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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 55 records · Page 3
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRS1990

Modeling the ultraviolet photospheric spectrum of cool giant stars. I - Arcturus. II - Gamma Crucis

The UV photospheric spectra of cool giants are modeled analytically to facilitate the identification of UV spectral features and aid in the measurement of actual chromospheric flux at different wavelengths. Atomic line data derived experimentally and semiempirically are used with LTE model atmospheres by means of the SYNTHE FORTRAN code to generate the synthetic spectra. Surface flux spectra are determined and fitted to the absorption features of observed IUE high resolution spectra, and the modeled results are compared to the observed spectra of the cool giants Arcturus and the cooler Gamma Crucis. It is shown that the synthetic spectra can be produced for the stars, and chromospheric emission lines are thought to account for significant discrepancies between observed and calculated values. Two new fluorescence mechanisms are identified by modeling the ultraviolet photospheric spectrum of Gamma Crucis.

Carpenter, Kenneth G.↗
NASA NTRS1981

Evidence for extended chromospheres surrounding red giant stars

There is now an increasing amount of both observational evidence and theoretical arguments that regions of partially ionized hydrogen extending several stellar radii are an important feature of red giant and supergiant stars. This evidence is discussed and the implications of the existence of extended chromospheres in terms of the nature of the outer atmospheres of, and mass loss from, cool stars are examined.

Stencel, R. E.↗
NASA NTRS1985

Bipolar nebulae and mass loss from red giant stars

Observations of several bipolar nebulae are used to learn something of the nature of mass loss from the probable red-giant progenitors of these nebulae. Phenomena discussed are: (1) probable GL 2688's optical molecular emissions; (2) newly discovered very high velocity knots along the axis of OH 0739 - 14, which reveal evidence for mass ejections of + or 300 km/s from the M9 III star embedded in this nebula; (3) the bipolar structure of three extreme carbon stars, and the evidence for periodic mass ejection in IRC + 30219, also at high speed (about 80 km/s); and (4) the curious cool TiO-rich region above Parsamian 13, which may represent the very recent shedding of photospheric material from a cool, oxygen-rich giant. Several general key questions about bipolar nebulae that relate to the process of mass loss from their progenitor stars are raised.

Cohen, M.↗
NASA NTRS1982

Density sensitive C 2 lines in cool giant stars

The density sensitivity of the emission lines within the ultraviolet 0.01 multiplet of C II near 2325 A was examined in additional late type giants and supergiants with deep LWR high dispersion exposures. The new data support the original contention based on these lines that noncoronal red giants posses geometrically extended chromospheres.

Stencel, R. E.↗
NASA NTRS2001

Giant Star Clusters Near Galactic Core

A video sequence of still images goes deep into the Milky Way galaxy to the Arches Cluster. Hubble, penetrating through dust and clouds, peers into the core where two giant clusters shine more brightly than any other clusters in the galaxy. Footage shows the following still images: (1) wide view of Sagittarius constellation; (2) the Palomar Observatory's 2 micron all-sky survey; and (3) an image of the Arches Cluster taken with the Hubble Space Telescope NICMOS instrument. Dr. Don Figer of the Space Telescope Science Institute discusses the significance of the observations and relates his first reaction to the images.

Source record↗
NASA NTRS1975

The infrared excess of cool giant stars - A chromospheric contribution

The idea that the infrared excesses of evolved M stars may contain a contribution from a chromosphere is explored using alpha Ori and W Hya as test cases. The spectrum of alpha Ori between 8 and 30 millimicrons can be interpreted satisfactorily in terms of three components: a photosphere, a silicate dust cloud, and a cool chromosphere (temperature about 5000 K), which is optically thick at 14 millimicrons. A similar modelling for W Hya suggests a hotter chromosphere (temperature about 8000 K), with unit optical depth at 30 millimicrons. Some consequences of these chromospheres are briefly discussed.

