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The discovery of a plume of water vapour and ice particles emerging from warm fractures ('tiger stripes') in Saturn's small, icy moon Enceladus(1-6) raised the question of whether the plume emerges from a subsurface liquid source(6-8) or from the decomposition of ice(9-12). Previous compositional analyses of particles injected by the plume into Saturn's diffuse E ring have already indicated the presence of liquid water(8), but the mechanisms driving the plume emission are still debated(13). Here we report an analysis of the composition of freshly ejected particles close to the sources. Salt-rich ice particles are found to dominate the total mass flux of ejected solids (more than 99 per cent) but they are depleted in the population escaping into Saturn's E ring. Ice grains containing organic compounds are found to be more abundant in dense parts of the plume. Whereas previous Cassini observations were compatible with a variety of plume formation mechanisms, these data eliminate or severely constrain non-liquid models and strongly imply that a salt-water reservoir with a large evaporating surface(7,8) provides nearly all of the matter in the plume.
In this work we study the response of a pnCCD by means of X-ray spectroscopy in the energy range between 6 key and 20 key and by Laue diffraction techniques. The analyses include measurements of characteristic detector parameters like energy resolution, count rate capability and effects of different gain settings. The limit of a single photon counting operation in white beam X-ray diffraction experiments is discussed with regard to the occurrence of pile-up events, for which the energy information about individual photons is lost. In case of monochromatic illumination the pnCCD can be used as a fast conventional CCD with a charge handling capacity (CHC) of about 300,000 electrons per pixel. If the CHC is exceeded, any surplus charge will spill to neighboring pixels perpendicular to the transfer direction due to electrostatic repulsion. The possibilities of increasing the number of storable electrons are investigated for different voltage settings by exposing a single pixel with X-rays generated by a microfocus X-ray source. The pixel binning mode is tested as an alternative approach that enables a pnCCD operation with significantly shorter readout times.
During the summer of 2013, a 4-month spectroscopic campaign took place to observe the variabilities in three Wolf-Rayet stars. The spectroscopic data have been analysed for WR 134 (WN6b), to better understand its behaviour and long-term periodicity, which we interpret as arising from corotating interaction regions (CIRs) in the wind. By analysing the variability of the He ii lambda 5411 emission line, the previously identified period was refined to P = 2.255 +/- 0.008 (s.d.) d. The coherency time of the variability, which we associate with the lifetime of the CIRs in the wind, was deduced to be 40 +/- 6 d, or similar to 18 cycles, by cross-correlating the variability patterns as a function of time. When comparing the phased observational grey-scale difference images with theoretical grey-scales previously calculated from models including CIRs in an optically thin stellar wind, we find that two CIRs were likely present. A separation in longitude of Delta I center dot a parts per thousand integral 90A degrees was determined between the two CIRs and we suggest that the different maximum velocities that they reach indicate that they emerge from different latitudes. We have also been able to detect observational signatures of the CIRs in other spectral lines (C iv lambda lambda 5802,5812 and He i lambda 5876). Furthermore, a DAC was found to be present simultaneously with the CIR signatures detected in the He i lambda 5876 emission line which is consistent with the proposed geometry of the large-scale structures in the wind. Small-scale structures also show a presence in the wind, simultaneously with the larger scale structures, showing that they do in fact co-exist.
Context. Most theoretical investigations of dust charging processes in space have treated the current balance condition as independent of grain size. However, for small grains, since they are often observed in space environments, a dependence on grain size is expected owing to secondary electron emission (SEE). Here, by the term "small" we mean a particle size comparable to the typical penetration depth for given primary electron energy. The results are relevant for the dynamics of small, charged dust particles emitted by the volcanic moon Io, which forms the Jovian dust streams. Aims. We revise the theory of charging of small (submicron sized) micrometeoroids to take into account a high production of secondary electrons for small grains immersed in an isotropic flux of electrons. We apply our model to obtain an improved estimate for the charge of the dust streams leaving the Jovian system, detected by several spacecraft. Methods. We apply a continuum model to describe the penetration of primary electrons in a grain and the emission of secondary electrons along the path. Averaging over an isotropic flux of primaries, we derive a new expression for the secondary electron yield, which can be used to express the secondary electron current on a grain. Results. For the Jupiter plasma environment we derive the surface potential of grains composed of NaCl (believed to be the major constituent of Jovian dust stream particles) or silicates. For small particles, the potential depends on grain size and the secondary electron current induces a sensitivity to material properties. As a result of the small particle effect, the estimates for the charging times and for the fractional charge fluctuations of NaCl grains obtained using our general approach to SEE give results qualitatively different from the analogous estimates derived from the traditional approach to SEE. We find that for the charging environment considered in this paper field emission does not limit the charging of NaCl grains.