共查询到20条相似文献，搜索用时 15 毫秒
1.
Cardelli JA 《Science (New York, N.Y.)》1994,265(5169):209-213
The Goddard high-resolution spectrograph aboard the Hubble Space Telescope has been used to produce interstellar abundance measures of gallium, germanium, arsenic, krypton, tin, thallium, and lead, the heaviest elements detected in interstellar gas. These heavy elements arise from stellar nuclear processes (slow- and rapid-process neutron capture) that are different from those that produce zinc and the lighter elements previously observed. These data allow investigators to study how the heavy elements chemically interact with interstellar dust and to compare interstellar heavy element abundances in the current galactic epoch to those present at the time of the formation of the solar system. For example, the data indicate that the abundance of atoms in interstellar dust cannot be explained by simple condensation models alone and must be heavily influenced by chemistry in the interstellar medium. Also, the data for some elements suggest that their true galactic cosmic abundances may be different from the "fossil" abundances incorporated into the solar system 4.6 billion years ago. 相似文献
2.
We have argued that planning for a search for extraterrestrial intelligence should involve a minimum number of assumptions. In view of the feasibility (at our present level of understanding) of using nuclear fusion to effect interstellar travel at a speed of 0.1c, it appears unwarranted (at this time) to assume that it would not occur for at least some technologically advanced civilizations. One cannot even conclude that humans would not attempt this within the next few centuries. On the contrary, the most likely future situation, given the maintenance of technological growth and the absence of extraterrestrial interference, is that our civilization will explore and colonize our galactic neighborhood. A comparison of the time scales of galactic evolution and interstellar travel leads to the conclusion that the galaxy is either essentially empty with respect to technological civilizations or extensively colonized. In the former instance, a SETI would be unproductive. In the latter, a SETI could be fruitful if a signal has been deliberately directed at the earth or at an alien outpost, probe, or communication relay station in our solar system. In the former case, an existing antenna would probably be sufficient to detect the signal. In the latter case, success would depend on the way in which the communications were coded. Failure to detect a signal could permit any of the following conclusions: (i) the galaxy is devoid of technological civilizations, advanced beyond our own, (ii) such civilizations exist, but cannot (for some reason which is presently beyond our ken) engage in interstellar colonization, or (iii) such civilizations are not attempting overt contact with terrestrial civilizations and their intercommunications, if present, are not coded in a simple way. To plan at this time for a high-cost, large-array SETI based on the last two possibilities appears to be rather premature. 相似文献
3.
Ney EP 《Science (New York, N.Y.)》1977,195(4278):541-546
Infrared astronomy has shown that certain classes of stars are abundant producers of refractory grains, which condense in their atmospheres and are blown into interstellar space by the radiation pressure of these stars. Metallic silicates of the kind that produce terrestrial planets are injected by the oxygen-rich stars and carbon and its refractories by carbon stars. Much of the interstellar dust may be produced by this mechanism. A number of "infrared stars" are completely surrounded by their own dust, and a few of these exhibit a unique morphology that suggests the formation of a planetary system or a stage in the evolution of a planetary nebula. Certain novae also condense grains, which are blown out in their shells. In our own solar system, comets are found to contain the same silicates that are present elsewhere in the galaxy, suggesting that these constituents were present in the primeval solar nebula. 相似文献
4.
Bally J 《Science (New York, N.Y.)》1986,232(4747):185-193
The interstellar medium in our galaxy contains matter in a variety of states ranging from hot plasma to cold and dusty molecular gas. The molecular phase consists of giant clouds, which are the largest gravitationally bound objects in the galaxy, the primary reservoir of material for the ongoing birth of new stars, and the medium regulating the evolution of galactic disks. 相似文献
5.
Keller LP Bajt S Baratta GA Borg J Bradley JP Brownlee DE Busemann H Brucato JR Burchell M Colangeli L d'Hendecourt L Djouadi Z Ferrini G Flynn G Franchi IA Fries M Grady MM Graham GA Grossemy F Kearsley A Matrajt G Nakamura-Messenger K Mennella V Nittler L Palumbo ME Stadermann FJ Tsou P Rotundi A Sandford SA Snead C Steele A Wooden D Zolensky M 《Science (New York, N.Y.)》2006,314(5806):1728-1731
Infrared spectra of material captured from comet 81P/Wild 2 by the Stardust spacecraft reveal indigenous aliphatic hydrocarbons similar to those in interplanetary dust particles thought to be derived from comets, but with longer chain lengths than those observed in the diffuse interstellar medium. Similarly, the Stardust samples contain abundant amorphous silicates in addition to crystalline silicates such as olivine and pyroxene. The presence of crystalline silicates in Wild 2 is consistent with mixing of solar system and interstellar matter. No hydrous silicates or carbonate minerals were detected, which suggests a lack of aqueous processing of Wild 2 dust. 相似文献
6.
