A concept mission for the Stellar Population and Evolution with Cubesats (SPEC)

Binary or multiple stellar systems, constituting almost a third of the content of the Milky Way, represent a high priority astronomical target due to their repercussions on the stellar dynamical and evolutionary parameters. Moreover the spectral study of such class of stars allows to better constrain the evolutionary theories of the Galactic stellar populations. By resolving the members of stellar systems through photometric observations we are able to perform more detailed measurements to infer their mass. In this paper we investigate the feasibility of a cubesat based mission including an optical payload to directly optically discriminate the members of a selected sample of binary systems. The scientific targets, consisting 11?M class dwarf stars binary systems, have been extracted from the already studied Riaz catalogue. These subset has been selected considering the star distance, the members angular separation, and the distance from the Galactic plane (due to limit the background and foreground contamination). The satellite concept is based on a 6 unit Cubesat embedding some commercial off the shelf components and an ad hoc designed optical payload occupying almost 4 units. The optical configuration has been chosen in order to fit the angular resolution requirements, as derived from the target characteristics. Moreover, according to the optical analysis and the computed field of view some requirements on the attitude control system have been inferred and fulfilled by the component selection. The paper is organized as in the following: a brief scientific introduction is made; consequently the project is described with particular attention to the optical design and the standard sub-systems; finally the conclusions are drawn and the future perspectives are investigated.     

β Cep stars from a spectroscopic point of view

In this review we present the current status of line-profile-variation studies of β Cep stars. Such studies have been performed for 26 bright members of this class of pulsating stars in the past 25 years. We describe all these currently available data and summarize the interpretations based on them in terms of the excited pulsation modes. We emphasize that line-profile variations offer a much more detailed picture of the pulsational behaviour of pulsating stars compared to ground-based photometric data. The latter, however, remain necessary to unravel the often complex frequency pattern and to achieve unambiguous mode identification for multiperiodic β Cep stars and also to derive the pulsational properties of the faint members of the class. We highlight the statistical properties of the sample of 26 stars for which accurate spectroscopic studies are available and point out some future prospects. This revised version was published online in June 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

基于神经网络的SINS/GPS/TAN 容错组合导航系统设计

在联邦滤波器结构的基础上 ,设计了一种基于神经网络的天文惯性导航系统 /全球卫星定位系统 /战术导航系统 (SINS/GPS/TAN)容错组合导航系统。该系统首先在各子滤波器中用神经网络滤波 (NNF)代替传统的卡尔曼滤波 ,然后用模糊神经网络 (FNN)对各子系统进行故障检测 ,最后由神经元进行全局融合。通过仿真 ,验证了该方法的有效性     

Wolf–Rayet optically thick winds with Alfvén waves

The Wolf–Rayet (WR) stars are hot luminous objects which are suffering an extreme mass loss via a continuous stellar wind. The high values of mass loss rates and high terminal velocities of the WR stellar winds constitute a challenge to the theories of radiation driven winds. Several authors incorporated magnetic forces to the line driven mechanism in order to explain these characteristics of the wind. Observations indicate that the WR stellar winds may reach, at the photosphere, velocities of the order of the terminal values, which means that an important part of the wind acceleration occurs at the optically thick region. The aim of this study is to analyze a model in which the wind in a WR star begins to be accelerated in the optically thick part of the wind. We used as initial conditions stellar parameters taken from the literature and solved the energy, mass and momentum equations. We demonstrate that the acceleration only by radiative forces is prevented by the general behavior of the opacities. Combining radiative forces plus a flux of Alfvén waves, we found in the simulations a fast drop in the wind density profile which strongly reduces the extension of the optically thick region and the wind becomes optically thin too close its base. The understanding how the WR wind initiate is still an open issue.     

利用星敏感器的卫星自主导航

本课题对利用星敏感器进行卫生自主导航问题作了初步的研究，研究表明，当已知地球大气的星光折射模型，则可利用星光折射的测量或掩星时刻的测量来实现卫生的自主导航，在导航过程中不需要精确的姿态确定，研究报告提出了相应的基本导航算法，讨论了误差的影响，通过数学仿真模拟计算，给出了数值结果，提示了这类导航的若干特点。     

Macroscopic Transport Large-scale advection, turbulent diffusion, wave transport

While the solar convection zone is very well mixed by its turbulent motions, chemical composition gradients build up in the radiative interior due to microscopic diffusion and settling, and to nuclear burning. Standard models, which ignore any type of macroscopic transport, cannot explain the depletion of lithium in solar-type stars, as they evolve; neither do they account for the observed profile of molecular weight at the base of the solar convection zone. Such macroscopic transport can be achieved through thermally driven meridian currents, through turbulent diffusion generated by differential rotation and possibly through gravity waves. These processes transport also angular momentum, and therefore the internal rotation profile of the Sun provides a crucial test for their relative importance. So does also the behavior of tidally locked binaries, which appear to destroy less lithium than single stars of the same mass. This revised version was published online in June 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Evidence of Element Diffusion Inside the Sun and the Stars and its Consequences on the Lithium Primordial Abundance

The process of element segregation in stars (also called "microscopic diffusion") has to be introduced in all computations of stellar structure to obtain consistent models. Although recognized by the pioneers of stellar physics, this process has long been forgotten, except for white dwarfs and for the so-called "chemically peculiar stars". More recently helioseismology has given evidence that this process occurs in the Sun, and leads to helium and heavier element depletion by about 20 percent. Some macroscopic motions (mild mixing) must also occur below the convection zone in order to account for the lithium depletion. These motions do not prevent the segregation : they only slightly smooth the abundance gradients. These results are presented here and the connexion with the 3He abundance is discussed. The importance of these processes for Pop II stars is also developped.     

The synthesis of helium and CNO isotopes in massive stars

We present helium and CNO isotopic yields for massive mass-losing stars in the initial mass range 15M M _i 50M . We investigate their dependence on assumptions about mass loss rates, internal mixing processes, and metallicity, and specify the contributions from stellar winds and from supernova ejecta.     

一种基于主星的导航星座构造方法

提出了一种基于主星的导航星座构造方法,利用不等式约束下多变量函数最优化问题的求解方法实现了导航主星的选取和导航星座的构造。实验表明,采用该方法构造的导航星座数据库,既不会造成导航星的丢失,又显著地减少了需要存储的识别基元的数量,从而有效地降低了导航星座数据库的存储容量。     

A model for the chemical evolution of the solar neighborhood using metallicity dependent yields

We discuss the results from a chemical evolution model of the local galactic disk which takes into account stellar yields, lifetimes, remnants, and supernova progenitor masses which depend on the initial metallicity of the collapsing clouds. The detailed evolution of H, He, C, O, Fe, and of the heavy elements (Z) is followed dropping the instantaneous recycling approximation. Our results reproduce the majority of the observational constraints.