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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 613 records · Page 34
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRS1980

Detection of the 610 micron /492 GHz/ line of interstellar atomic carbon

The ground-state transition of neutral atomic carbon, 3P1-3P0, has been detected in the interstellar medium at the frequency of 492.162 GHz determined in the laboratory by Saykally and Evenson (1980). The observations were made from the NASA Kuiper Airborne Observatory using an InSb heterodyne bolometer receiver. The line was detected as strong emission from eight molecular clouds and apparently provides a widely useful probe of the interstellar medium.

Phillips, T. G.↗
NASA NTRS1990

SIRTF: Probing the dark corners of the galaxy

The Space Infrared Telescope Facility (SIRTF) is planned for launch by NASA in the mid-1990's. It will be a cryogenically-cooled observatory for infrared astronomy and will carry several focal plane instruments which will provide a wide range of imaging, photometric, and spectroscopic capabilities. SIRTF will build on the scientific and technical progress of the successful IRAS mission and take the next step in the exploration of the Universe at infrared wavelengths. Most of the observing time during the five-to-ten year SIRTF mission will be available to General Investigators, so there will be ample opportunities for the pursuit of problems originating from within the Space Life Sciences community. Here, a review is given of the capabilities of SIRTF for this style of investigation, using the study of carbon in the Galaxy as a specific example. The very high sensitivity of SIRTF's spectrometers to diffuse emission will allow studies of carbon in both the gaseous and solid phase in the interstellar medium and should be of particular importance for the identification of the carbon-bearing macromolecules believed to be responsible for the emission features identified in the near infrared. SIRTF will also carry out studies of a wide variety of evolved stars which are returning gas and solid phase carbon to the interstellar medium and contribute to our understanding of the carbon budget in the Galaxy. These studies in the area of galactic astronomy will be complemented by detailed investigations of carbon-bearing compounds in solar system objects, including the surfaces of distant asteroids and cometary nuclei which are too faint to be studied in any other way.

Werner, Michael W.↗
NASA NTRS2006

Laboratory Spectroscopy of Large Carbon Molecules and Ions in Support of Space Missions. A New Generation of Laboratory & Space Studies

Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons (PAHs) are an important and ubiquitous component of carbon-bearing materials in space. A long-standing and major challenge for laboratory astrophysics has been to measure the spectra of large carbon molecules in laboratory environments that mimic (in a realistic way) the physical conditions that are associated with the interstellar emission and absorption regions [1]. This objective has been identified as one of the critical Laboratory Astrophysics objectives to optimize the data return from space missions [2]. An extensive laboratory program has been developed to assess the properties of PAHs in such environments and to describe how they influence the radiation and energy balance in space. We present and discuss the gas-phase electronic absorption spectra of neutral and ionized PAHs measured in the UV-Visible-NIR range in astrophysically relevant environments and discuss the implications for astrophysics [1]. The harsh physical conditions of the interstellar medium characterized by a low temperature, an absence of collisions and strong VUV radiation fields - have been simulated in the laboratory by associating a pulsed cavity ringdown spectrometer (CRDS) with a supersonic slit jet seeded with PAHs and an ionizing, penning-type, electronic discharge. We have measured for the {\it first time} the spectra of a series of neutral [3,4] and ionized [5,6] interstellar PAHs analogs in the laboratory. An effort has also been attempted to quantify the mechanisms of ion and carbon nanoparticles production in the free jet expansion and to model our simulation of the diffuse interstellar medium in the laboratory [7]. These experiments provide {\it unique} information on the spectra of free, large carbon-containing molecules and ions in the gas phase. We are now, for the first time, in the position to directly compare laboratory spectral data on free, cold, PAH ions and carbon nano-sized carbon particles with astronomical observations in the UV-NIR range (interstellar UV extinction, DIBs in the NUV-NIR range). This new phase offers tremendous opportunities for the data analysis of current and upcoming space missions geared toward the detection of large aromatic systems Le., the "new frontier space missions" (Spitzer, HST, COS, JWST, SOFIA,...).

