A runaway collision in a young star cluster as the origin of the brightest supernova

Supernova SN 2006gy in the galaxy NGC 1260 is the most luminous recorded. Its progenitor might have been a very massive (>100 Mo, where is the mass of the Sun) star, but that interpretation is incompatible with hydrogen in the spectrum of the supernova; stars >40 Moare believed to have shed their hydrogen envelopes several hundred thousand years before the explosion. Alternatively, the progenitor might have arisen from the merger of two massive stars. Here we show that the collision frequency of massive stars in a dense and young cluster (of the kind to be expected near the centre of a galaxy) is sufficient to provide a reasonable chance that SN 2006gy resulted from such a bombardment. If this is the correct explanation, then we predict that when the supernova fades (in a year or so) a dense cluster of massive stars will become visible at the site of the explosion.     

A planetary system as the origin of structure in Fomalhaut's dust belt

The Sun and >15 per cent of nearby stars are surrounded by dusty disks that must be collisionally replenished by asteroids and comets, as the dust would otherwise be depleted on timescales <10(7) years (ref. 1). Theoretical studies show that the structure of a dusty disk can be modified by the gravitational influence of planets, but the observational evidence is incomplete, at least in part because maps of the thermal infrared emission from the disks have low linear resolution (35 au in the best case). Optical images provide higher resolution, but the closest examples (AU Mic and beta Pic) are edge-on, preventing the direct measurement of the azimuthal and radial disk structure that is required for fitting theoretical models of planetary perturbations. Here we report the detection of optical light reflected from the dust grains orbiting Fomalhaut (HD 216956). The system is inclined 24 degrees away from edge-on, enabling the measurement of disk structure around its entire circumference, at a linear resolution of 0.5 au. The dust is distributed in a belt 25 au wide, with a very sharp inner edge at a radial distance of 133 au, and we measure an offset of 15 au between the belt's geometric centre and Fomalhaut. Taken together, the sharp inner edge and offset demonstrate the presence of planetary-mass objects orbiting Fomalhaut.     

A compact system of small planets around a former red-giant star

Planets that orbit their parent star at less than about one astronomical unit (1?AU is the Earth-Sun distance) are expected to be engulfed when the star becomes a red giant. Previous observations have revealed the existence of post-red-giant host stars with giant planets orbiting as close as 0.116?AU or with brown dwarf companions in tight orbits, showing that these bodies can survive engulfment. What has remained unclear is whether planets can be dragged deeper into the red-giant envelope without being disrupted and whether the evolution of the parent star itself could be affected. Here we report the presence of two nearly Earth-sized bodies orbiting the post-red-giant, hot B subdwarf star KIC 05807616 at distances of 0.0060 and 0.0076?AU, with orbital periods of 5.7625 and 8.2293 hours, respectively. These bodies probably survived deep immersion in the former red-giant envelope. They may be the dense cores of evaporated giant planets that were transported closer to the star during the engulfment and triggered the mass loss necessary for the formation of the hot B subdwarf, which might also explain how some stars of this type did not form in binary systems.     

High star formation rates as the origin of turbulence in early and modern disk galaxies

Observations of star formation and kinematics in early galaxies at high spatial and spectral resolution have shown that two-thirds are massive rotating disk galaxies, with the remainder being less massive non-rotating objects. The line-of-sight-averaged velocity dispersions are typically five times higher than in today's disk galaxies. This suggests that gravitationally unstable, gas-rich disks in the early Universe are fuelled by cold, dense accreting gas flowing along cosmic filaments and penetrating hot galactic gas halos. These accreting flows, however, have not been observed, and cosmic accretion cannot power the observed level of turbulence. Here we report observations of a sample of rare, high-velocity-dispersion disk galaxies in the nearby Universe where cold accretion is unlikely to drive their high star formation rates. We find that their velocity dispersions are correlated with their star formation rates, but not their masses or gas fractions, which suggests that star formation is the energetic driver of galaxy disk turbulence at all cosmic epochs.     

