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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 559 records · Page 31
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRS2021

Identification of a Local Sample of Gamma-Ray Bursts Consistent with a Magnetar Giant Flare Origin

Cosmological gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) are known to arise from distinct progenitor channels: short GRBs mostly from neutron star mergers and long GRBs from a rare type of core-collapse supernova (CCSN) called collapsars. Highly magnetized neutron stars called magnetars also generate energetic, short-duration gamma-ray transients called magnetar giant flares (MGFs). Three have been observed from the Milky Way and its satellite galaxies, and they have long been suspected to constitute a third class of extragalactic GRBs. We report the unambiguous identification of a distinct population of four local (<5 Mpc) short GRBs, adding GRB 070222 to previously discussed events. While identified solely based on alignment with nearby star-forming galaxies, their rise time and isotropic energy release are independently inconsistent with the larger short GRB population at >99.9% confidence. These properties, the host galaxies, and non-detection in gravitational waves all point to an extragalactic MGF origin. Despite the small sample, the inferred volumetric rates for events above 4 × 10(exp 44) erg of R(sub MGF) =3.8(sup +4.0)(sub -3.1) ×10(exp 5) Gpc(exp -3) yr(exp -1) make MGFs the dominant gamma-ray transient detected from extragalactic sources. As previously suggested, these rates imply that some magnetars produce multiple MGFs, providing a source of repeating GRBs. The rates and host galaxies favor common CCSN as key progenitors of magnetars.

Gamma-ray bursts↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Molecular flow venting of a volume with an outgassing or desorbing source

A venting equation commonly used to describe the transient evolution of pressure within a volume containing an outgassing or offgassing source and a restrictive vent conductance under conditions of molecular flow has been solved analytically. Solutions are found for sources of finite thickness characterized by classical diffusion-limited behavior (proportional to inverse square root of time), as well as responses for thick material sources often observed in testing that are characterized by a more general form of power-law decay, up to inverse time behavior associated with surface desorption. Solutions involve evaluating integrals where both numerators and denominators of the integrands diverge with time, making wide-ranging transient solutions difficult to directly compute numerically. Usually, one can avoid evaluating these integrals by assuming quasistatic conditions at long time scales. A novel approach is used in this work to analytically produce solutions by generating bespoke mathematical functions, some of which solve integrals that have apparently had no previous analytical solution.

Michael Woronowicz↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Molecular flow venting of a volume with an outgassing or desorbing source

"A venting equation commonly used to describe the transient evolution of pressure within a volume containing an outgassing or offgassing source and a restrictive vent conductance under conditions of molecular flow has been solved analytically. Solutions are found for sources of finite thickness characterized by classical diffusion-limited behavior (proportional to inverse square root of time), as well as responses for thick material sources often observed in testing that are characterized by a more general form of power-law decay, up to inverse time behavior associated with surface desorption. Solutions involve evaluating integrals where both numerators and denominators of the integrands diverge with time, making wide-ranging transient solutions difficult to directly compute numerically. Usually, one can avoid evaluating these integrals by assuming quasistatic conditions at long time scales. A novel approach is used in this work to analytically produce solutions by generating bespoke mathematical functions, some of which solve integrals that have apparently had no previous analytical solution."

Michael Woronowicz↗
NASA NTRS1995

An investigation of the magnetic field of Transient Disturbances (TD) at the Earth's orbit, and a determination of solar sources of TD from their characteristics at R = 1 AU

We have investigated and intercompared the typical features of the magnetic field of two types of solar wind transient disturbances with shock waves: the shock wave is accompanied by a magnetic cloud (MC), and the shock wave is followed by a region with bidirectional solar wind electron heat flux (BEHF), with no MC present. In this case, a separate study was made of the field features in two typical TD structures: in the region of impact-compressed solar wind between the shock wave and MC or BEHF, as well as in MC and BEHF. The study has provided new results on the influence of the ambient SW upon the TD magnetic field and the relationship between fields in various TD structures. A new test for the existence of interplanetary magnetic field draping around MC and BEHF is proposed and verified. It is concluded that the magnetic field configuration around MC is more adequately consistent with the concept of magnetic line draping than is the case around BEHF Two methods are proposed to infer the location of solar sources of TD from their characteristics at R = 1 AU.

