adsabs/SciX_UAT_keywords huggingface dataset:
Flickering Returns as RS Oph Reestablishes Quiescent Conditions Following its 2021 Nova Outburst

RS Oph has persistently displayed flickering at optical wavelengths when observed away from its repeating nova outbursts. During the 2006 eruption the flickering disappeared, and this repeated during the recent 2021 event. We have been monitoring RS Oph looking for the reappearance of flickering at B-band following the 2021 outburst. The flickering was still absent (σ(B) < 0.002 mag) on day +210 (counted from nova optical maximum), appeared at σ(B) = 0.008 mag on day +224, and raised to σ(B) = 0.029 mag on day +250. On following dates the amplitude remained large, although fluctuating. The recovery of B-band quiescence brightness by RS Oph begun around day +225 and was completed by day +260. The parallel patterns followed by the rise in system brightness and the reappearance of flickering confirm the central role played in RS Oph by the return to pre-outburst conditions of the accretion disk and the refilling by the RG wind of the immediate circumstellar space.

Keywords: recurrent novae; symbiotic binary stars; stellar accretion disks; time series analysis
Revealing the Mysteries of Venus: The DAVINCI Mission

The Deep Atmosphere Venus Investigation of Noble gases, Chemistry, and Imaging (DAVINCI) mission described herein has been selected for flight to Venus as part of the NASA Discovery Program. DAVINCI will be the first mission to Venus to incorporate science-driven flybys and an instrumented descent sphere into a unified architecture. The anticipated scientific outcome will be a new understanding of the atmosphere, surface, and evolutionary path of Venus as a possibly once-habitable planet and analog to hot terrestrial exoplanets. The primary mission design for DAVINCI as selected features a preferred launch in summer/fall 2029, two flybys in 2030, and descent-sphere atmospheric entry by the end of 2031. The in situ atmospheric descent phase subsequently delivers definitive chemical and isotopic composition of the Venus atmosphere during an atmospheric transect above Alpha Regio. These in situ investigations of the atmosphere and near-infrared (NIR) descent imaging of the surface will complement remote flyby observations of the dynamic atmosphere, cloud deck, and surface NIR emissivity. The overall mission yield will be at least 60 Gbits (compressed) new data about the atmosphere and near surface, as well as the first unique characterization of the deep atmosphere environment and chemistry, including trace gases, key stable isotopes, oxygen fugacity, constraints on local rock compositions, and topography of a tessera.

Keywords: venus; planetary science; planetary probes; flyby missions; planetary atmospheres; planetary surfaces
X-Ray Morphology Due to Charge-exchange Emissions Used to Study the Global Structure around Mars

Soft X-ray emissions induced by solar wind ions that collide with neutral material in the solar system have been detected around planets, and were proposed as a remote probe for solar wind interaction with the Martian exosphere. A multi-fluid three-dimensional magnetohydrodynamic model is adopted to derive the global distributions of solar wind particles. Spherically symmetric exospheric H, H2, He, O, and CO2 density profiles and a sophisticated hybrid model that includes charge-exchange and proton-neutral excitation processes are used to study the low triplet line ratio $G=\tfrac{i+f}{r}$ (0.77 ± 0.58) of O VII and the total X-ray luminosity around Mars. We further calculate the emission factor α-value with different neutrals over wide ion-abundance and velocity ranges. Our results are in good agreement with those of previous reports. The evolution of the charge stage of solar wind ions shows that sequential recombination due to charge-exchange can be negligible in the interaction region. This only appears below an altitude of 400 km. The anonymous low disk G-ratio can be easily explained by the collisional quenching effect at neutral densities higher than 1011 cm-3. However, the quenching contribution is small in Mars' exosphere and only appears below 400 km. Charge-exchange with H2 and N2 is still the most likely reason for this low G-ratio. X-ray emissivity maps in collisions with different neutrals differ from each other. A clear bow shock arising from the collision with all the neutrals is in accordance with previous reports. The resulting total X-ray luminosity of 6.55 MW shows better agreement with the XMM-Newton observation of 12.8 ± 1.4 MW than that of previous predictions.