Iron meteorites as remnants of planetesimals formed in the terrestrial planet region

Iron meteorites are core fragments from differentiated and subsequently disrupted planetesimals. The parent bodies are usually assumed to have formed in the main asteroid belt, which is the source of most meteorites. Observational evidence, however, does not indicate that differentiated bodies or their fragments were ever common there. This view is also difficult to reconcile with the fact that the parent bodies of iron meteorites were as small as 20 km in diameter and that they formed 1-2 Myr earlier than the parent bodies of the ordinary chondrites. Here we show that the iron-meteorite parent bodies most probably formed in the terrestrial planet region. Fast accretion times there allowed small planetesimals to melt early in Solar System history by the decay of short-lived radionuclides (such as 26Al, 60Fe). The protoplanets emerging from this population not only induced collisional evolution among the remaining planetesimals but also scattered some of the survivors into the main belt, where they stayed for billions of years before escaping via a combination of collisions, Yarkovsky thermal forces, and resonances. We predict that some asteroids are main-belt interlopers (such as (4) Vesta). A select few may even be remnants of the long-lost precursor material that formed the Earth.     

A disk of dust and molecular gas around a high-mass protostar

The processes leading to the birth of low-mass stars such as our Sun have been well studied, but the formation of high-mass (over eight times the Sun's mass, M(o)) stars remains poorly understood. Recent studies suggest that high-mass stars may form through accretion of material from a circumstellar disk, in essentially the same way as low-mass stars form, rather than through the merging of several low-mass stars. There is as yet, however, no conclusive evidence. Here we report the presence of a flattened disk-like structure around a massive 15M(o) protostar in the Cepheus A region, based on observations of continuum emission from the dust and line emission from the molecular gas. The disk has a radius of about 330 astronomical units (Au) and a mass of 1 to 8 M(o). It is oriented perpendicular to, and spatially coincident with, the central embedded powerful bipolar radio jet, just as is the case with low-mass stars, from which we conclude that high-mass stars can form through accretion.     

Discovery of water vapour around IRC+10216 as evidence for comets orbiting another star.

Since 1995, planets with masses comparable to that of Jupiter have been discovered around approximately 60 stars. These planets have not been seen directly, but their presence has been inferred from the small reflex motions that they gravitationally induce on the star they orbit; these motions result in small periodic wavelength shifts in the stellar spectrum. The presence of analogues of the smaller bodies in our Solar System cannot, however, be determined using this technique, because the induced reflex motions are too small-so an alternative approach is needed. Here we report the observation of circumstellar water vapour around the ageing carbon star IRC+10216; water is not expected in measurable quantities around such a star. The only plausible explanation for this water is that the recent evolution of IRC+10216, which has been accompanied by a prodigious increase in its luminosity, is causing the vaporization of a collection of orbiting icy bodies-a process considered in an earlier theoretical study.     

Io as a source of the jovian dust streams

Streams of dust emerging from the direction of Jupiter were discovered in 1992 during the flyby of the Ulysses spacecraft, but their precise origin within the jovian system remained unclear. Further data collected by the Galileo spacecraft, which has been orbiting Jupiter since December 1995, identified the possible sources of dust as Jupiter's main ring, its gossamer ring, comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 (ref. 8) and Io. All but Jupiter's gossamer ring and Io have since been ruled out. Here we find that the dominant source of the jovian dust streams is Io, on the basis of periodicities in the dust impact signal. Io's volcanoes, rather than impact ejecta, are the dust sources.     

A star in a 15.2-year orbit around the supermassive black hole at the centre of the Milky Way

Many galaxies are thought to have supermassive black holes at their centres-more than a million times the mass of the Sun. Measurements of stellar velocities and the discovery of variable X-ray emission have provided strong evidence in favour of such a black hole at the centre of the Milky Way, but have hitherto been unable to rule out conclusively the presence of alternative concentrations of mass. Here we report ten years of high-resolution astrometric imaging that allows us to trace two-thirds of the orbit of the star currently closest to the compact radio source (and massive black-hole candidate) Sagittarius A*. The observations, which include both pericentre and apocentre passages, show that the star is on a bound, highly elliptical keplerian orbit around Sgr A*, with an orbital period of 15.2 years and a pericentre distance of only 17 light hours. The orbit with the best fit to the observations requires a central point mass of (3.7 +/- 1.5) x 10(6) solar masses (M(*)). The data no longer allow for a central mass composed of a dense cluster of dark stellar objects or a ball of massive, degenerate fermions.     

