EPONA is an energetic particle detector system incorporating totally depleted silicon surface barrier layer detectors. Active and passive background shielding will be employed and, by applying various techniques, particles of different species, including electrons, protons, alpha particles and pick-up ions of cometary origin may be detected over a wide spectrum of energies extending from the tens of KeV into the MeV range.
The instrument can operate in two modes namely (a) in a cruise phase or storage mode and (b) in a real time mode. During the real time mode, observations at high spatial (octosectoring) and temporal (0.5s) resolution in the cometary environment permit studies to be made of accelerated particles at the bow shock and/or in the tail of the comet. In conjunction with magnetic field measurements on board Giotto, observations of energetic electrons and their anisotropies can determine whether the magnetic field lines in the cometary tail are open or closed. Further, the absorption of low energy solar particles in the cometary atmosphere can be measured and such data would provide an integral value of the pertaining gas and dust distribution. Solar particle background measurements during encounter may also be used to correct the measurements of other spacecraft borne instruments potentially vulnerable to such radiation.
Solar particle flux measurements, obtained during the cruise phase will, when combined with simultaneous observations made by other spacecraft at different heliographic longitudes, provide information concerning solar particle propagation in the corona and in interplanetary space. 相似文献
Ariel VI observations of Cygnus X-2 have revealed a rather flat spectrum between 0.1 and 1.5 keV with variable emission at low energy. Of the two conflicting interpretations of this object in terms of i) a distant high-luminosity (Lx 1038 ergs s−1) binary and ii) a nearby low-luminosity (Lx 1035 ergs s−1) degenerate dwarf system, our measurements support the latter. 相似文献
The huge potential drop between the footpoints of the closed field lines in the twisted magnetospheres of magnetars may accelerate electrons up to very high energies, γ ? 106. On the other hand, the comparison between the observed spectra of magnetars and spectra obtained by accurate theoretical models seems to favor of a picture in which the magnetosphere is filled by “slow” electrons (v ? 0.8c), rather than by ultra-relativistic particles. 相似文献