Fainshtein, V. .G.↗
NASA NTRS2003

Proton-Induced Transients and Charge Collection Mechanisms in a LWlR HgCdTe Focal Plane Array

Low noise performance of IR detectors is required, even in the presence of charged particles. Galactic cosmic rays, trapped protons & solar energetic particles. Particle induced transients identified as an important source of noise on ESA's ISO satellite. Also observed on NICMOS Instrument on NASA% Hubble Space Telescope. Tools to analyse particle induced transients have been developed. To date, comparisons of model have been made to flight data for a HgCdTe array exposed to trapped protons, and to a Si array exposed to laboratory protons. We report ground based proton transient measurements in a modem LWlR HgCdTe array operating under cryogenic conditions. Demonstration of charge collection mechanisms. Provide benchmarks for modeling tools.

Marshall, Paul↗
NASA NTRS1991

Elasto-plastic coupled temperature-displacement finite element analysis of two-dimensional rolling-sliding contact with a translating heat source

The present paper describes a transient translating elastoplastic thermomechanical finite element model to study two-dimensional frictional rolling contact. Frictional two-dimensional contact is simulated by repeatedly translating a nonuniform thermomechanical distribution across the surface of an elastoplastic half space. The half space is represented by a two-dimensional finite element mesh with appropriate boundaries. Calculations are for an elastic-perfectly plastic material and the selected thermophysical properties are assumed to be temperature independent. The paper presents temperature variations, stress and plastic strain distributions and deformations. Residual tensile stresses are observed. The magnitude and depth of these stresses depends on (1) the temperature gradients and (2) the magnitudes of the normal and tangential tractions.

Rubin, C. A.↗
NASA NTRS1984

Three precise gamma-ray burst source locations

The precise source regions of three moderately intense gamma ray bursts are derived. These events were observed with the first interplanetary burst sensor network. The optimum locations of the detectors, widely separated throughout the inner solar system, allowed for high accuracy, over-determined source fields of size 0.7 to 7.0 arc-min(2). All three locations are at fairly high galactic latitude in regions of low source confusion; none can be identified with a steady source object. Archived photographs were searched for optical transients that are able to be associated with these source fields; one such association was made.

Cline, T. L.↗
NASA NTRS1984

Three precise gamma-ray burst source locations

The precise source regions of three moderately intense gamma ray bursts are derived. These events were observed with the first interplanetary burst sensor network. The optimum locations of the detectors, widely separated throughout the inner solar system, allowed for high accuracy, over-determined source fields of size 0.7 to 7.0 arc-min(2). All three locations are at fairly high galactic latitude in regions of low source confusion; none can be identified with a steady source object. Archived photographs were searched for optical transients that are able to be associated with these source fields; one such association was made.

Cline, T. L.↗
NASA NTRS2004

Discovery of a Transient Magnetar: XTE J1810-197

We report the discovery of a new X-ray pulsar, XTE J1810-197, that was serendipitously discovered on 2003 July 15 by the Rossi X-Ray Timing Explorer (RXTE) while observing the soft gamma repeater SGR 1806-20. The pulsar has a 5.54 s spin period, a soft X-ray spectrum (with a photon index of approx. = 4). and is detectable in earlier RXTE observations back to 2003 January but not before. These show that a transient outburst began between 2002 November 17 and 2003 January 23 and that the source's persistent X-ray flux has been declining since then. The pulsar exhibits a high spin-down rate P approx.= l0(exp -11) s/s with no evidence of Doppler shifts due to a binary companion. The rapid spin-down rate and slow spin period imply a supercritical characteristic magnetic field B approx. = 3 x l0(exp 14) G and a young age tau less than or = 7600 yr. Follow-up Chandra observations provided an accurate position of the source. Within its error radius, the 1.5 m Russian-Turkish Optical Telescope found a limiting magnitude R(sub c) = 21.5. All such properties are strikingly similar to those of anomalous X-ray pulsars ad soft gamma repeaters, providing strong evidence that the source is a new magnetar. However, archival ASCA and ROSAT observations found the source nearly 2 orders of magnitude fainter. This transient behavior and the observed long-term flux variability of the source in absence of an observed SGR-like burst activity make it the first confirmed transient magnetar and suggest that other neutron stars that share the properties of XTE 51810- 197 during its inactive phase may be unidentified transient magnetars awaiting detection via a similar activity. This implies a larger population of magnetars than previously surmised and a possible evolutionary connection between magnetars and other neutron star families. Subject headings: pulsars: general -pulsars: individual (XTE 51810- 197) - stars: magnetic fields -

