SEARCH · PubMed Health

Results for “Neptune”

Explore indexed PubMed citations for clinical trials, systematic reviews and public health research. Read source abstracts and follow each citation to its original PubMed record.

Quote a phrase for an exact phrase match. Source license links do not imply unrestricted reuse.

At least 91 records · Page 5Linked to original sources

PubMedDate not supplied

Solid-phase synthesis of urea and amide libraries using the T2 triazene linker.

Starting from Merrifield resin, primary amines were immobilized in two steps by triazene linkage (T2-linker). While reaction with isocyanates gave rise to resin-bound urea derivatives, acylation by acid chlorides or anhydrides furnished amides bound to solid support via the nitrogen atom, therefore representing a novel backbone amide linker. Cleavage from the resin was conducted using dilute trimethylsilyl chloride or trifluoroacetic acid, respectively, to yield ureas and amines/amides in a library format (altogether 60 examples; manual synthesis: 17 ureas, 6 mono-alkylated ureas [including dihydroxylation and ozonolysis/Wittig reaction]; automated synthesis: 15 ureas, 15 amides) in high purities and good overall yields. The synthesis of a small library (4 x 4 member) was successfully conducted on a Bohdan Neptune synthesizer.

Journal Article↗

PubMed1996

Ground-based detectability of terrestrial and Jovian extrasolar planets: observations of CM Draconis at Lick Observatory.

The detection of terrestrial-sized extrasolar planets from the ground has been thought to be virtually impossible due to atmospheric scintillation limits. However, we show that this is not the case especially selected (but nevertheless main sequence) stars, namely small eclipsing binaries. For the smallest of these systems, CM Draconis, several months to a few years of photometric observations with 1-m-class telescopes will be sufficient to detect the transits of any short-period planets of sizes > or = 1.5 Earth radii (RE), using cross-correlation analysis with moderately good photometry. Somewhat larger telescopes will be needed to extend this detectability to terrestrial planets in larger eclipsing binary systems. (We arbitrarily define "terrestrial planets" herein as those whose disc areas are closer to that of Earth's than Neptune's i.e., less than about 2.78 RE.) As a "spin-off" of such observations, we will also be able to detect the presence of Jovian-mass planets without transits using the timing of the eclipse minima. Eclipse minima will drift in time as the binary system is offset by a sufficiently massive planet (i.e., one Jupiter mass) about the binary/giant-planet barycenter, causing a periodic variation in the light travel time to the observer. We present here an outline of present observations taking place at the University of California Lick Observatory using the Crossley 0.9-m telescope in collaboration with other observatories (in South Korea, Crete, France, Canary Islands, and New York) to detect or constrain the existence of terrestrial planets around main sequence eclipsing binary star systems, starting with CM Draconis. We demonstrate the applicability of photometric data to the general detection of gas giant planets via eclipse minima timings in many other small-mass eclipsing binary systems as well.

Astronomy↗

PubMed2000

Extremely red Kuiper-belt objects in near-circular orbits beyond 40 AU.

Kuiper-belt objects (KBOs) are an ancient reservoir of comets beyond Neptune's orbit. Some of these objects were recently found to have the reddest optical colours in the Solar System, but the number of objects for which accurate colours were available was too small for any correlation to be discerned between colour and physical or dynamical properties, which might shed light on the origin of these objects. Here we report that all nine of the KBOs in our survey on near-circular (low-eccentricity) orbits with perihelion distances larger than 40 AU have extremely red surfaces, thereby connecting an observable property with a dynamical class. Of the objects with orbital eccentricities greater than 0.1, about half are also very red, while the rest have colours similar to the Sun, meaning that reflected sunlight is not strongly modified by the objects' surface properties. In addition, of the 13 'classical' KBOs (those with semimajor axis a approximately 45 AU and eccentricity e < 0.15), the ten that are very red are in orbits with small angles of inclination to the ecliptic, whereas the three with solar colours are all in high-inclination orbits. We suggest that these three 'grey' classical KBOs may be part of a dynamical group that is separate from the 'red' classical KBOs.

Journal Article↗

PubMed2001

Rapid collisional evolution of comets during the formation of the Oort cloud.