Star formation, a crucial link in the chain of events that led from the early expansion of the universe to the formation of the solar system, continues to play a major role in the evolution of many galaxies. Observational and theoretical studies of regions of ongoing star formation provide insight into the physical conditions and events that must have attended the formation of the solar system. Such investigations also elucidate the role played by star formation in the evolutionary cycle which appears to dominate the chemical processing of interstellar material by successive generations of stars in spiral galaxies like our own. New astronomical facilities planned for development during the 1980's could lead to significant advances in our understanding of the star formation process. Efforts to identify and examine both the elusive protostellar collapse phase of star formation and planetary systems around nearby stars will be especially significant. 相似文献
7.
Smartt SJ Maund JR Hendry MA Tout CA Gilmore GF Mattila S Benn CR 《Science (New York, N.Y.)》2004,303(5657):499-503
We present the discovery of a red supergiant star that exploded as supernova 2003gd in the nearby spiral galaxy M74. The Hubble Space Telescope (HST) and the Gemini Telescope imaged this galaxy 6 to 9 months before the supernova explosion, and subsequent HST images confirm the positional coincidence of the supernova with a single resolved star that is a red supergiant of 8(+4)(-2) solar masses. This confirms both stellar evolution models and supernova theories predicting that cool red supergiants are the immediate progenitor stars of type II-plateau supernovae. 相似文献
8.
Silk J 《Science (New York, N.Y.)》1991,251(4993):537-541
Halo dark matter, if it is baryonic, may plausibly consist of compact stellar remnants. Jeans mass clouds containing 10(6) to 10(8) solar masses could have efficiently formed stars in the early universe and could plausibly have generated, for a suitably top-heavy stellar initial mass function, a high abundance of neutron stars as well as a small admixture of long-lived low mass stars. Within the resulting clusters of dark remnants, which eventually are tidally disrupted when halos eventually form, captures of neutron stars by non-degenerate stars resulted in formation of close binaries. These evolve to produce, by the present epoch, an observable x-ray signal associated with dark matter aggregations in galaxy halos and galaxy cluster cores. 相似文献
9.
We estimate the cosmic production rate of helium relative to metals (DeltaY/DeltaZ) using K dwarf stars in the Hipparcos catalog with accurate spectroscopic metallicities. The best fitting value is DeltaY/DeltaZ = 2.1 +/- 0.4 at the 68% confidence level. Our derived value agrees with determinations from H II regions and with theoretical predictions from stellar yields with standard assumptions for the initial mass function. The amount of helium in stars determines how long they live and therefore how fast they will enrich the interstellar medium with fresh material. 相似文献
10.
High-resolution spectra of nearby stars show absorption lines due to material in the local interstellar cloud. This cloud is deduced to be moving at 26 kilometers per second with respect to the sun, and in the same direction as the "interstellar wind" flowing through the solar system. Measurements by the Ulysses spacecraft show that neutral helium is drifting through the solar system at the same velocity, but neutral hydrogen appears to be moving at only 20 kilometers per second, a result confirmed by new measurements of the hydrogen emission line taken by the High-Resolution Spectrograph on the Hubble Space Telescope. These results indicate that neutral hydrogen atoms from the local interstellar cloud are preferentially decelerated at the heliospheric interface, most likely by charge-exchange with interstellar protons, while neutral helium is unaffected by the plasma. The magnitude of the observed deceleration implies an interstellar plasma density of 0.06 to 0.10 per cubic centimeter, which in turn implies that the heliospheric shock should be less than 100 astronomical units from the sun. 相似文献
11.
Records of now-extinct short-lived nuclides in meteorites provide information about the formation and evolution of the solar system. We have found excess 10B that we attribute to the decay of short-lived 10Be (half-life 1.5 million years) in hibonite grains from the Murchison meteorite. The grains show no evidence of decay of two other short-lived nuclides-26Al (half-life 700,000 years) and 41Ca (half-life 100,000 years)-that may be present in early solar system solids. One plausible source of the observed 10Be is energetic particle irradiation of material in the solar nebula. An effective irradiation dose of approximately 2 x 10(18) protons per square centimeter with a kinetic energy of >/=10 megaelectronvolts per atomic mass unit can explain our measurements. The presence of 10Be, coupled with the absence of 41Ca and 26Al, may rule out energetic particle irradiation as the primary source of 41Ca and 26Al present in some early solar system solids and strengthens the case of a stellar source for 41Ca and 26Al. 相似文献
12.
Wallerstein G 《Science (New York, N.Y.)》1988,240(4860):1743
Analysis of the chemical and isotopic composition of stellar surfaces reveals the types of nuclear reactions that have occurred in the stellar interiors as well as the timing and depths from which material once deep in the star has reached the surface. Mass loss from the stellar surface and, in some cases, mass transfer from a companion enhance the opportunity to observe material that is the product of internal nuclear reactions. Detailed studies show substantial deficiencies in current models with the timing and depth of convective and other forms of mixing. 相似文献
13.