Keywords: mars; atomic spectroscopy; solar x-ray emission; atomic physics
JWST Reveals Widespread CO Ice and Gas Absorption in the Galactic Center Cloud G0.253+0.016

We report JWST NIRCam observations of G0.253+0.016, the molecular cloud in the Central Molecular Zone known as "The Brick," with the F182M, F187N, F212N, F410M, F405N, and F466N filters. We catalog 56,146 stars detected in all six filters using the crowdsource package. Stars within and behind The Brick exhibit prodigious absorption in the F466N filter that is produced by a combination of CO ice and gas. In support of this conclusion, and as a general resource, we present models of CO gas and ice and CO2 ice in the F466N, F470N, and F410M filters. Both CO gas and ice contribute to the observed stellar colors. We show, however, that CO gas does not absorb the Pfβ and Huϵ lines in F466N, but that these lines show excess absorption, indicating that CO ice is present and contributes to observed F466N absorption. The most strongly absorbed stars in F466N are extincted by ~2 mag, corresponding to >80% flux loss. This high observed absorption requires very high column densities of CO, and thus a total CO column that is in tension with standard CO abundance and/or gas-to-dust ratios. This result suggests the CO/H2 ratio and dust-to-gas ratio are greater in the Galactic Center than in the Galactic disk. Ice and/or gas absorption is observed even in the cloud outskirts, implying that additional caution is needed when interpreting stellar photometry in filters that overlap with ice bands throughout galactic centers.

Keywords: infrared dark clouds; ice composition
Testing Progenitor Models using the Late-time Light Curve of Supernova 1992A

The dominant radioactive energy source powering SN Ia light curves is expected to switch from the decay of 56Co to 57Co at very late epochs. We use archival Hubble Space Telescope images of SN1992A obtained more than 900 days after explosion to constrain its cobalt isotopic abundance ratio and compare it to the well-studied event SN2011fe. We confirm the 57Co/56Co ratio for SN2011fe of 0.026 ± 0.004 found by Shappee et al., consistent with a "double degenerate" progenitor scenario. For SN1992A, we find a ratio of 0.034 ± 0.010, but the large uncertainty does not allow us to differentiate between progenitor models.

Keywords: type ia supernovae; supernovae; explosive nucleosynthesis; light curves
On the Origins of Extreme Velocity Stars as Revealed by Large-scale Galactic Surveys

We assemble a large sample of 12,784 high-velocity stars with total velocity V GSR ≥ 300 km s-1, selected from RAVE DR5, SDSS DR12, LAMOST DR8, APOGEE DR16, GALAH DR2, and Gaia EDR3. In this sample, 52 are marginally hypervelocity star (HVS) candidates that have V GSR exceeding their local escape velocities within 2σ confidence levels, 40 of which are discovered for the first time. All of the candidates are metal-poor, late-type halo stars, which are significantly different from the previously identified HVSs, which are largely massive early-type stars, discovered by extreme radial velocity. This finding suggests that our newly identified HVS candidates are ejected by different mechanisms from the previous population. To investigate their origins, for 547 extreme velocity stars with V GSR ≥ 0.8V esc, we reconstruct their backward-integrated trajectories in the Galactic potential. According to the orbital analysis, no candidates are found to be definitely ejected from the Galactic-center (GC), while eight metal-poor extreme velocity stars are found to have a closest distance to the GC within 1 kpc. Intriguingly, 15 extreme velocity stars (including 2 HVS candidates) are found to have experienced close encounters with the Sagittarius dSph, suggesting that they originated from this dSph. This hypothesis is supported by an analysis of the [α/Fe]-[Fe/H] diagram. From a preliminary analysis of all of the 547 extreme velocity stars, we propose a general picture-star ejection from Galactic subsystems such as dwarf galaxies and globular clusters can be an important channel to produce extreme velocity stars or even HVSs, particularly the metal-poor late-type halo population.

Keywords: hypervelocity stars; black holes; sagittarius dwarf spheroidal galaxy; galaxy kinematics; galaxy dynamics
First Optical Constants of Laboratory-generated Organic Refractory Materials (Tholins) Produced in the NASA Ames COSmIC Facility from the Visible to the Near Infrared (0.4-1.6 μm): Application to Titan's Aerosols