Type II supernovae as a significant source of interstellar dust

Large amounts of dust (>10(8)M(o)) have recently been discovered in high-redshift quasars and galaxies corresponding to a time when the Universe was less than one-tenth of its present age. The stellar winds produced by stars in the late stages of their evolution (on the asymptotic giant branch of the Hertzsprung-Russell diagram) are thought to be the main source of dust in galaxies, but they cannot produce that dust on a short enough timescale (&<1 Gyr) to explain the results in the high-redshift galaxies. Supernova explosions of massive stars (type II) are also a potential source, with models predicting 0.2-4M(o) of dust. As massive stars evolve rapidly, on timescales of a few Myr, these supernovae could be responsible for the high-redshift dust. Observations of supernova remnants in the Milky Way, however, have hitherto revealed only 10(-7)-10(-3)M(o) each, which is insufficient to explain the high-redshift data. Here we report the detection of approximately 2-4M(o) of cold dust in the youngest known Galactic supernova remnant, Cassiopeia A. This observation implies that supernovae are at least as important as stellar winds in producing dust in our Galaxy and would have been the dominant source of dust at high redshifts.     

Clustered star formation as a natural explanation for the Halpha cut-off in disk galaxies

The rate of star formation in a galaxy is often determined by the observation of emission in the Halpha line, which is related to the presence of short-lived massive stars. Disk galaxies show a strong cut-off in Halpha radiation at a certain galactocentric distance, which has led to the conclusion that star formation is suppressed in the outer regions of disk galaxies. This is seemingly in contradiction to recent observations in the ultraviolet which imply that disk galaxies have star formation beyond the Halpha cut-off, and that the star-formation-rate surface density is linearly related to the underlying gas surface density, which is a shallower relationship than that derived from Halpha luminosities. In a galaxy-wide formulation, the clustered nature of star formation has recently led to the insight that the total galactic Halpha luminosity is nonlinearly related to the galaxy-wide star formation rate. Here we show that a local formulation of the concept of clustered star formation naturally leads to a steeper radial decrease in the Halpha surface luminosity than in the star-formation-rate surface density, in quantitative agreement with the observations, and that the observed Halpha cut-off arises naturally.     

Exclusion of a luminous red giant as a companion star to the progenitor of supernova SN 2011fe

Type Ia supernovae are thought to result from a thermonuclear explosion of an accreting white dwarf in a binary system, but little is known of the precise nature of the companion star and the physical properties of the progenitor system. There are two classes of models: double-degenerate (involving two white dwarfs in a close binary system) and single-degenerate models. In the latter, the primary white dwarf accretes material from a secondary companion until conditions are such that carbon ignites, at a mass of 1.38 times the mass of the Sun. The type Ia supernova SN 2011fe was recently detected in a nearby galaxy. Here we report an analysis of archival images of the location of SN 2011fe. The luminosity of the progenitor system (especially the companion star) is 10-100 times fainter than previous limits on other type Ia supernova progenitor systems, allowing us to rule out luminous red giants and almost all helium stars as the mass-donating companion to the exploding white dwarf.     

Comet dust as a source of amino acids at the Cretaceous/Tertiary boundary

Large amounts of apparently extraterrestrial amino acids have been detected recently in rocks at the Cretaceous/Tertiary (K/T) boundary at Stevns Klint, Denmark. The amino acids were found a few tens of centimetres above and below the boundary layer, but were absent in the boundary clay itself. If one supposes that these compounds were carried to the Earth by the giant meteorite thought to have impacted at the end of the Cretaceous, some puzzling questions are raised: why weren't the amino acids incinerated in the impact, and why are they not present in the boundary clay itself? Here we suggest that the amino acids were actually deposited with the dust from a giant comet trapped in the inner Solar System, a fragment of which comprised the K/T impactor. Amino acids or their precursors in the comet dust would have been swept up by the Earth both before and after the impact, but any conveyed by the impactor itself would have been destroyed. The observed amino acid layers would thus have been deposited without an impact.     