Lambert, D. L.↗
NASA NTRS1975

A grid of model atmospheres for metal-deficient giant stars. I

A grid of flux-constant model atmospheres for stars with effective temperatures between 3750 and 6000 K, log g between 0.75 and 3.0, and (A/H) between -3.0 and 0.0 has been constructed. The line absorption is approximated by opacity distribution functions. Metal lines and molecular lines, including those from the infrared bands of CO and CN, are taken into account. The variation of the structure of the models with metal abundance and microturbulence parameter is found to be quite regular and not very drastic. The surface cooling produced by CO is important for all the models with a maximum temperature of 5000 K, while CN mainly causes a backwarming effect but is not very important for solar CNO abundances. The effects of convection, estimated by using the mixing-length approximation, are important only for the coldest models. The models compare very well with models from overlapping regions of other grids. A solar model consistent with the grid models is found to agree satisfactorily with empirical solar model atmospheres. The careful use of scaled solar models for stars with (A/H) approximately equal to zero is justified.

Gustafsson, B.↗
NASA NTRS1982

Onset of rapid mass loss in cool giant stars - Magnetic field effects

The possibility that closed magnetic field loops exist in steady state in stellar atmospheres in the HR diagram is examined. A model derived by Pneuman (1968) for helmet streamers in the solar corona is applied using a semi-empirical technique, to find that long-lived closed loops exist only below a certain boundary in the HR diagram. The region below this boundary is occupied by stars which are known to have hot coronae and slow mass loss. It is suggested that rapid mass loss sets in when closed field loops can no longer exist in steady state in the atmosphere.

Mullan, D. J.↗
NASA NTRS1986

Dust grains and gas in the circumstellar envelopes around luminous red giant stars

Far-infrared color-color diagrams have been constructed for over 100 of the brightest evolved stars in the IRAS Point Source Catalog. The diagrams are used to deduce average values of the dust grain emissivity index (p) between 12 and 100 microns. Grains in C-rich and O-rich environments have similar values of p between 12 and 25 microns and between 60 and 100 microns, but between 25 and 60 microns p is larger by approximately 0.4 for the O-rich stars. Dust grains in envelopes around S-type stars seem to have 25 to 60 micron emissivities more nearly like grains in O-rich rather than C-rich environments. CO and HCN emissions from various stars are used to reclassify several stars as oxygen or carbon rich.

Zuckerman, B.↗
NASA NTRS1989

Chromospheres of chemically peculiar giant stars

The chromospheres of evolved stars with peculiar chemical abundances are reviewed, emphasizing the dependence of chromospheric properties on the evolutionary status of the stars. A sample of intermediate mass stars observed in the radio, IR and UV wavelength regions is compiled. The chromospheres of MS, S, and C stars are compared with one another. The sample is used to study the relationship between stellar parameters and chromospheric heating. The results are used to construct a scenario for AGB evolution.

Judge, P. G.↗
NASA NTRS1990

Mass loss from red giant stars. II - Carbon stars

A millimeter-wave survey has been made of bright relatively unobscured, carbon stars, chosen on the basis of their optical properties. Out of 26 program objects, (J = 2-1)CO emission is detected from 15. Most of these had not been previously detected. There are many differences among the observed objects, but one rather interesting trend emerges: a positive correlation, at moderate IR excesses, between the IR dust emission and the expansion velocity of the dense wind. A similar, positive correlation with the mass-loss rate implies that stars with larger mass fluxes also accelerate them to larger velocities. At high-IR excesses, both correlations break down, and the momentum rate may be limited by the momentum rate of the stellar radiation. All these effects could be ascribed to differences in the gas-to-dust ratio, assuming that radiation pressure initiates and accelerates the wind.

Wannier, P. G.↗
NASA NTRS1991

Abundances in red giant stars - Nitrogen isotopes in carbon-rich molecular envelopes

Results are presented of millimeter- and submillimeter-wave observations of HCN and HCCCN that were made of the circmustellar envelopes of eight carbon stars, including the two protoplanetary nebulae CRL 618 and CRL 2688. The observations yield a measure of the double ratio (N-14)(C-13)/(N-15)(C-12). Measured C-12/C-13 ratios are used to estimate the N-14/N-15 abundance ratio, with the resulting lower limits in all eight envelopes and possible direct determinations in two envelopes. The two determinations and four of the remaining six lower limits are found to be in excess of the terrestrial value of N-14/N-15 = 272, indicating an evolution of the nitrogen isotope ratio, which is consistent with stellar CNO processing. Observations of thermal SiO (v = 0, J = 2-1) emission show that the Si-29/Si-28 ratio can be determined in carbon stars, and further observations are indicated.

Wannier, P. G.↗