The Oort cloud of comets was formed by the ejection of icy planetesimals from the region of giant planets--Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune--during their formation. Dynamical simulations have previously shown that comets reach the Oort cloud only after being perturbed into eccentric orbits that result in close encounters with the giant planets, which then eject them to distant orbits about 10(4) to 10(5) AU from the Sun (1 AU is the average Earth-Sun distance). All of the Oort cloud models constructed until now simulate its formation using only gravitational effects; these include the influence of the Sun, the planets and external perturbers such as passing stars and Galactic tides. Here we show that physical collisions between comets and small debris play a fundamental and hitherto unexplored role throughout most of the ejection process. For standard models of the protosolar nebula (starting with a minimum-mass nebula) we find that collisional evolution of comets is so severe that their erosional lifetimes are much shorter than the timescale for dynamical ejection. It therefore appears that collisions will prevent most comets escaping from most locations in the region of the giant planets until the disk mass there declines sufficiently that the dynamical ejection timescale is shorter than the collisional lifetime. One consequence is that the total mass of comets in the Oort cloud may be less than currently believed.

Journal Article↗

PubMed2001

Stable methane hydrate above 2 GPa and the source of Titan's atmospheric methane.

Methane hydrate is thought to have been the dominant methane-containing phase in the nebula from which Saturn, Uranus, Neptune and their major moons formed. It accordingly plays an important role in formation models of Titan, Saturn's largest moon. Current understanding assumes that methane hydrate dissociates into ice and free methane in the pressure range 1-2 GPa (10-20 kbar), consistent with some theoretical and experimental studies. But such pressure-induced dissociation would have led to the early loss of methane from Titan's interior to its atmosphere, where it would rapidly have been destroyed by photochemical processes. This is difficult to reconcile with the observed presence of significant amounts of methane in Titan's present atmosphere. Here we report neutron and synchrotron X-ray diffraction studies that determine the thermodynamic behaviour of methane hydrate at pressures up to 10 GPa. We find structural transitions at about 1 and 2 GPa to new hydrate phases which remain stable to at least 10 GPa. This implies that the methane in the primordial core of Titan remained in stable hydrate phases throughout differentiation, eventually forming a layer of methane clathrate approximately 100 km thick within the ice mantle. This layer is a plausible source for the continuing replenishment of Titan's atmospheric methane.

Journal Article↗

PubMed2001

The size and albedo of the Kuiper-belt object (20000) Varuna.

Observations over the last decade have revealed the existence of a large number of bodies orbiting the Sun beyond Neptune. Known as the Kuiper-belt objects (KBOs), they are believed to be formed in the outer reaches of the protoplanetary disk around the young Sun, and have been little altered since then. They are probably the source of short-period comets. The KBOs are, however, difficult objects to study because of their distance from earth, so even basic physical properties such as their sizes and albedos remain unknown. Previous size estimates came from assuming an albedo with the canonical value being 0.04. Here we report simultaneous measurements of the thermal emission and reflected optical light of the bright KBO (20000) Varuna, which allow us to determine independently both the size and the albedo. Varuna has an equivalent circular diameter of D = 900+129-145 km and a red geometric albedo of pR = 0.070+0.030-0.017. Its surface is darker than Pluto's, suggesting that it is largely devoid of fresh ice, but brighter than previously assumed for KBOs.

Journal Article↗

PubMed1995

Eighteen ninety five and all that.

Anniversarial commemorations this year include the discovery of X-rays, the calculation of the position of the undiscovered planet Neptune, the emergence of syphilis and the mandatory serving of lime juice to British sailors.

Animals↗

PubMed1995

Generation of lightning in Jupiter's water cloud.

Lightning is a familiar feature of storms on the Earth, and has also been seen on Jupiter and inferred indirectly to occur on Venus and Neptune. On Jupiter, lightning may be important as a source of energy to drive chemical reactions in the atmosphere, perhaps determining the abundances of molecules such as CO, HCN and C2H2. Lightning may be generated in Jupiter's water clouds by a mechanism similar to that which operates in terrestrial thunderstorms. Here we investigate the development of lightning by modelling the thunderstorm separation of electrical charge on precipitating ice particles at varying depths in Jupiter's atmosphere. We find that lightning can indeed be generated in the jovian water clouds, and that--in agreement with estimates from the analysis of Voyager images--it is most likely to occur at the 3- or 4-bar pressure level. Our model also predicts that a condensed-water abundance in the range of at least 1-2 g m-3 is required for lightning to occur in jovian thunderstorms--a prediction that may be tested when the Galileo probe arrives at Jupiter on 7 December 1995.