We have measured the complex refractive indices, from 0.4 to 1.6 μm, of five laboratory-generated organic refractory materials (tholins) produced at low temperature (150 K) using plasma chemistry in the stream of a supersonic expansion in NASA Ames' COsmic SImulation Chamber (COSmIC) facility. Three samples were produced from N2:CH4 gas precursors (with different voltages inducing different degrees of ionization in the plasma), one sample was produced from N2:CH4:C2H2, and one sample was produced from Ar:CH4 in order to produce a purely carbonaceous sample. The optical constants, n and k, of the samples were determined using spectral reflectance measurements. We observe that both n and k appear to be correlated with the nitrogen content in the solid sample, with samples containing more nitrogen having higher n and k. Comparisons to previous laboratory studies and Titan aerosol optical constants derived from observations show that the COSmIC tholins with a higher nitrogen content (higher n and k) are closer analogs of Titan aerosols. We also present a new analysis of Cassini Visible Infrared Mapping Spectrometer observations of Titan's atmosphere in the visible to near infrared using the COSmIC tholin optical constants in a radiative transfer model. The COSmIC tholin sample produced from N2:CH4 with the lowest energy level has a spectral behavior that appears well suited to reproduce the observed Titan aerosol properties. This study has therefore demonstrated that this COSmIC tholin sample has valuable and promising optical properties for the analysis of Cassini's Titan atmospheric observations.

Keywords: laboratory astrophysics; experimental data; titan; optical constants (dust); optical observation; near infrared astronomy
Inverse First Ionization Potential Effects in Giant Solar Flares Found from Earth X-Ray Albedo with Suzaku/XIS

We report X-ray spectroscopic results for four giant solar flares that occurred on 2005 September 7 (X17.0), 2005 September 8 (X5.4), 2005 September 9 (X6.2), and 2006 December 5 (X9.0), obtained from Earth albedo data with the X-ray Imaging Spectrometer (XIS) on board Suzaku. The good energy resolution of the XIS (FWHM ∼ 100 eV) enables us to separate a number of line-like features and detect the underlying continuum emission. These features include Si Heα, Si Lyα, S Heα, S Lyα, Ar Heα, and Ca Heα originating from solar flares as well as fluorescent Ar Kα and Ar Kβ from the Earth's atmosphere. Absolute elemental abundances (X/H) averaged over the four flares are obtained to be ∼2.0 (Ca), ∼0.7 (Si), ∼0.3 (S), and ∼0.9 (Ar) at around flare peaks. This abundance pattern is similar to those of active stars' coronae showing inverse first ionization potential (I-FIP) effects, I.e., elemental abundances decrease with decreasing FIP with a turnover at the low end of the FIP. The abundances are almost constant during the flares, with the exception of Si which increases by a factor of ∼2 in the decay phase. The evolution of the Si abundance is consistent with the finding that the I-FIP plasma originates from chromospheric evaporation and then mixes with the surrounding low-FIP biased materials. Flare-to-flare abundance varied by a factor of two, agreeing with past observations of solar flares. Finally, we emphasize that Earth albedo data acquired by X-ray astronomy satellites like Suzaku and the X-Ray Imaging Spectroscopy Mission can significantly contribute to studies of solar physics.

Keywords: solar abundances; solar flares; solar corona; solar x-ray emission; solar x-ray flares
Prototype Faraday Rotation Measure Catalogs from the Polarisation Sky Survey of the Universe's Magnetism (POSSUM) Pilot Observations

The Polarisation Sky Survey of the Universe's Magnetism (POSSUM) will conduct a sensitive ∼1 GHz radio polarization survey covering 20,000 deg2 of the southern sky with the Australian Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder. In anticipation of the full survey, we analyze pilot observations of low-band (800–1087 MHz), mid-band (1316–1439 MHz), and combined-band observations for an extragalactic field and a Galactic plane field (low-band only). Using the POSSUM processing pipeline, we produce prototype rotation measure (RM) catalogs that are filtered to construct prototype RM grids. We assess typical RM grid densities and RM uncertainties and their dependence on frequency, bandwidth, and Galactic latitude. We present a median filter method for separating foreground diffuse emission from background components and find that after application of the filter, 99.5% of the measured RMs of simulated sources are within 3σ of their true RM, with a typical loss of polarized intensity of 5% ± 5%. We find RM grid densities of 35.1, 30.6, 37.2, and 13.5 RMs per square degree and median uncertainties on RM measurements of 1.55, 12.82, 1.06, and 1.89 rad m‑2 for the median-filtered low-band, mid-band, combined-band, and Galactic observations, respectively. We estimate that the full POSSUM survey will produce an RM catalog of ∼775,000 RMs with median-filtered low-band observations and ∼877,000 RMs with median-filtered combined-band observations. We construct a structure function from the Galactic RM catalog, which shows a break at 0.°7, corresponding to a physical scale of 12–24 pc for the nearest spiral arm.