Ibrahim, Alaa I.↗
NASA NTRS2013

Semi-Supervised Eigenbasis Novelty Detection

Recent discoveries in high-time-resolution radio astronomy data have focused attention on a new class of events. Fast transients are rare pulses of radio frequency energy lasting from microseconds to seconds that might be produced by a variety of exotic astrophysical phenomena. For example, X-ray bursts, neutron stars, and active galactic nuclei are all possible sources of short-duration, transient radio signals. It is difficult to anticipate where such signals might appear, and they are most commonly discovered through analysis of high-time- resolution data that had been collected for other purposes. Transients are often faint and difficult to detect, so improved detection algorithms can directly benefit the science yield of all such commensal monitoring. A new detection algorithm learns a low-dimensional linear manifold for describing the normal data. High reconstruction error indicates a novel signal that does not match the patterns of normal data. One unsupervised portion of the manifold model adapts its representation in response to recent data. A second supervised portion of the model is made of a basis trained in advance using labeled examples of RFI; this prevents false positives due to these events. For a linear model, an orthonormalization operation is used to combine these bases prior to the anomaly detection decision. Another novel aspect of the approach lies in combining basis vectors learned in an unsupervised, online fashion from the data stream with supervised basis vectors learned in advance from known examples of false alarms. Adaptive, data-driven detection is achieved that is also informed by existing domain knowledge about signals that may be statistically anomalous, but are not interesting and should therefore be ignored. The method was evaluated using data from the Parkes Multibeam Survey. This data set was originally collected to search for pulsars, which are astronomical sources that emit radio pulses at regular periods. However, several non-pulsar anomalies have recently been discovered in this dataset, making it a compelling test case. By explicitly filtering known false alarm patterns, the approach yields significantly better performance than current transient detection methods.

Wagstaff, Kiri L.↗
NASA NTRS2013

The Galex Time Domain Survey. I. Selection And Classification of Over a Thousand Ultraviolet Variable Sources

We present the selection and classification of over a thousand ultraviolet (UV) variable sources discovered in approximately 40 deg(exp 2) of GALEX Time Domain Survey (TDS) NUV images observed with a cadence of 2 days and a baseline of observations of approximately 3 years. The GALEX TDS fields were designed to be in spatial and temporal coordination with the Pan-STARRS1 Medium Deep Survey, which provides deep optical imaging and simultaneous optical transient detections via image differencing. We characterize the GALEX photometric errors empirically as a function of mean magnitude, and select sources that vary at the 5 sigma level in at least one epoch. We measure the statistical properties of the UV variability, including the structure function on timescales of days and years. We report classifications for the GALEX TDS sample using a combination of optical host colors and morphology, UV light curve characteristics, and matches to archival X-ray, and spectroscopy catalogs. We classify 62% of the sources as active galaxies (358 quasars and 305 active galactic nuclei), and 10% as variable stars (including 37 RR Lyrae, 53 M dwarf flare stars, and 2 cataclysmic variables). We detect a large-amplitude tail in the UV variability distribution for M-dwarf flare stars and RR Lyrae, reaching up to absolute value(Δm) = 4.6 mag and 2.9 mag, respectively. The mean amplitude of the structure function for quasars on year timescales is five times larger than observed at optical wavelengths. The remaining unclassified sources include UV-bright extragalactic transients, two of which have been spectroscopically confirmed to be a young core-collapse supernova and a flare from the tidal disruption of a star by dormant supermassive black hole. We calculate a surface density for variable sources in the UV with NUV less than 23 mag and absolute value(Δm) greater than 0.2 mag of approximately 8.0, 7.7, and 1.8 deg(exp −2) for quasars, active galactic nuclei, and RR Lyrae stars, respectively. We also calculate a surface density rate in the UV for transient sources, using the effective survey time at the cadence appropriate to each class, of approximately 15 and 52 deg(exp −2 yr−1 for M dwarfs and extragalactic transients, respectively.