Salama, Farid↗
NASA NTRS1991

Laboratory and observational study of the interrelation of the carbonaceous component of interstellar dust and solar system materials

By studying the chemical and isotopic composition of interstellar ice and dust, one gains insight into the composition and chemical evolution of the solid bodies in the solar nebula and the nature of the material subsequently brought into the inner part of the solar system by comets and meteorites. It is now possible to spectroscopically probe the composition of interstellar ice and dust in the mid-infrared, the spectral range which is most diagnostic of fundamental molecular vibrations. We can compare these spectra of various astronomical objects (including the diffuse and dense interstellar medium, comets, and the icy outer planets and their satellites) with the spectra of analogs we produce in the laboratory under conditions which mimic those in these different objects. In this way one can determine the composition and abundances of the major constituents of the various ices and place general constraints on the types of organics coating the grains in the diffuse interstellar medium. In particular we have shown the ices in the dense clouds contain H2O, CH3OH, CO, perhaps some NH3 and H2CO, we well as nitriles and ketones or esters. Furthermore, by studying the photochemistry of these ice analogs in the laboratory, one gains insight into the chemistry which takes place in interstellar/precometary ices. Chemical and spectroscopic studies of photolyzed analogs (including deuterated species) are now underway. The results of some of these studies will be presented and implications for the evolution of the biogenic elements in interstellar dust and comets will be discussed.

Allamandola, L. J.↗
NASA NTRS1993

Boundary conditions for the paleoenvironment: Chemical and physical processes in the pre-solar nebula

In observations with the NRAO 12m telescope at Kitt Peak, Arizona, Irvine, a new interstellar radical, CH2N, has been detected. This identification is important for the study of hydrogenation processes in the interstellar medium. In particular, although the abundance of hydrogen is some four orders of magnitude higher than that of other reactive elements in this environment, many organic molecules in quiescent clouds are very unsaturated. This is a consequence of activation barriers which cannot be overcome at the temperatures of cold clouds, even when such reactions are energetically allowed. The hydrogenation series based on the cyanide radical (HnCN) has had four members previously detected in the interstellar medium: CN (n equals O), HCN (n equals l), CH2CN (n equals 3), and CH3NH2 (n equals 5). The recent determination of the rotational spectrum of the CH2N radical through microwave spectroscopy in Japan has made possible a search for this species. In addition to its potential importance for interstellar chemistry, the CH2N radical has been proposed as a reaction intermediate for HCN production in the atmosphere of Jupiter, and as a possible species in the expanding envelopes of oxygen--rich evolved stars. We detected CH2N in the cold cloud TMC--1 where the abundance seems to be some three orders of magnitude lower than that of HCN. A tentative detection was made in the Galactic Center molecular cloud Sgr B2. To our knowledge, there are no predicted abundances of CH2N from models of interstellar chemistry.

Irvine, William M.↗
DOE OSTI2022

Modeling Dust Production, Growth, and Destruction in Reionization-era Galaxies with the CROC Simulations: Methods and Parameter Exploration

We introduce a model for the explicit evolution of interstellar dust in a cosmological galaxy formation simulation. We post-process a simulation from the Cosmic Reionization on Computers project, integrating an ordinary differential equation for the evolution of the dust-to-gas ratio along pathlines in the simulation sampled with a tracer particle technique. This model incorporates the effects of dust grain production in asymptotic giant branch star winds and supernovae, grain growth due to the accretion of heavy elements from the gas phase of the interstellar medium, and grain destruction due to thermal sputtering in the high-temperature gas of supernova remnants due to thermal sputtering. A main conclusion of our analysis is the importance of a carefully chosen dust destruction model, for which different reasonable parameterizations can predict very different values at the ∼100 pc resolution of the interstellar medium (ISM) in our simulations. We run this dust model on the single most massive galaxy in a 10 h$^{−1}$ comoving megaparsec box, which attains a stellar mass of ∼2 × 10$^{9}$ M $_{⊙}$ by z = 5. We find that the model is capable of reproducing dust masses and dust-sensitive observable quantities broadly consistent with existing data from high-redshift galaxies. The total dust mass in the simulated galaxy is somewhat sensitive to parameter choices for the dust model, especially the timescale for grain growth due to accretion in the ISM. Consequently, observable quantity observations that can constrain galaxy dust masses at these epochs are potentially useful for placing constraints on dust physics.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
NASA NTRS1992

