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Register a new userMillion Degree Plasmas in Extreme Ultraviolet (EUV) Astrophysics
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Michael P. Kowalski
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Million degree plasmas are ubiquitous in the Universe, and examples include the atmospheres of white dwarfs; accretion phenomena in young stars, cataclysmic variables and active galactic nuclei; the coronae of stars; and the interstellar medium of our own galaxy and of others. The bulk of radiation from million degree plasmas is emitted at extreme ultraviolet (EUV) wavelengths, which includes critical spectral features containing diagnostic information often not available at other wavelengths. With underpinning by a mature instrument technology, there is great opportunity here for exciting discoveries.
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The Extreme ultraviolet SpectroPhotometer (ESP) is one of five channels of the Extreme ultraviolet Variability Experiment (EVE) onboard the NASA Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO). The ESP channel design is based on a highly stable diffraction transmission grating and is an advanced version of the Solar Extreme ultraviolet Monitor (SEM), which has been successfully observing solar irradiance onboard the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) since December 1995. ESP is designed to measure solar Extreme UltraViolet (EUV) irradiance in four first order bands of the diffraction grating centered around 19 nm, 25 nm, 30 nm, and 36 nm, and in a soft X-ray band from 0.1 to 7.0 nm in the zeroth order of the grating. Each bands detector system converts the photo-current into a count rate (frequency). The count rates are integrated over 0.25 sec increments and transmitted to the EVE Science and Operations Center for data processing. An algorithm for converting the measured count rates into solar irradiance and the ESP calibration parameters are described. The ESP pre-flight calibration was performed at the Synchrotron Ultraviolet Radiation Facility of the National Institute of Standards and Technology. Calibration parameters were used to calculate absolute solar irradiance from the Sounding Rocket flight measurements on 14 April 2008. These irradiances for the ESP bands closely match the irradiance determined for two other EUV channels flown simultaneously, EVEs Multiple Euv Grating Spectrograph (MEGS) and SOHOs Charge, Element and Isotope Analysis System / Solar EUV Monitor (CELIAS/SEM).
Our view of the interstellar medium of the Milky Way and the universe beyond is affected by the structure of the local environment in the Solar neighborhood. Here, we present the discovery of a thirty-degree long arc of ultraviolet emission with a thickness of only a few arcminutes: the Ursa Major Arc. It consists of several arclets seen in the near- and far-ultraviolet bands of the GALEX satellite. A two-degree section of the arc was first detected in the H{alpha} optical spectral line in 1997; additional sections were seen in the optical by the team of amateur astronomers included in this work. This direction of the sky is known for very low hydrogen column density and dust extinction; many deep fields for extra-galactic and cosmological investigations lie in this direction. Diffuse ultraviolet and optical interstellar emission are often attributed to scattering of light by interstellar dust. The lack of correlation between the Ursa Major Arc and thermal dust emission observed with the Planck satellite, however, suggests that other emission mechanisms must be at play. We discuss the origin of the Ursa Major Arc as the result of an interstellar shock in the Solar neighborhood.
Only a few red dwarf flaring stars in the solar neighbourhood have undergone exceptional events called superflares. They have been detected with high-energy satellites (i.e. Swift) and have been proven to be powerful events (both in intensity and energy) and potentially hazardous for any extraterrestial life. The physics of these events can be understood as an extrapolation of the (much) weaker activity already occurring in the most powerful solar flares occurring in the Sun. Nevertheless, the origin (why?) these superflares occur is currently unknown. A recent study presents the optical and X-ray long-term evolution of the emission by the super-flare from the red-dwarf star DG CVn undertaken in 2014. In that paper we comment on the context of these observations and on the properties that can be derived through the analysis of them.
We study the extreme ultraviolet (EUV) variability (rest frame wavelengths 500 - 920 $AA$) of high luminosity quasars using HST (low to intermediate redshift sample) and SDSS (high redshift sample) archives. The combined HST and SDSS data indicates a much more pronounced variability when the sampling time between observations in the quasar rest frame is $> 2times 10^{7}$ sec compared to $< 1.5times 10^{7}$ sec. Based on an excess variance analysis, for time intervals $< 2times 10^{7}$ sec in the quasar rest frame, $10%$ of the quasars (4/40) show evidence of EUV variability. Similarly, for time intervals $>2times 10^{7}$ sec in the quasar rest frame, $55%$ of the quasars (21/38) show evidence of EUV variability. The propensity for variability does not show any statistically significant change between $2.5times 10^{7}$ sec and $3.16times 10^{7}$ sec (1 yr). The temporal behavior is one of a threshold time interval for significant variability as opposed to a gradual increase on these time scales. A threshold time scale can indicate a characteristic spatial dimension of the EUV region. We explore this concept in the context of the slim disk models of accretion. We find that for rapidly spinning black holes, the radial infall time to the plunge region of the optically thin surface layer of the slim disk that is responsible for the preponderance of the EUV flux emission (primarily within 0 - 7 black hole radii from the inner edge of the disk) is consistent with the empirically determined variability time scale.
There is unique and groundbreaking science to be done with a new generation of UV spectrographs that cover wavelengths in the Lyman Ultraviolet (LUV; 912 - 1216 Ang). There is no astrophysical basis for truncating spectroscopic wavelength coverage anywhere between the atmospheric cutoff (3100 Ang) and the Lyman limit (912 Ang); the usual reasons this happens are all technical. The unique science available in the LUV includes critical problems in astrophysics ranging from the habitability of exoplanets to the reionization of the IGM. Crucially, the local Universe (z <= 0.1) is entirely closed to many key physical diagnostics without access to the LUV. These compelling scientific problems require overcoming these technical barriers so that future UV spectrographs can extend coverage to the Lyman limit at 912 Ang.
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