Browsing by Subject "spectrograph observations"
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Item The Abundance Of Boron In Diffuse Interstellar Clouds(2011-02) Ritchey, A. M.; Federman, S. R.; Sheffer, Y.; Lambert, David L.; Sheffer, Y.We present a comprehensive survey of boron abundances in diffuse interstellar clouds from observations made with the Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph (STIS) of the Hubble Space Telescope. Our sample of 56 Galactic sight lines is the result of a complete search of archival STIS data for the B II lambda 1362 resonance line, with each detection confirmed by the presence of absorption from O I lambda 1355, Cu II lambda 1358, and Ga II lambda 1414 (when available) at the same velocity. Five previous measurements of interstellar B II from Goddard High Resolution Spectrograph observations are incorporated in our analysis, yielding a combined sample that more than quadruples the number of sight lines with significant boron detections. Our survey also constitutes the first extensive analysis of interstellar gallium from STIS spectra and expands on previously published results for oxygen and copper. The observations probe both high-and low-density diffuse environments, allowing the density-dependent effects of interstellar depletion to be clearly identified in the gas-phase abundance data for each element. In the case of boron, the increase in relative depletion with line-of-sight density amounts to an abundance difference of 0.8 dex between the warm and cold phases of the diffuse interstellar medium. The abundance of boron in warm, low-density gas is found to be B/H = (2.4 +/- 0.6) x 10(-10), which represents a depletion of 60% relative to the meteoritic boron abundance. Beyond the effects of depletion, our survey reveals sight lines with enhanced boron abundances that potentially trace the recent production of B-11, resulting from spallation reactions involving either cosmic rays or neutrinos. Future observations will help to disentangle the relative contributions from the two spallation channels for B-11 synthesis.Item HST-COS Observations of Hydrogen, Helium, Carbon, and Nitrogen Emissions From the SN 1987A Reverse Shock(2011-12) France, Kevin; McCray, Richard; Penton, Steven V.; Kirshner, Robert P.; Challis, Peter; Laming, J. Martin; Bouchet, Patrice; Chevalier, Roger; Garnavich, Peter M.; Fransson, Claes; Heng, Kevin; Larsson, Josefin; Lawrence, Stephen; Lundqvist, Peter; Panagia, Nino; Pun, Chun S. J.; Smith, Nathan; Sollerman, Jesper; Sonneborn, George; Sugerman, Ben; Wheeler, J. Craig; Wheeler, J. CraigWe present the most sensitive ultraviolet observations of Supernova 1987A to date. Imaging spectroscopy from the Hubble Space Telescope-Cosmic Origins Spectrograph shows many narrow (Delta upsilon similar to 300 km s(-1)) emission lines from the circumstellar ring, broad (Delta upsilon similar to 10-20 x 103 km s(-1)) emission lines from the reverse shock, and ultraviolet continuum emission. The high signal-to-noise ratio (>40 per resolution element) broad Ly alpha emission is excited by soft X-ray and EUV heating of mostly neutral gas in the circumstellar ring and outer supernova debris. The ultraviolet continuum at lambda > 1350 angstrom can be explained by H I two-photon (2s (2)S(1/2)-1s (2)S(1/2)) emission from the same region. We confirm our earlier, tentative detection of N V lambda 1240 emission from the reverse shock and present the first detections of broad He II lambda 1640, C IV lambda 1550, and N IV] lambda 1486 emission lines from the reverse shock. The helium abundance in the high-velocity material is He/H = 0.14 +/- 0.06. The N V/H alpha line ratio requires partial ion-electron equilibration (T(e)/T(p) approximate to 0.14-0.35). We find that the N/C abundance ratio in the gas crossing the reverse shock is significantly higher than that in the circumstellar ring, a result that may be attributed to chemical stratification in the outer envelope of the supernova progenitor. The N/C abundance may have been stratified prior to the ring expulsion, or this result may indicate continued CNO processing in the progenitor subsequent to the expulsion of the circumstellar ring.