Keywords: sky surveys; catalogs; spectropolarimetry; polarimetry; astrophysical magnetism; galaxy magnetic fields; extragalactic magnetic fields
Rotation of Two Micron All Sky Survey Clumps in Molecular Clouds

We have analyzed the rotational properties of 12 clumps using 13CO (1-0) and C18O (1-0) maps of the Five College Radio Astronomy Observatory 13.7 m radio telescope. The clumps, located within molecular clouds, have radii (R) in the range of 0.06-0.27 pc. The direction of clump elongation is not correlated with the direction of the velocity gradient. We measured the specific angular momentum (J/M) to be between 0.0022-0.025 pc km s-1 based on 13CO images, and between 0.0025-0.021 pc km s-1 based on C18O images. The consistency of J/M based on different tracers indicates the 13CO and C18O in dense clumps trace essentially the same material despite significantly different opacities. We also found that J/M increases monotonically as a function of R in power-law form, $J/M\,\propto \,{R}^{1.58\pm 0.11}$ . The ratio between rotation energy and gravitational energy, β, ranges from 0.0012 to 0.018. The small values of β imply that rotation alone is not sufficient to support the clump against gravitational collapse.

Keywords: interstellar medium; interstellar dynamics; interstellar molecules; intercloud medium; interstellar emissions
Type Ia Supernova Progenitor Properties and their Host Galaxies

We present an eigenfunction method to analyze 161 visual light curves (LCs) of Type Ia supernovae (SNe Ia) obtained by the Carnegie Supernova Project to characterize their diversity and host-galaxy correlations. The eigenfunctions are based on the delayed-detonation (DD) scenario using three parameters: the LC stretch s determined by the amount of deflagration burning governing the 56Ni production, the main-sequence mass M MS of the progenitor white dwarf controlling the explosion energy, and its central density ρ c shifting the 56Ni distribution. Our analysis tool (Supernova Parameter Analysis Tool) extracts the parameters from observations and projects them into physical space using their allowed ranges (M MS ≤ 8 M ⊙, ρ c ≤ 7–8 × 109 g cm‑3). The residuals between fits and individual LC points are ≈1%–3% for ≈92% of objects. We find two distinct M MS groups corresponding to a fast (≈4–65 Myr) and a slow(≈200–500 Myr) stellar evolution. Most underluminous SNe Ia have hosts with low star formation but high M MS, suggesting slow evolution times of the progenitor system. 91T-like SNe show very similar LCs and high M MS and are correlated to star formation regions, making them potentially important tracers of star formation in the early Universe out to z ≈ 4–11. Some ∼6% outliers with nonphysical parameters using DD scenarios can be attributed to superluminous SNe Ia and subluminous SNe Ia with hosts of active star formation. For deciphering the SNe Ia diversity and high-precision SNe Ia cosmology, the importance is shown for LCs covering out to ≈60 days past maximum. Finally, our method and results are discussed within the framework of multiple explosion scenarios, and in light of upcoming surveys.

Keywords: type ia supernovae
A Disk-driven Resonance as the Origin of High Inclinations of Close-in Planets

The recent characterization of transiting close-in planets has revealed an intriguing population of sub-Neptunes with highly tilted and even polar orbits relative to their host star's equator. Any viable theory for the origin of these close-in, polar planets must explain (1) the observed stellar obliquities, (2) the substantial eccentricities, and (3) the existence of Jovian companions with large mutual inclinations. In this work, we propose a theoretical model that satisfies these requirements without invoking tidal dissipation or large primordial inclinations. Instead, tilting is facilitated by the protoplanetary disk dispersal during the late stage of planet formation, initiating a process of resonance sweeping and parametric instability. This mechanism consists of two steps. First, a nodal secular resonance excites the inclination to large values; then, once the inclination reaches a critical value, a linear eccentric instability is triggered, which detunes the resonance and ends inclination growth. The critical inclination is pushed to high values by general relativistic precession, making polar orbits an inherently post-Newtonian outcome. Our model predicts that polar, close-in sub-Neptunes coexist with cold Jupiters in low stellar obliquity orbits.

