The universe at faint magnitudes. I - Models for the galaxy and the predicted star counts
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The history of NACA and NASA from 1915 to 1980 is narrated. The impact of two world wars on aeronautics is reviewed. Research activity before and during World War II is presented. Postwar exploitation of new technologies is summarized. The creation of NASA and a comprehensive space program is discussed. Long range planning for a lunar mission is described. The Gemini project is reviewed. The Apollo project and side effects includng NASA's university and technology transfer programs are presented. Numerous scientific and application satellite projects are reviewed. The impact of budget reductions is explained. The value of space exploration is emphasized. Development of the Space Shuttle is reported.
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The way in which the luminosity of brightest cluster galaxy varies with cluster parameters is investigated in a sample of 84 Abell clusters of moderate redshift and of richness classes in the zero-to-5 range. A photometric system is used which is well matched with the low noise CCD detector employed, as well as to the arrangement of galaxies with different redshifts on a standard system. The data, together with measurements from earlier work which forms a low redshift sample of the 199 brightest cluster galaxies, confirm that the luminosity dispersion in first-rank cluster galaxies is about 0.34 mag. The colors of giant ellipticals have not changed since redshifts of 0.25, and the richness correction is well established at 0.10 mag/Abell richness class. Application of these corrections reduces the luminosity dispersion to 0.29 mag.
A new medium-bright quasar sample (MBQS) is constructed from spectroscopic observations of 140 bright objects selected for varying degrees of blue and ultraviolet excess (B-UVX) in five Palomar 1.2 m Schmidt fields. The MBQS contains 32 quasars with B less than 17.65 mag. The new integral surface densities in the B range from 16.45 to 17.65 mag are approximately 40 percent (or more) higher than expected. The MBQS and its redshift distribution increase the area of the Hubble diagram covered by complete samples of quasars. The general spectroscopic results indicate that the three-color classification process used to catalog the spectroscopic candidates (1) has efficiently separated the intrinsically B-UVX stellar objects from the Population II subdwarfs and (2) has produced samples of B-UVX objects which are more complete than samples selected by (U - B) color alone.
Measurements have been made of the chemisorption-induced resistance change for H2 adsorbed onto Fe film substrates predosed with fixed coverages of chemisorbed oxygen. The measurements were made at temperatures from 295 to 340 K and for estimated oxygen coverages of less than 0.1 monolayers. Two distinct resistance change components were observed in both the adsorption kinetics and the equilibrium isotherms: a positive component which is associated with the adsorption of H2 onto a clean Fe surface, and a negative component which was correlated with the presence of the chemisorbed oxygen. The resistance change isotherms can be fit with a model which assumes that each of the resistance change components result from dissociative chemisorbed hydrogen. Possible mechanisms for the chemisorbed-oxygen-induced negative resistance change are discussed.
In pitch based carbon fibers at low temperatures, simultaneous presence of a negative magnetoresistance and the Shubnikov-deHaas effect are found. The strengths of these effects correlate inversely. These results can be understood in terms of the amount of order vs disorder in the fiber, as described by Guigon and Oberlin from structural studies.
It is demonstrated that there are distinct differences in the electron precipitation patterns (or the polar cap size), geomagnetic activity, and field-aligned currents in the highest-latitude region for small and large IMF B(z) values when the IMF B(z) component is positive. First, during periods of weakly northward IMF, there is a distinct area in the highest-latitude region in which the electron precipitation is absent except for the polar rain. By contrast, during strongly northward IMF, the entire polar region is often filled with burst-type soft electron precipitations. Second, geomagnetic disturbances and field-aligned-current intensities in the highest-latitude region are less during a weak IMF B(z) condition than those during a strongly northward IMF B(z) condition. Geomagnetic activity in the auroral zone for both conditions is absent or very weak.
This edition brings up to date the history of U.S. agencies for space exploration, the NACA and NASA, from 1915 through 1990. Early aviation and aeronautics research are described, with particular emphasis on the impact of the two world wars on aeronautics development and the postwar exploitation of those technologies. The reorganization and expansion of the NACA into NASA is described in detail as well as NASA's relationship with industry, the university system, and international space agencies such as the ESA. The dramatic space race of the 1950 and 1960s is recounted through a detailed histroy of the Gemini and Apollo programs and followed by a discussion of the many valuable social/scientific application of aeronautics technologies, many of which were realized through the launching of successful satellite projects. The further solar system explorations of the Voyager missions are described, as it the Challenger tragedy and the 1988 return to space of the Shuttle program. Future plans are outlined for a cooperatively funded international space station to foster the ongoing study of space science.