关于n(n≥1)一元和多元函数极值的统一性研究

将文献[1]、[2]的两个定理进行推广改进,得到的结论实现了n元函数极值求解的两类统一性:一是多数教材中所有的一元函数、二元函数极值判别法与多元函数极值判别法的统一;二是多元函数条件极值与无条件极值判别法的统一。     

Rotational breakup as the origin of small binary asteroids

Asteroids with satellites are observed throughout the Solar System, from subkilometre near-Earth asteroid pairs to systems of large and distant bodies in the Kuiper belt. The smallest and closest systems are found among the near-Earth and small inner main-belt asteroids, which typically have rapidly rotating primaries and close secondaries on circular orbits. About 15 per cent of near-Earth and main-belt asteroids with diameters under 10 km have satellites. The mechanism that forms such similar binaries in these two dynamically different populations was hitherto unclear. Here we show that these binaries are created by the slow spinup of a 'rubble pile' asteroid by means of the thermal YORP (Yarkovsky-O'Keefe-Radzievskii-Paddack) effect. We find that mass shed from the equator of a critically spinning body accretes into a satellite if the material is collisionally dissipative and the primary maintains a low equatorial elongation. The satellite forms mostly from material originating near the primary's surface and enters into a close, low-eccentricity orbit. The properties of binaries produced by our model match those currently observed in the small near-Earth and main-belt asteroid populations, including 1999 KW(4) (refs 3, 4).     

Source of a floating dust episode over the Qingdao region and dust throughput to the ocean

A floating dust weather happened on March 11–12, 1995 over the Qingdao region. Its source’s and throughput to the ocean were studied. The result indicated that the floating dust was caused by the dust storm that started in northwestern China and developed in northern China. 21 × 10⁶t fine soil particles were carried to the ocean during the episode.     

新型丙烯酸酯抑尘剂的合成及应用性能

以丙烯酸丁酯（BA）、甲基丙烯酸甲酯（MMA）为主要单体，采用传统的乳液聚合方法合成了稳定的聚丙烯酸酯水溶性抑尘剂乳液，考察了单体配比、引发剂和乳化剂用量对乳液性能的影响。此外，还采用黏度、IR、TG、SEM等方法对乳液进行了表征，研究了其作为固沙抑尘剂时的固沙抑尘效果。结果表明MMA质量含量25%、引发剂占单体质量0.8%、乳化剂质量含量3%时，所得产品作为固沙抑尘剂使用效果好，热稳定性和黏度等满足室外抑尘的需要。     

Episodic outgassing as the origin of atmospheric methane on Titan

Saturn's largest satellite, Titan, has a massive nitrogen atmosphere containing up to 5 per cent methane near its surface. Photochemistry in the stratosphere would remove the present-day atmospheric methane in a few tens of millions of years. Before the Cassini-Huygens mission arrived at Saturn, widespread liquid methane or mixed hydrocarbon seas hundreds of metres in thickness were proposed as reservoirs from which methane could be resupplied to the atmosphere over geologic time. Titan fly-by observations and ground-based observations rule out the presence of extensive bodies of liquid hydrocarbons at present, which means that methane must be derived from another source over Titan's history. Here we show that episodic outgassing of methane stored as clathrate hydrates within an icy shell above an ammonia-enriched water ocean is the most likely explanation for Titan's atmospheric methane. The other possible explanations all fail because they cannot explain the absence of surface liquid reservoirs and/or the low dissipative state of the interior. On the basis of our models, we predict that future fly-bys should reveal the existence of both a subsurface water ocean and a rocky core, and should detect more cryovolcanic edifices.     

Disruption of fragmented parent bodies as the origin of asteroid families

Asteroid families are groups of small bodies that share certain orbit and spectral properties. More than 20 families have now been identified, each believed to have resulted from the collisional break-up of a large parent body in a regime where gravity controls the outcome of the collision more than the material strength of the rock. The size and velocity distributions of the family members provide important constraints for testing our understanding of the break-up process, but erosion and dynamical diffusion of the orbits over time can erase the original signature of the collision. The recently identified young Karin family provides a unique opportunity to study a collisional outcome almost unaffected by orbit evolution. Here we report numerical simulations modelling classes of collisions that reproduce the main characteristics of the Karin family. The sensitivity of the outcome of the collision to the internal structure of the parent body allows us to show that the family must have originated from the break-up of a pre-fragmented parent body, and that all large family members formed by the gravitational reaccumulation of smaller bodies. We argue that most of the identified asteroid families are likely to have had a similar history.