sample has an r-band continuum counterpart down to a limiting magnitude of r ~ 26.2 mag (AB) indicating that an LAE search of similar sensitivity to HETDEX with photometric preselection would miss nearly half of the HETDEX LAE catalog sample. Data access and details about the catalog can be found online at http://hetdex.org/. A copy of the catalogs presented in this work (Version 3.2) is available to download at Zenodo doi:10.5281/zenodo.7448504.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2024

UPCluster-SZ: The Updated Catalog of Galaxy Clusters from the List of Planck Sunyaev–Zel’dovich Sources

Abstract We present the updated galaxy cluster catalog of the second Planck catalog of Sunyaev–Zel’dovich sources (PSZ2) through the compilation of the data for clusters and galaxies with spectroscopically measured redshifts in the literature. The original version of PSZ2 comprises 1653 Sunyaev–Zel’dovich (SZ) sources, of which 1203 have been validated as genuine galaxy clusters, while the remaining 450 sources are yet to be validated. To increase the number of genuine clusters in PSZ2, we first update the validations of the cluster candidates and their redshift information using the data compiled for the confirmed clusters and the member galaxies in the literature. We then use the galaxy redshift data in the fields of the remaining cluster candidates by searching for possible member galaxies with measured spectroscopic redshifts around the SZ centroids. In this search process, we classify clusters as strong candidates if they contain more than nine galaxies within a 4500 km s −1 velocity range and within 15′ around the SZ centroids. This process results in the validation of 139 new genuine clusters, the update of redshift information on 399 clusters, and the identification of 10 strong candidates, which increases the number of validated clusters up to 1334 among the 1653 SZ sources. Our updated galaxy cluster catalog will be very useful for studies of galaxy formation and cosmology through a combination with other all-sky surveys including the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer and SPHEREx.

Astronomy & Astrophysics↗
NASA NTRS1988

The stellar composition of X-ray surveys from the Einstein Observatory

A new class of X-ray-luminous 'yellow' stellar objects which contributes significantly to the stellar log N-log S distribution, but which cannot be reconciled with normal G and K main-sequence stars. This identification results from a new analysis of the stellar content of three samples of X-ray-selected X-ray sources observed with the Einstein Observatory, namely the 'Medium Sensitivity Survey', the 'High Sensitivity Survey', and the 'Hyades Region Survey'. In this paper, both X-ray and optical properties of the stellar samples in these surveys are reported. The actual stellar content of the surveys is compared with predictions based on current knowledge of stellar X-ray luminosity functions and the stellar composition and spatial distribution in the Galaxy. It is shown that a plausible identification for the excess population of 'yellow' stars is with the active, RS CVn-like binaries.

Favata, F.↗
DOE OSTI2017

Carbon footprint as an environmental sustainability indicator for the particleboard produced in Pakistan

This study quantified the carbon footprint of particleboard production in Pakistan using a cradle-to-gate life cycle assessment approach. The system boundary comprised raw materials acquisition, transport, particleboard manufacture and finished product distribution. Primary data were collected through surveys and meetings with particleboard manufacturers. Secondary data were taken from the literature. Greenhouse gas emissions from off-site industrial operations of the particleboard industry represented 52% of the total emissions from the production of 1.0 m{sup 3} of particleboard in Pakistan. The on-site industrial operations cause direct greenhouse gas emissions and accounted for 48% of the total emissions. These operations included energy consumption in stationary sources, the company-owned vehicle fleet, and the distribution and marketing of the finished product. The use of natural gas combustion in the stationary and mobile sources, raw material transport and urea-formaldehyde resin production chain accounted for the highest emissions from the particleboard production chain in Pakistan. The identification of the major hotspots in the particleboard production chain can assist the wood panel industry to improve their environmental profile. More efforts are needed to investigate the urea-formaldehyde resin production chain and substitution of roundwood with wood and agri-residues to assess the potential improvements. In addition, renewable energy sources should be encouraged to avoid greenhouse gas emissions by substituting fossil energy. This study also provides a benchmark for future research work to formulate comprehensive greenhouse gas emissions reduction plans, because no previous research work is available on the carbon footprint of particleboard production in Pakistan. - Highlights: • We conducted the first carbon footprint assessment of particleboard produced in Pakistan. • System boundary comprised raw materials acquisition, particleboard manufacture and distribution. • Off-site industrial operations were accounted for highest emissions (52%) followed by on-site operations (48%). • Natural gas, materials transport and UF resin use accounted for highest emissions. • Identified potential strategies for GHG emissions reductions from PB production in Pakistan.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2011

