Suchergebnisse

Support for this work was provided by the NASA Solar System Observations program (80NSSC20K0673), the Space Telescope Science Institute (HST-GO-15372), the National Science Foundation (PHY-2010970), the National Research Foundation (NRF; No. 2019R1I1A1A01059609), the MINEDUC-UA project ESR1795, the European Union H2020-MSCA-ITN-2019 under Grant no. 860470 (CHAMELEON), and by the Novo Nordisk Foundation Interdisciplinary Synergy Program (NNF19OC0057374). ; Cometary activity is a manifestation of sublimation-driven processes atthe surface of nuclei. However, cometary outbursts may arise from other processes that are not necessarily driven by volatiles. In order to fully understand nuclear surfaces and their evolution, we must identify the causes of cometary outbursts. In that context, we present a study of mini-outbursts of comet 46P/Wirtanen. Six events are found in our long-term lightcurve of the comet around its perihelion passage in 2018. The apparent strengths range from -0.2 to -1.6 mag in a 5" radius aperture, and correspond to dust masses between ∼104 to 106 kg, but with large uncertainties due to the unknown grain size distributions. However, the nominal mass estimates are the same order of magnitude as the mini-outbursts at comet 9P/Tempel 1 and 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, events which were notably lacking at comet 103P/Hartley 2. We compare the frequency of outbursts at the four comets, and suggest that the surface of 46P has large-scale (∼10-100 m) roughness that is intermediate to that of 67P and 103P, if not similar to the latter. The strength of the outbursts appear to be correlated with time since the last event, but a physical interpretation with respect to solar insolation is lacking. We also examine Hubble Space Telescope images taken about 2 days following a near-perihelion outburst. No evidence for macroscopic ejecta was found in the image, with a limiting radius of about 2 m. ; Publisher PDF ; Peer reviewed

We report the discovery and monitoring of the near-infrared counterpart (AT2017gfo) of a binary neutron-star merger event detected as a gravitational wave source by Advanced Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory (LIGO)/Virgo (GW170817) and as a short gamma-ray burst by Fermi Gamma-ray Burst Monitor (GBM) and Integral SPI-ACS (GRB 170817A). The evolution of the transient light is consistent with predictions for the behavior of a "kilonova/macronova" powered by the radioactive decay of massive neutron-rich nuclides created via r-process nucleosynthesis in the neutron-star ejecta. In particular, evidence for this scenario is found from broad features seen in Hubble Space Telescope infrared spectroscopy, similar to those predicted for lanthanide-dominated ejecta, and the much slower evolution in the near-infrared ${K}_{{\rm{s}}}$-band compared to the optical. This indicates that the late-time light is dominated by high-opacity lanthanide-rich ejecta, suggesting nucleosynthesis to the third r-process peak (atomic masses $A\approx 195$). This discovery confirms that neutron-star mergers produce kilo-/macronovae and that they are at least a major—if not the dominant—site of rapid neutron capture nucleosynthesis in the universe. ; HST observations were obtained using programs GO 14771 (PI: Tanvir), GO 14804 (PI: Levan), and GO 14850 (PI: Troja). VLT observations were obtained using programs 099.D-0688, 099.D-0116, and 099.D-0622. N.R.T., K.W., P.T.O., J.L.O., and S.R. acknowledge support from STFC. A.J.L., D.S., and J.D.L. acknowledge support from STFC via grant ST/P000495/1. N.R.T. and A.J.L. have received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union's Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme (grant agreement No. 725246, TEDE, Levan). Ad.U.P., C.T., Z.C., and D.A.K. acknowledge support from the Spanish project AYA 2014-58381-P. Z.C. also acknowledges support from the Juan de la Cierva Incorporacion fellowship IJCI-2014-21669, and D.A.K. from Juan de la Cierva Incorporacion fellowship IJCI-2015-26153. J.H. is supported by a VILLUM FONDEN Investigator grant (project number 16599). P.D.A., S.C., and A.M. acknowledge support from the ASI grant I/004/11/3. S.R. has been supported by the Swedish Research Council (VR) under grant No. 2016-03657_3, by the Swedish National Space Board under grant No. Dnr. 107/16, and by the research environment grant "Gravitational Radiation and Electromagnetic Astrophysical Transients (GREAT)" funded by the Swedish Research council (VR) under Dnr 2016-06012. P.A.E. acknowledges UKSA support. The VISTA observations were processed by C.G.F. at the Cambridge Astronomy Survey Unit (CASU), which is funded by the UK Science and Technology Research Council under grant ST/N005805/1. This research used resources provided by the Los Alamos National Laboratory Institutional Computing Program, which is supported by the U.S. Department of Energy National Nuclear Security Administration under contract No. DE-AC52-06NA25396. Based on observations made with the Nordic Optical Telescope (program 55-013, PI Pian), operated by the Nordic Optical Telescope Scientific Association at the Observatorio del Roque de los Muchachos, La Palma, Spain, of the Instituto de Astrofisica de Canarias. ; Peer Reviewed