Ground-based observations of the object IRAS 14348-1447, which was discovered with the Infrared Astronomical Satellite, show that it is an extremely luminous colliding galaxy system that emits more than 95 percent of its energy at far-infrared wavelengths. IRAS 14348-1447, which is receeding from the sun at 8 percent of the speed of light, has a bolometric luminosity more than 100 times larger than that of our galaxy, and is therefore as luminous as optical quasars. New optical, infrared, and spectroscopic measurements suggest that the dominant luminosity source is a dustenshrouded quasar. The fuel for the intense activity is an enormous supply of molecular gas. Carbon monoxide emission has been detected at a wavelength of 2.6 millimeters by means of a new, more sensitive receiver recently installed on the 12-meter telescope of the National Radio Astronomy Observatory. IRAS 14348-1447 is the most distant and luminous source of carbon monoxide line emission yet detected. The derived mass of interstellar molecular hydrogen is 6 x 10(10) solar masses. This value is approximately 20 times that of the molecular gas content of the Milky Way and is similar to the largest masses of atomic hydrogen found in galaxies. A large mass of molecular gas may be a prerequisite for the formation of quasars during strong galactic collisions. 相似文献
14.
Wagoner RV 《Science (New York, N.Y.)》1967,155(3768):1369-1376
Two recent observations appear to have provided critical information about the past history of the universe. The thermal character of the microwave background radiation suggests that the universe has expanded from a state of high temperature and density, and places constraints on such a big-bang cosmology. The observations of very weak helium lines in the spectra of certain stars in the halo of our galaxy are possibly due to a low primeval abundance of this element. However, the simplest model of a big-bang cosmology leads to much higher helium abundances, such as are observed in the solar system and in many stars. The production of helium can be reduced either by altering the early expansion rate or by introducing degenerate electron neutrinos. Observations of interstellar and intergalactic deuterium and He(4), and possibly even He(3) and Li(7), are needed to test the various models. 相似文献
15.
A statistical analysis of the properties of dense interstellar clouds indicates that the solar system has encountered at least a dozen clouds of sufficient density to cause planets to accumulate nonnegligible amounts of some isotopes. The effect is most pronounced for neon. This mechanism could be responsible for much of the neon in Earth's atmosphere. For Mars, the predicted amount of neon added by cloud encounters greatly exceeds the present abundance. 相似文献
16.
A surprising discovery in x-ray astronomy was that clusters of galaxies often contain vast quantities of hot (20 million kelvin) diffuse gas. Substantial diffuse extreme-ultraviolet (EUV) emission has recently been detected in the Virgo cluster of galaxies. Depending on the character of the interstellar medium in our galaxy, this emission could be either an aspect of the hot cluster gas or a previously undetected 500,000-kelvin component. Analysis of the observational data in combination with our current knowledge of the interstellar medium revealed that the EUV flux cannot be an effect of the interstellar medium. Hence, a warm cluster component appears likely. 相似文献
17.
Eshleman VR 《Science (New York, N.Y.)》1979,205(4411):1133-1135
The gravitational field of the sun acts as a spherical lens to magnify the intensity of radiation from a distant source along a semi-infinite focal line. A spacecraft anywhere on that line in principle could observe, eavesdrop, and communicate over interstellar distances, using equipment comparable in size and power with what is now used for interplanetary distances. If one neglects coronal effects, the maximum magnification factor for coherent radiation is inversely proportional to the wavelength, being 100 million at 1 millimeter. The principal difficulties are that the nearest point on the focal half-line is about 550 times the sun-earth distance, separate spacecraft would be needed to work with each stellar system of interest, and the solar corona would severely limit the intensity of coherent radiation while also restricting operations to relatively short wavelengths. 相似文献
18.
The determination of chemical abundances of the interstellar medium is related to three different areas of astronomy: pregalactic conditions, stellar evolution, and chemical evolution of galaxies. The observed abundances permit the testing of theories associated with these areas. Knowledge of the abundances of helium, carbon, nitrogen, and neon relative to the abundance of hydrogen in the interstellar medium puts limits on current models of cosmology, stellar evolution, and galactic evolution. 相似文献
19.
The oxygen of anhydrous, high-temperature minerals in carbonaceous meteorites is strongly depleted in the heavy stable isotopes (17)O and (18)O. The effect is the result of nuclear rather than chemical processes and probably results from the admixture of a component of almost pure (16)O. This component may predate the solar system and may represent interstellar dust with a separate history of nucleosynthesis. 相似文献
20.
Enrichments in boron-10/boron-11 in a calcium-aluminum-rich inclusion from the Allende carbonaceous chondrite are correlated with beryllium/boron in a manner indicative of the in situ decay of short-lived beryllium-10. Because this radionuclide is produced only by nuclear spallation reactions, its existence in early solar system materials attests to intense irradiation processes in the solar nebula. The particle fluence inferred from the initial beryllium-10/beryllium-9 is sufficient to produce other short-lived nuclides, calcium-41 and manganese-53, found in meteorites, but the high canonical abundance of aluminum-26 may still require seeding of the solar system by radioactive stellar debris. 相似文献