Electricity↗

PubMed2002

The binary Kuiper-belt object 1998 WW31.

The recent discovery of a binary asteroid during a spacecraft fly-by generated keen interest, because the orbital parameters of binaries can provide measures of the masses, and mutual eclipses could allow us to determine individual sizes and bulk densities. Several binary near-Earth, main-belt and Trojan asteroids have subsequently been discovered. The Kuiper belt-the region of space extending from Neptune (at 30 astronomical units) to well over 100 AU and believed to be the source of new short-period comets-has become a fascinating new window onto the formation of our Solar System since the first member object, not counting Pluto, was discovered in 1992 (ref. 13). Here we report that the Kuiper-belt object 1998 WW31 is binary with a highly eccentric orbit (eccentricity e approximately 0.8) and a long period (about 570 days), very different from the Pluto/Charon system, which was hitherto the only previously known binary in the Kuiper belt. Assuming a density in the range of 1 to 2 g cm-3, the albedo of the binary components is between 0.05 and 0.08, close to the value of 0.04 generally assumed for Kuiper-belt objects.

Journal Article↗

PubMed2002

Formation of Kuiper-belt binaries by dynamical friction and three-body encounters.

The Kuiper belt is a disk of icy bodies that orbit the Sun beyond Neptune; the largest known members are Pluto and its companion Charon. A few per cent of Kuiper-belt bodies have recently been found to be binaries with wide separations and mass ratios of the order of unity. Collisions were too infrequent to account for the observed number of binaries, implying that these binaries formed through collisionless interactions mediated by gravity. These interactions are likely to have been most effective during the period of runaway accretion, early in the Solar System's history. Here we show that a transient binary forms when two large bodies penetrate one another's Hill sphere (the region where their mutual forces are larger than the tidal force of the Sun). The loss of energy needed to stabilize the binary orbit can then occur either through dynamical friction from surrounding small bodies, or through the gravitational scattering of a third large body. Our estimates slightly favour the former mechanism. We predict that five per cent of Kuiper-belt objects are binaries with apparent separations greater than 0.2 arcsec, and that most are in tighter binaries or systems of higher multiplicity.

Journal Article↗

PubMed2003

An abundant population of small irregular satellites around Jupiter.

Irregular satellites have eccentric orbits that can be highly inclined or even retrograde relative to the equatorial planes of their planets. These objects cannot have formed by circumplanetary accretion, unlike the regular satellites that follow uninclined, nearly circular and prograde orbits. Rather, they are probably products of early capture from heliocentric orbits. Although the capture mechanism remains uncertain, the study of irregular satellites provides a window on processes operating in the young Solar System. Families of irregular satellites recently have been discovered around Saturn (thirteen members, refs 6, 7), Uranus (six, ref. 8) and Neptune (three, ref. 9). Because Jupiter is closer than the other giant planets, searches for smaller and fainter irregular satellites can be made. Here we report the discovery of 23 new irregular satellites of Jupiter, so increasing the total known population to 32. There are five distinct satellite groups, each dominated by one relatively large body. The groups were most probably produced by collisional shattering of precursor objects after capture by Jupiter.

Journal Article↗

PubMed2004

Crystalline water ice on the Kuiper belt object (50000) Quaoar.

The Kuiper belt is a disk-like structure consisting of solid bodies orbiting the Sun beyond Neptune. It is the source of the short-period comets and the likely repository of the Solar System's most primitive materials. Surface temperatures in the belt are low ( approximately 50 K), suggesting that ices trapped at formation should have been preserved over the age of the Solar System. Unfortunately, most Kuiper belt objects are too faint for meaningful compositional study, even with the largest available telescopes. Water ice has been reported in a handful of objects, but most appear spectrally featureless. Here we report near-infrared observations of the large Kuiper belt object (50000) Quaoar, which reveal the presence of crystalline water ice and ammonia hydrate. Crystallinity indicates that the ice has been heated to at least 110 K. Both ammonia hydrate and crystalline water ice should be destroyed by energetic particle irradiation on a timescale of about 10(7) yr. We conclude that Quaoar has been recently resurfaced, either by impact exposure of previously buried (shielded) ices or by cryovolcanic outgassing, or by a combination of these processes.

Ammonia↗

PubMed2005

Origin of the orbital architecture of the giant planets of the Solar System.