Pioneer 10 and 11 interstellar studies

The Pioneer 10 spacecraft may soon be the first man-made object to leave our solar system and penetrate the heliospheric boundary into interstellar space. Scientific investigators on this mission eagerly anticipate the opportunity to measure the physical processes occurring in the terminal boundary region and in the unexplored space known as the interstellar medium by astronomers who have studied it remotely with telescopes for many years. This paper is a descriptive overview of the Pioneer 10 mission and the dominant physical processes that have been discovered since its 1972 launch into our heliosphere and those processes that we expect to see at the boundary and in the interstellar medium.

Dyal, P.↗
DOE OSTI2019

Supersonic plasma turbulence in the laboratory

The properties of supersonic, compressible plasma turbulence determine the behavior of many terrestrial and astrophysical systems. In the interstellar medium and molecular clouds, compressible turbulence plays a vital role in star formation and the evolution of our galaxy. Observations of the density and velocity power spectra in the Orion B and Perseus molecular clouds show large deviations from those predicted for incompressible turbulence. Hydrodynamic simulations attribute this to the high Mach number in the interstellar medium (ISM), although the exact details of this dependence are not well understood. Here we investigate experimentally the statistical behavior of boundary-free supersonic turbulence created by the collision of two laser-driven high-velocity turbulent plasma jets. The Mach number dependence of the slopes of the density and velocity power spectra agree with astrophysical observations, and supports the notion that the turbulence transitions from being Kolmogorov-like at low Mach number to being more Burgers-like at higher Mach numbers.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
NASA NTRS1984

Helium and Hydrogen of the Local Interstellar Mdium Observed in the Vicinity of the Sun

The Sun illuminates the hydrogen and helium atoms of the interstellar medium through which it travels. As a result, the Sun and the whole solar system are imbedded in a glow of the resonance lines of hydrogen (H Lyman alpha; 121.6nm) and helium (58.4nm). From the intensity distribution of the glow in the solar system, the density of H and He in the local interstellar medium (LISM) and the direction of the relative motion between the Sun and the LISM in the vicinity of the Sun are derived. The velocity module and the LISM temperature are more adequately found from a measurement of the Lyman alpha line shape, which is an image of the velocity distribution of H atoms. The result is summarized and together the methods of interpretation and difficulties are dicusssed.

Bertaux, J. L.↗
DOE OSTI2020

Molecular growth upon ionization of van der Waals clusters containing HCCH and HCN is a pathway to prebiotic molecules

The growth mechanisms of organic molecules in an ionizing environment such as the interstellar medium are not completely understood. Here we examine by means of ab initio molecular dynamics (AIMD) simulations and density functional theory (DFT) computations the possibility of bond formation and molecular growth upon ionization of van der Waals clusters of pure HCN clusters, and mixed clusters of HCN and HCCH, both of which are widespread in the interstellar medium. Ionization of van der Waals clusters can potentially lead to growth in low temperature and low-density environments. Our results show, that upon ionization of the pure HCN clusters, strongly bound stable structures are formed that contain N∙∙∙H bonds, and growth beyond pairwise HCN molecules is seen only in a small percentage of cases. In contrast, mixed clusters, where HCCH is preferentially ionized over HCN, can grow up to 3 or 4 units long with new carbon–carbon and carbon–nitrogen covalent bonds. Moreover, cyclic molecules formed, such as the radical cation of pyridine, which is a prebiotic molecule. The results presented here are significant as they provide a feasible pathway for molecular growth of small organic molecules containing both carbon and nitrogen in cold and relatively denser environments such as in dense molecular clouds but closer to the photo-dissociation regions, and protoplanetary disks. In the mechanism we propose, first, a neutral van der Waals cluster is formed. Once the cluster is formed it can undergo photoionization which leads to chemical reactivity without any reaction barrier.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗
NASA NTRS1998

