August 2023 – Page 2 – My WordPress Site

RPAH mapped in NGC 4303, with the F770W star subtraction described in Section 3.1 completed before incorperation of the F770W into the RPAH map. Yellow, pink, and blue contours show the location of the nucleus, bar, and spiral arms, respectively, as defined by the maps from Querejeta et al. (2021). Light green contours show the locations of the nebular regions from the PHANGS–MUSE nebular catalogs (Santoro et al. 2022; Groves et al. 2023). The black bar on the bottom left represents a scale of 5 kpc. Maps have been smoothed to 0. ′′9 to increase the signal to noise. -- astro-ph.GA

Astronomy & Telescopes, Europa, Imaging & Spectroscopy

Constraints On Sub-terrestrial Free-floating Planets From Subaru Microlensing Oobservations

by Keith CowingAugust 30, 2023August 30, 2023

The offset positions of the radio sources associated with DS candidates A, B and G. Each field is 15 x 15 arcseconds in extent. The Gaia coordinates of the DS candidates define the centre of each field. -- astro-ph.SR

Analog Studies, Astrogeology, Away Teams & Field Reports, Caves, Craters, Mountains & Lava Tubes, Exploration Gear & Tech, Venus

Expedition VERITAS – Away Team Mission On Volcanic Terrain In Iceland As An Analog For Venus

by Keith CowingAugust 30, 2023August 30, 2023

Small planet mass vs radius diagram, using data taken from NASA’s Exoplanet Archive on October 17, 2023. Grey points with error bars show confirmed planets with mass and radius measurements better than 20%, solid lines represent two-layer models as given by Zeng et al. (2016). Large colored circles are the previous characterizations of TOI-1685 b from B21 in blue and H21 in red, while the green square depicts the best-fit mass and radius for the planet derived here. Purple diamonds show planets that have been selected for observation with JWST in Cycle 1 or 2. -- astro-ph.SR

Astrochemistry, Astrogeology, Astronomy & Telescopes, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Imaging & Spectroscopy

‘Thermometer’ Molecule Chromium Hydride Confirmed On Exoplanet WASP-31b

by Keith CowingAugust 30, 2023August 30, 2023

Deep Sea Sponge -- Schmidt Ocean Institute

Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Imaging & Spectroscopy, SETI & Technosignatures, Tricorders & Sensors

Applying Novel Techniques From Physical And Biological Sciences To Life Detection

by Keith CowingAugust 30, 2023August 30, 2023

5σ contrast limits at J (bottom left), H (top left), and K (bottom right) from Gemini/NIRI and at K ′ from Keck II/NIRC2 (top right). The combined images are shown in the insets of the panels, where Gliese 12 is at the star symbols. The maximum values of the image dynamic range were set to be 20 times higher than the noise levels at the edge areas. The locations corresponding to the identified possible source that was detected only in the J-band image are marked by arrow symbols and its contrast by a square symbol. Note that the source detection and contrast measurement were performed with the images after PSF subtractions. -- astro-ph.EP

Astronomy & Telescopes, Atmospheres, Climate, Weather, Biogeochemical Cycles & Geobiology, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Habitable Zones, Imaging & Spectroscopy, SETI & Technosignatures

Earth As A Transiting Exoplanet: A Validation Of Transmission Spectroscopy And Atmospheric Retrieval Methodologies For Terrestrial Exoplanets

by Keith CowingAugust 29, 2023August 29, 2023

NASA’s largest planetary mission spacecraft, Europa Clipper, arrives at the Payload Hazardous Servicing Facility at the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on May 23. Credit: NASA/Isaac Watson

Astrochemistry, Atmospheres, Climate, Weather, Biogeochemical Cycles & Geobiology, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Habitable Zones, Icy Worlds, TRAPPIST-1, Water/Hycean Worlds & Oceanography

Water Condensation Zones Around Main Sequence Stars

by Keith CowingAugust 29, 2023August 29, 2023

Molecular maps of H2O for real PZ Tel B data using cross-correlation for spectroscopy. This figure shows a real case example where the noise structures may reduce detection capabilities of cross-correlation methods. The brown dwarf was observed under good conditions (airmass: 1.11, Seeing start to end: 0.77 − 0.72) and lower conditions (airmass: 1.12, Seeing: 1.73 − 1.54), c.f. Appendix A for full details on observing conditions. Upper plots show molecular maps of PZ Tel B, while the lower plots show the cross-correlation series along the radial velocity (RV) support for pixels at the centre of the object, and within the object’s brightness area. While the brown dwarf should appear at the same spatial coordinates for respective RV locations in both cases (c.f. vertical lines), it is clearly visible when conditions are good, but hardly visible on equal scales under lower conditions. -- astro-ph.EP

Artemis & Lunar Exploration, Exploration Gear & Tech, Mars, Panspermia

In-situ Optimized Substrate Witness Plates: Ground Truth For Key Processes On The Moon And Other Planets

by Keith CowingAugust 29, 2023August 29, 2023

The first two principal components for a data cube of H2 of NGC 3256 N. The left panels show the tomograms of each component which describes the spatial intensity of each eigenspectrum. The black crosses show the peak continuum position at this wavelength. The right panels show the eigenspectrum of each principal component. The horizontal dashed lines show where the weight is zero and the vertical dashed lines show the kinematic centre, determined by the peak wavelength of the first principal component. The first component describes the rest frame emission, while the second captures rotation of the gas. -- astro-ph.GA

Extremeophiles and Extreme Environments, Genomics, Proteomics, Bioinformatics, Microbiology & Virology

New Species Of Marine Bacteria Isolated From A Deep-sea Cold Seep

by Keith CowingAugust 29, 2023August 29, 2023

Imidogen - Wikipedia

Astrochemistry, Astrogeology, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets

Close-in Ice Lines And The Super-stellar C/O ratio In Discs Around Very Low-mass Stars

by Keith CowingAugust 29, 2023August 29, 2023

The left two panels show the distribution of surface average temperature for the ExoCAM (top) and ExoPlaSim (bottom) model calculations of SAMOSA case 4 (with 1200 W m−2 and 2.34 bar). The right panel shows the theoretical variogram curves for both models. The warmer substellar point is one contributing factor to the ExoCAM variogram showing greater dissimilarities at all spatial separations when compared to ExoPlaSim. -- astro-ph.EP

Astrobiology (general), NASA Astrobiology Program

Baruch S. Blumberg NASA/Library of Congress Chair in Astrobiology, Exploration, and Scientific Innovation

by Keith CowingAugust 28, 2023August 28, 2023