Planetary formation theories suggest that the giant planets formed on circular and coplanar orbits. The eccentricities of Jupiter, Saturn and Uranus, however, reach values of 6 per cent, 9 per cent and 8 per cent, respectively. In addition, the inclinations of the orbital planes of Saturn, Uranus and Neptune take maximum values of approximately 2 degrees with respect to the mean orbital plane of Jupiter. Existing models for the excitation of the eccentricity of extrasolar giant planets have not been successfully applied to the Solar System. Here we show that a planetary system with initial quasi-circular, coplanar orbits would have evolved to the current orbital configuration, provided that Jupiter and Saturn crossed their 1:2 orbital resonance. We show that this resonance crossing could have occurred as the giant planets migrated owing to their interaction with a disk of planetesimals. Our model reproduces all the important characteristics of the giant planets' orbits, namely their final semimajor axes, eccentricities and mutual inclinations.

Journal Article↗

PubMed2005

Discovery of an aurora on Mars.

In the high-latitude regions of Earth, aurorae are the often-spectacular visual manifestation of the interaction between electrically charged particles (electrons, protons or ions) with the neutral upper atmosphere, as they precipitate along magnetic field lines. More generally, auroral emissions in planetary atmospheres "are those that result from the impact of particles other than photoelectrons" (ref. 1). Auroral activity has been found on all four giant planets possessing a magnetic field (Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune), as well as on Venus, which has no magnetic field. On the nightside of Venus, atomic O emissions at 130.4 nm and 135.6 nm appear in bright patches of varying sizes and intensities, which are believed to be produced by electrons with energy <300 eV (ref. 7). Here we report the discovery of an aurora in the martian atmosphere, using the ultraviolet spectrometer SPICAM on board Mars Express. It corresponds to a distinct type of aurora not seen before in the Solar System: it is unlike aurorae at Earth and the giant planets, which lie at the foot of the intrinsic magnetic field lines near the magnetic poles, and unlike venusian auroras, which are diffuse, sometimes spreading over the entire disk. Instead, the martian aurora is a highly concentrated and localized emission controlled by magnetic field anomalies in the martian crust.

Journal Article↗

PubMed2005

Extreme collisions between planetesimals as the origin of warm dust around a Sun-like star.

The slow but persistent collisions between asteroids in our Solar System generate a tenuous cloud of dust known as the zodiacal light (because of the light the dust reflects). In the young Solar System, such collisions were more common and the dust production rate should have been many times larger. Yet copious dust in the zodiacal region around stars much younger than the Sun has rarely been found. Dust is known to orbit around several hundred main-sequence stars, but this dust is cold and comes from a Kuiper-belt analogous region out beyond the orbit of Neptune. Despite many searches, only a few main-sequence stars reveal warm (> 120 K) dust analogous to zodiacal dust near the Earth. Signs of planet formation (in the form of collisions between bodies) in the regions of stars corresponding to the orbits of the terrestrial planets in our Solar System have therefore been elusive. Here we report an exceptionally large amount of warm, small, silicate dust particles around the solar-type star BD+20,307 (HIP 8920, SAO 75016). The composition and quantity of dust could be explained by recent frequent or huge collisions between asteroids or other 'planetesimals' whose orbits are being perturbed by a nearby planet.

Journal Article↗

PubMed2006

The trans-neptunian object UB313 is larger than Pluto.

The most distant known object in the Solar System, 2003 UB313 (97 au from the Sun), was recently discovered near its aphelion. Its high eccentricity and inclination to the ecliptic plane, along with its perihelion near the orbit of Neptune, identify it as a member of the 'scattered disk'. This disk of bodies probably originates in the Kuiper belt objects, which orbit near the ecliptic plane in circular orbits between 30 and 50 au, and may include Pluto as a member. The optical brightness of 2003 UB313, if adjusted to Pluto's distance, is greater than that of Pluto, which suggested that it might be larger than Pluto. The actual size, however, could not be determined from the optical measurements because the surface reflectivity (albedo) was unknown. Here we report observations of the thermal emission of 2003 UB313 at a wavelength of 1.2 mm, which in combination with the measured optical brightness leads to a diameter of 3,000 +/- 300 +/- 100 km. Here the first error reflects measurement uncertainties, while the second derives from the unknown object orientation. This makes 2003 UB313 the largest known trans-neptunian object, even larger than Pluto (2,300 km). The albedo is 0.60 +/- 0.10 +/- 0.05, which is strikingly similar to that of Pluto, suggesting that the methane seen in the optical spectrum causes a highly reflective icy surface.