Gezari, S.↗
NASA NTRS1991

A study of high-temperature heat pipes with multiple heat sources and sinks. I - Experimental methodology and frozen startup profiles. II - Analysis of continuum transient and steady-state experimental data with numerical predictions

Experimental profiles for heat pipe startup from the frozen state were obtained, using a high-temperature sodium/stainless steel pipe with multiple heat sources and sinks to investigate the startup behavior of the heat pipe for various heat loads and input locations, with both low and high heat rejection rates at the condensor. The experimental results of the performance characteristics for the continuum transient and steady-state operation of the heat pipe were analyzed, and the performance limits for operation with varying heat fluxes and location are determined.

Faghri, A.↗
NASA NTRS1998

Review of Shuttle Microgravity Acceleration Data: Vibratory and Transient

Knowledge about the acceleration environment on the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's Space Shuttle plays an important role in conducting many microgravity science experiments. The Microgravity Measurement and Analysis Program at the Lewis Research Center measures and characterizes the acceleration environment of the Shuttle and other free-fall platforms. The Space Acceleration Measurement System has been the primary source of Shuttle vibratory and transient acceleration data. These data, along with those from other accelerometer systems, have been analyzed by the Principal Investigator Microgravity Services team in order to identify, qualify, and quantify the effects of various acceleration disturbances. This paper highlights and summarizes the results of these analyses.

Hrovat, Kenneth↗
NASA NTRS1992

Workshop on Solar Activity, Solar Wind, Terrestrial Effects, and Solar Acceleration

A summary of the proceedings from the workshop are presented. The areas covered were solar activity, solar wind, terrestrial effects, and solar acceleration. Specific topics addressed include: (1) solar cycle manifestations, both large and small scale, as well as long-term and short-term changes, including transients such as flares; (2) sources of solar wind, as identified by interplanetary observations including coronal mass ejections (CME's) or x-ray bright points, and the theory for and evolution of large-scale and small-scale structures; (3) magnetosphere responses, as observed by spacecraft, to variable solar wind and transient energetic particle emissions; and (4) origin and propagation of solar cosmic rays as related to solar activity and terrestrial effects, and solar wind coronal-hole relationships and dynamics.

Source record↗
NASA NTRS1992

Current status of the Explosive Transient Camera

The current configuration and performance of the Explosive Transient Camera (ETC), a wide-field sky monitor capable of detecting short-timescale optical transients, are briefly reviewed, as are plans for future improvements. The primary objective of the ETC is to detect an optical transient that is spatially and temporally coincident with a gamma-ray burster. However, the ETC is sensitive to all sources of short-timescale optical transients and will conduct a systematic survey of the night sky for all optical transients. Results of preliminary observations of the night sky conducted since January 1991 are summarized, and long-term variability searches with the ETC are discussed.

Vanderspek, Roland↗
NASA NTRS2011

Dayside Magnetopause Transients Correlated with Changes of the Magnetosheath Magnetic Field Orientation

The paper analyses one long-term pass (26 August 2007) of the THEMIS spacecraft across the dayside low-latitude magnetopause. THEMIS B, serving partly as a magnetosheath monitor, observed several changes of the magnetic field that were accompanied by dynamic changes of the magnetopause location and/or the structure of magnetopause layers observed by THEMIS C, D, and E, whereas THEMIS A scanned the inner magnetosphere. We discuss the plasma and the magnetic field data with motivation to identify sources of observed quasiperiodic plasma transients. Such events at the magnetopause are usually attributed to pressure pulses coming from the solar wind, foreshock fluctuations, flux transfer events or surface waves. The presented transient events differ in nature (the magnetopause surface deformation, the low-latitude boundary layer thickening, the crossing of the reconnection site), but we found that all of them are associated with changes of the magnetosheath magnetic field orientation and with enhancements or depressions of the plasma density. Since these features are not observed in the data of upstream monitors, the study emphasizes the role of magnetosheath fluctuations in the solar wind-magnetosphere coupling.

Tkachenko, O.↗