Simulating NMIS Imaging and Fission-Mapping Measurements

The Nuclear Materials Identification System (NMIS) detects and characterizes fissile and nonfissile materials using time correlations between a time-tagged source and one or more detectors. The first fieldable configuration of dedicated hardware and software was developed in the 1990s. In its original configuration, the measurement system consisted of a time-tagged source and two to four detectors. Measurements with this configuration were easily simulated using a single Monte Carlo run. The present measurement configuration is far more complex than the original. The source is now divided into multiple neutron cones; significantly more detectors are included; and the source, detectors, and object being interrogated can all be moved during the measurement to capture different views of the object. In addition to the hardware changes, the software can now reconstruct high-resolution tomographs of the 14 MeV neutron attenuation coefficients and fission sites inside the object. This work shows how a complex measurement of an object that consists of both fissile and nonfissile parts can be simulated by using multiple input decks and combining the resulting output into the desired format. The results of this simulation were then reconstructed using the imaging and fission-mapping software used with measurements. These reconstructions are consistent with the original model, thus validating the simulation method.

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗
DOE OSTI2018

Measurement of neutron and gamma-ray cross-correlation functions with 4 He detectors

For the first time, the neutron and gamma-ray time-dependent cross-correlation distributions from spontaneous fission and (α, n) neutron sources are measured with the 4 He fast neutron detectors. The pulse shape discrimination technique based on charge comparison is utilized to discriminate between neutrons and gamma-rays in the identification of the four possible correlated pairs: (γ, γ), (n, n), (γ, n), and (n, n). Both total and individual cross-correlation functions are obtained, and their shapes can be easily distinguished among different neutron sources. The (n, n) and (γ, n) correlations are selectively analyzed and the peak position of the (n, n) and (γ, n) pairs shows a linear correlation with source-detector distance. Here, the measurements illustrate the feasibility of using 4 He detectors to identify nuclear materials and their geometrical configurations, as well as other applications in nuclear nonproliferation and safeguards. In particular, the (n, n) correlated data can be very clearly assayed even in the presence of significant gamma fields without the use of shielding.

38 RADIATION CHEMISTRY, RADIOCHEMISTRY, AND NUCLEA↗
DOE OSTI2019

Polarized Radar for Detection and Automatic Non-Visual Assessment of Unmanned Aerial Systems

This Laboratory Directed Research and Development (LDRD) effort performed fundamental Research and Development (R&D) to develop a robust radar processing algorithm capable of assessing the difference between an Unmanned Aerial System (UAS) and a biological target such as a bird, based on mathematics applied to the polarized radar returns of the target object, alone. The current threats of using such a UAS as a delivery platform for a host of destructive components is a major concern for the protection of various assets. Most recently, on 14th Sept. 2019, dozens of suicide or kamikaze drones (UAV-X) coordinated an attack on two Saudi oil facilities that demonstrated the potential to disrupt global oil supplies. While radar-based UAS detection systems can detect UAS at ranges greater than 1-km, the issues of excessive Nuisance/False Alarm Rates (NAR/FAR) from natural sources (birds in particular) has not been sufficiently addressed. In this effort we describe and utilize the Adaptive Polarization Difference Imaging-based (APDI) algorithms for the detection and automatic non-visual assessment of Unmanned Aerial System applications. Originally developed for optical imaging and sensing of polarization information in nature, the algorithms developed here are modified to serve for the target detection purposes in counter-UAS (cUAS) environments. We exploit the polarization statistics of the observing scene for detection and identification of changes within the scene and assess from these changes for UAS/bird classifications. Several cases are considered from independent data sources, including numerically generated data, anechoic chamber data as well as experimental radar data, to show the applicability of the techniques developed here. The methods developed in this effort are designed to be used in cUAS setups but have shown promise for a multitude of other radar-based classification uses as well.

47 OTHER INSTRUMENTATION↗
NASA NTRS1991

Compton backscattered 511 keV annihilation line emission and the 170 keV line from the Galactic center direction

It is shown that Compton scattering of 511 keV electron-positron annihilation radiation produces a linelike reflection feature at 170 keV from backscattered photons. Assuming simple models of clouds and accretion disks around a compact source, the paper explores the spectrum of Compton-scattered annihilation line emission for a range of geometries, opacities, and observing angles, and finds that the linelike feature is produced under a wide variety of conditions. It is further shown that such Compton backscattering of slightly redshifted annihilation line emission from the inner edge of an accretion disk could account for the 170 keV line emission and higher energy continuum observed together with the 511 keV annihilation radiation from the direction of the Galactic center. Identification of the observed 170 keV line as a slightly redshifted annihilation line reflection feature provides strong new evidence that the source of this emission is a compact object surrounded by a disk of presumably accreting matter.

Lingenfelter, Richard E.↗