Journal Article↗

PubMed1994

Rossby solitary vortices, on giant planets and in the laboratory.

This is a review of laboratory experiments with a layer of shallow water having a free surface and rotating together with a vessel of parabolic form. Such a (rather original) setup has allowed one to create Rossby solitary vortex for the first time. The latter is an anticyclonic Rossby vortex not subjected to dispersive spread owing to its compensation by the nonlinearity of KdV type. By its structural, collisional, and other properties, including clear-cut cyclonic-anticyclonic asymmetry, it may be considered as a physical prototype of the large-scale long-lived anticyclonic Rossby vortices like the Great Red Spot of Jupiter or the Great Dark Spot of Neptune (this remarkable vortex was discovered by the spacecraft Voyager-2 during its farewell to the Solar System) and other vortices dominating in the atmospheres of giant planets and created by the unstable zonal flows. It has been shown that the vortex under study is a long-lived entity provided it satisfies "antitwisting condition," i.e., it has rather large amplitude (at which it rotates more quickly than it propagates and thereby carries the trapped fluid). In this case, it is not subjected to the "twisting" deformation and may be ascribed by the generalized Charney-Obukhov equation for Rossby vortices on shallow water with a free surface. The results of creating the vortex under consideration by the different methods have been compared with the results obtained by other authors in the experiments on shear-flow generation of Rossby vortices.

Journal Article↗

PubMed1996

Self-organization of the large-scale planetary and plasma drift vortices.

This paper is a semi-review. A new understanding of the self-organization mechanism of solitary (i.e., long-lived and, in this sense, soliton-like) large-scale vortices in geophysical fluid dynamics, as well as that of drift vortices in the magnetized plasma is discussed. This understanding differs from that described in a review paper by Nezlin [Chaos 4, 187-202 (1994)]. Earlier it was believed that formation of the solitary Rossby (and plasma drift) vortices was a result of equilibrium between wave dispersion and KdV-type nonlinearity. Under the influence of experimental data obtained by our team [M. V. Nezlin and E. N. Snezhkin, Rossby Vortices, Spiral Structures, Solitons (Springer-Verlag, Heidelberg, 1993)], it became obvious that the self-organization of the structures inevitably includes an essential effect of other nonlinearities; first, that presented by the Jacobian in the equations. (We replace the term "Rossby soliton" by the more exact one "the Rossby solitary vortex.") It must be noted from the very beginning that the term "self-organization" is used mainly in context with an explanation which factors (dispersion and nonlinearities of different kind) condition formation of the solitary (stable, long-lived) Rossby structures. Although, the experimental fact (see below) that the size of solitary vortices turns out to be close to the Rossby-Obukhov radius, independently of the size of the vortex local source, calls to mind the formation of an attractor. In essence, the Rossby solitary vortex self-organization process (although, only for the case of anticyclones) was described by Nycander and Sutyrin [Dyn. Atmos. Oceans 16, 473-498 (1992)]. Unfortunately, however, the authors did not use the term "self-organization." Our description, being in accord with Nycander and Sutyrin, relates not only to anticyclones, but also to anticyclones and cyclones. Second, a description of the experimental discovery of "anomalous" cyclonic-anticyclonic asymmetry is given. Unlike "normal" asymmetry which manifests, in particular, in that the big vortices dominating in giant planet atmospheres (e.g., the Great Red Spot of Jupiter, the Brown Spot of Saturn, the Great Dark Spot of Neptune, et al.) are anticyclones, the asymmetry described manifests in that large-scale solitary vortices may be as cyclones only, not anticyclones. This phenomenon is observed in the presence of a rather strong and properly directed gradient in rotating shallow water depth. This type of asymmetry exists with drift vortices in magnetized plasma. Third, the physical difference between the planetary atmosphere and the laboratory model based on the shallow water layer in a rotating paraboloid is discussed (following, in principle, the Nycander-93 work). It is shown that laboratory modeling is adequate. Fourth, it is also shown that the most essential behavior of the vortices studied on the so-called "beta-plane" of planets and in plasmas can be described by means of rather simplified and visual equations. These are the so-called generalized Charney-Obukhov equation in fluid dynamics and its plasma counterpart, the generalized Hasegawa-Mima equation. Finally, nonlinearities are revealed, which condition properties of the geostrophic vortices under study on the "f-plane," i.e., in the polar regions of planets. &c

Journal Article↗