Using energetic-particle data taken in the near-earth tail by the AMPTE/Charge Composition Explorer (CCE) satellite, 167 ion injection events, that were essentially dispersionless over a 25-285 keV energy range, were identified, and the variations in the total magnetic field strength over the course of these events were examined in order to determine the dependence of the magnetic field strength on dipole latitude. Results indicate that, during periods of substorm activity, the latitudinal position of the current sheet varied significantly within the 32-deg wedge centered on the dipole equator traversed by CCE. Results also suggest that, even in the near-earth magnetotail out to 8.8 R(E) (CCE apogee), the local field measurements are a better guide to the determination of satellite's position relative to the current shield during a substorm, than is the magnetic latitude.
Images taken by the earth observation satellite SPOT of the Quaternary morphology at 18 sites on the 2000-kilometer-long Altyn Tagh fault at the north edge of Tibet demonstrate that it is outstandingly active. Long-term, left-lateral strike-slip offsets of stream channels, alluvial terrace edges, and glacial moraines along the fault cluster between 100 and 400 meters. The high elevation of the sites, mostly above 4000 meters in the periglacial zone, suggests that most offsets resulted from slip on the fault since the beginning of the Holocene. These data imply that slip rates are 2 to 3 centimeters per year along much of the fault length and support the hypothesis that the continuing penetration of India into Asia forces Tibet rapidly toward the east.
Boundary layer similarity techniques are employed to specify the scale and intensity of a thermal perturbation used to initialize a cloud in a numerical cloud model. Techniques are outlined to specify the needed similarity variables from external information. Finally, the cloud model respone using the similarity scaled thermal is analyzed employing variations in the similarity variables giving an indication of the importance of the correct specification of the initiating thermal.
This paper presents a general framework for forecasting the smoothed maximum level of solar activity in a given cycle, based on a simple understanding of the solar dynamo. This type of forecasting requires knowledge of the sun's polar magnetic field strength at the preceding activity minimum. Because direct measurements of this quantity are difficult to obtain, the quality of a number of proxy indicators already used by other authors is evaluated, which are physically related to the sun's polar field. These indicators are subjected to a rigorous statistical analysis, and the analysis technique for each indicator is specified in detail in order to simplify and systematize reanalysis for future use. It is found that several of these proxies are in fact poorly correlated or uncorrelated with solar activity, and thus are of little value for predicting activity maxima. Also presented is a scheme in which the predictions of the individual proxies are combined via an appropriately weighted mean to produce a compound prediction. The scheme is then applied to the current cycle 22, and a maximum smoothed international sunspot number of 171 + or - 26 is estimated.
Observational data are presented in support of the hypothesis that background galaxy contamination is present in the photometric data of Ia supernovae and that this effect can account for the observed dispersion in the light curve speeds of most of Ia supernovae. The implication is that the observed dispersion in beta is artificial and that most of Ia supernovae have nearly homogeneous light curves. The result supports the notion that Ia supernovae are good standard candles.
All orders of scattering are analyzed for two artifical canopies. The SHL canopy consists of Small Horizontal Leaves that are much smaller than the leaf-to-leaf spacing. The IHL canopy consists of Infinite Horizontal Layers, where each leaf is of infinite extent (a horizontal plane). Hemispheric leaf reflectances and transmittances independent of the direction of illumination lead to exact solutions for these models. Sunlight that penetrates to a given leaf area index level is much stronger in an SHL canopy than that in IHL; but the difference becomes muted when leaf transmittance is large. Multiple scattering enhances the hemispheric canopy reflectance more strongly in SHL than it does in IHL. The enhancement depends linearly on leaf transmittance in SHL and on the transmittance squared in IHL. Comparison with measured reflectances indicates that IHL model grossly underestimates multiple scattering in soybean canopies.
The wind and constituent measurements from the polar aircraft data are used to compute the flux spectra. Although there is variation from flight to flight, the flux spectra generally fit a -2 to -1.5 power law as expected theoretically. This result suggests that tracer fluxes from small scale features do not substantially contribute to the overall tracer budget relative to the fluxes from the larger scales.
The relationship between the geosynchronous magnetic field variations during substorms measured by GOES 5 and the auroral electroject as measured by AE and Poste de la Baleine is examined. It is found that the more taillike the field prior to the local onset, the greater the dipolarization of the field during the substorm. The greater the deviation of the field from a dipolar configuration, the larger the change in AE during the event. It is inferred that stronger cross-tail currents prior to the substorm are associated with larger substorm-associated westward electrojets and thus more intense substorms. Since the westward electroject is the ionospheric leg of the substorm current wedge, it is inferred that the substorm-associated westward electrojet is drawn from the near-earth region. Most of the current diversion is found to occur in the near-earth magnetotail.