Extraterrestrial organic matter: a review

We review the nature of the widespread organic material present in the Milky Way Galaxy and in the Solar System. Attention is given to the links between these environments and between primitive Solar System objects and the early Earth, indicating the preservation of organic material as an interstellar cloud collapsed to form the Solar System and as the Earth accreted such material from asteroids, comets and interplanetary dust particles. In the interstellar medium of the Milky Way Galaxy more than 100 molecular species, the bulk of them organic, have been securely identified, primarily through spectroscopy at the highest radio frequencies. There is considerable evidence for significantly heavier organic molecules, particularly polycyclic aromatics, although precise identification of individual species has not yet been obtained. The so-called diffuse interstellar bands are probably important in this context. The low temperature kinetics in interstellar clouds leads to very large isotopic fractionation, particularly for hydrogen, and this signature is present in organic components preserved in carbonaceous chondritic meteorites. Outer belt asteroids are the probable parent bodies of the carbonaceous chondrites, which may contain as much as 5% organic material, including a rich variety of amino acids, purines, pyrimidines, and other species of potential prebiotic interest. Richer in volatiles and hence less thermally processed are the comets, whose organic matter is abundant and poorly characterized. Cometary volatiles, observed after sublimation into the coma, include many species also present in the interstellar medium. There is evidence that most of the Earth's volatiles may have been supplied by a 'late' bombardment of comets and carbonaceous meteorites, scattered into the inner Solar System following the formation of the giant planets. How much in the way of intact organic molecules of potential prebiotic interest survived delivery to the Earth has become an increasingly debated topic over the last several years. The principal source for such intact organics was probably accretion of interplanetary dust particles of cometary origin.

NASA Discipline Exobiology↗
NASA NTRS1973

Interplanetary Lyman-beta emissions

Derivation of the intensity of the diffuse hydrogen Lyman-beta glow at 1025 A which is due to resonance scattering of the solar H I 1025 A line by interstellar and interplanetary hydrogen. Two sources of neutral hydrogen are considered: the local interstellar medium interacting with the solar system, and the dust deionization of the H(+) component of the solar wind. It is shown that if the dust geometrical factor is less than or equal to five quintillionths per cm, observations of backscattered Lyman-beta radiation will provide a unique determination of the density and temperature of the local interstellar medium.

Paresce, F.↗
NASA NTRS1994

The local distribution of Na I interstellar gas

We present high-resolution absorption measurements (lambda/Delta lambda approximately 75,000) of the interstellar Na I D lines at 5890 A toward 80 southern hemisphere early-type stars located in the local interstellar medium (LISM). Combining these results with other sodium measurements taken from the literature, we produce galactic maps of the distribution of neutral sodium column density for a total of 293 stars generally lying within approximately 250 pc of the Sun. These maps reveal the approximate shape of the mid-plane contours of the rarefied region of interstellar space termed the Local Bubble. Its shape is seen as highly asymmetric, with a radius ranging from 30 to 300 pc, and with an average radius of 60 pc. Similar plots of the Galactic mid-plane distribution of sources emitting extreme ultraviolet radiation show that they also trace out similar contours of the Local Bubble derived from Na I absorption measurements. We conclude that the Local Bubble absorption interface can be represented by a hydrogen column density, Nu(sub ETA) = 2 x 10(exp 19) cm(exp -2), which explains both the local distribution of Na I absorption and the observed galactic distribution of extreme ultraviolet sources. The derived mid-plane contours of the Bubble generally reproduce the large-scale features carved out in the interstellar medium by several nearby galactic shell structures.

Welsh, B. Y.↗
NASA NTRS1986

Why do interstellar grains exist?

There exists a discrepancy between calculated destruction rates of grains in the interstellar medium and postulated sources of new grains. This problem was examined by modelling the global life cycle of grains in the galaxy. The model includes: grain destruction due to supernovae shock waves; grain injection from cool stars, planetary nebulae, star formation, novae, and supernovae; grain growth by accretion in dark clouds; and a mixing scheme between phases of the interstellar medium. Grain growth in molecular clouds is considered as a mechanism or increasing the formation rate. To decrease the shock destruction rate, several new physical processes, such as partial vaporization effects in grain-grain collisions, breakdown of the small Larmor radius approximation for betatron acceleration, and relaxation of the steady-state shock assumption are included.