Keywords: exoplanet dynamics; exoplanet evolution; exoplanet formation; protoplanetary disks
A Novel Machine Learning Approach to Disentangle Multitemperature Regions in Galaxy Clusters

The hot intracluster medium (ICM) surrounding the heart of galaxy clusters is a complex medium that comprises various emitting components. Although previous studies of nearby galaxy clusters, such as the Perseus, the Coma, or the Virgo cluster, have demonstrated the need for multiple thermal components when spectroscopically fitting the ICM's X-ray emission, no systematic methodology for calculating the number of underlying components currently exists. In turn, underestimating or overestimating the number of components can cause systematic errors in the emission parameter estimations. In this paper, we present a novel approach to determining the number of components using an amalgam of machine learning techniques. Synthetic spectra containing a various number of underlying thermal components were created using well-established tools available from the Chandra X-ray Observatory. The dimensions of the training set was initially reduced using principal component analysis and then categorized based on the number of underlying components using a random forest classifier. Our trained and tested algorithm was subsequently applied to Chandra X-ray observations of the Perseus cluster. Our results demonstrate that machine learning techniques can efficiently and reliably estimate the number of underlying thermal components in the spectra of galaxy clusters, regardless of the thermal model (MEKAL versus APEC). We also confirm that the core of the Perseus cluster contains a mix of differing underlying thermal components. We emphasize that although this methodology was trained and applied on Chandra X-ray observations, it is readily portable to other current (e.g., XMM-Newton, eROSITA) and upcoming (e.g., Athena, Lynx, XRISM) X-ray telescopes. The code is publicly available at https://github.com/XtraAstronomy/Pumpkin.

Keywords: principal component analysis; random forests; classification; x-ray astronomy; galaxy clusters
The Discrepancy between Observed and Predicted Heliospheric Energetic Neutral Atoms below Solar Wind Energy

Measuring energetic neutral atoms (ENAs) allows for the remote observation of ion populations from the frontiers of our heliosphere. In this study, we compare the ENAs observed with the IBEX-Lo instrument onboard the Interstellar Boundary Explorer with ENA predictions from two heliosphere models. In contrast to previous studies, this paper presents model-data comparisons for the energy range 50 eV-2 keV over one full solar cycle not only in the upwind direction (Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 sky directions), but also for the north pole, south pole, port tail lobe, and downwind directions. The two heliosphere models produce the same basic result: there is a large gap (1 to 2 orders of magnitude in ENA intensity at 100 eV) between ENA data and model predictions between 100 and 500 eV for all sky directions. The reason for this gap is not understood yet. While some explanations are plausible and will be investigated in future studies, other explanations are excluded.

Keywords: heliosphere; interstellar medium; space plasmas; heliosheath
COCONUT, a Novel Fast-converging MHD Model for Solar Corona Simulations: I. Benchmarking and Optimization of Polytropic Solutions

We present a novel global 3D coronal MHD model called COCONUT, polytropic in its first stage and based on a time-implicit backward Euler scheme. Our model boosts run-time performance in comparison with contemporary MHD-solvers based on explicit schemes, which is particularly important when later employed in an operational setting for space-weather forecasting. It is data-driven in the sense that we use synoptic maps as inner boundary inputs for our potential-field initialization as well as an inner boundary condition in the further MHD time evolution. The coronal model is developed as part of the EUropean Heliospheric FORecasting Information Asset (EUHFORIA) and will replace the currently employed, more simplistic, empirical Wang-Sheeley-Arge (WSA) model. At 21.5 R ⊙ where the solar wind is already supersonic, it is coupled to EUHFORIA's heliospheric model. We validate and benchmark our coronal simulation results with the explicit-scheme Wind-Predict model and find good agreement for idealized limit cases as well as real magnetograms, while obtaining a computational time reduction of up to a factor 3 for simple idealized cases, and up to 35 for realistic configurations, and we demonstrate that the time gained increases with the spatial resolution of the input synoptic map. We also use observations to constrain the model and show that it recovers relevant features such as the position and shape of the streamers (by comparison with eclipse white-light images), the coronal holes (by comparison with EUV images), and the current sheet (by comparison with WSA model at 0.1 au).

Keywords: solar corona; magnetohydrodynamics; space weather; solar wind