Seab, C. G.↗
NASA NTRS1993

The distribution of interstellar dust in the solar neighborhood

We surveyed the IRAS data base at the positions of the 1808 O6-B9.5 stars in The Bright Star Catalog for extended objects with excess emission at 60 microns, indicating the presence of interstellar dust at the location of the star. Within 400 pc the filling factor of the interstellar medium, for dust clouds with a density greater than 0.5/cu cm is 14.6 + or - 2.4%. Above a density of 1.0/cu cm, the density distribution function appears to follow a power law index - 1.25. When the dust clouds are mapped onto the galactic plane, the sun appears to be located in a low-density region of the interstellar medium of width about 60 pc extending at least 500 pc in the direction of longitudes 80 deg - 260 deg, a feature we call the 'local trough'.

Gaustad, John E.↗
NASA NTRS1985

CNO isotopes in red giant stars

The production and distribution of the CNO nuclides is discussed in light of observed abundance ratios in red giants and in the interstellar medium. Isotope abundances have been measured in the atmospheres and in the recent ejecta of cool giants, including carbon stars, S-type stars and red supergiants as well as in oxygen-rich giants making their first ascent of the giant branch. Several of the observations suggest revision of currently accepted nuclear cross-sections and of the mixing processes operating in giant envelopes. By comparing red giant abundances with high-quality observations of the interstellar medium, conclusions are reached about the contribution of intermediate-mass stars to galactic nuclear evolution. The three oxygen isotopes, O-16, -17 and -18, are particularly valuable for such comparison because they reflect three different stages of stellar nucleosynthesis. One remarkable result comes from observations of O-17/O-18 in several classes of red giant stars. The observed range of values for red giants excludes the entire range of values seen in interstellar molecular clouds. Furthermore, both the observations of stars and interstellar clouds exclude the isotopic ratio found in the solar system.

Wannier, P. G.↗
NASA NTRS1981

X-ray imaging - Supernova remnants

Consideration is given to imaging observations of supernova remnants (SNRs) obtained during the first year of the Einstein Observatory's operation. Inferences are drawn regarding models for stellar explosions, remnant evolution, neutron star formation and the interstellar medium. Because the X-ray emission traces the expanding shock boundary and dominates the radiative energy losses of an SNR over much of its lifetime, it can provide data on the possible collapsed remnants of the explosion, such as neutron stars and/or black holes. X-ray emission also allows a supernova shock to be used as a probe of interstellar medium structure. The imaging instrument aboard the Einstein satellite has been used to observe over 30 known Galactic remnants, and a similar number of objects in other galaxies, in the 0.15-4.5 keV band.

Helfand, D. J.↗
NASA NTRS2022

Nested Dust Shells Around the Wolf–Rayet Binary WR 140 Observed With JWST

Massive colliding-wind binaries that host a Wolf–Rayet (WR) star present a potentially important source of dust and chemical enrichment in the interstellar medium. However, the chemical composition and survival of dust formed from such systems is not well understood. The carbon-rich Wolf–Rayet binary WR 140 presents an ideal astrophysical laboratory for investigating these questions, given its well-defined orbital period and predictable dust-formation episodes every 7.93 years around periastron passage. We present observations from our Early Release Science programme (ERS 1349) with the James Webb Space Telescope Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI) Medium-Resolution Spectrometer and Imager that reveal the spectral and spatial signatures of nested circumstellar dust shells around WR 140. MIRI medium-resolution spectroscopy of the second dust shell and Imager detections of over 17 shells formed throughout approximately the past 130 years confirm the survival of carbonaceous dust grains from WR 140 that are probably carriers of ‘unidentified infrared’-band features at 6.4 and 7.7 μm. The observations indicate that dust-forming carbon-rich Wolf–Rayet binaries can enrich the interstellar medium with organic compounds and carbonaceous dust.

massive stars↗