Nuclear lines revealing the injection of cosmic rays in supernova remnants

At high energies, the hadronic origin of gamma rays from supernova remnants is still debated. Assuming the observed gamma-rays from the Wolf-Rayet supernova remnant Cas A are due to accelerated protons and ions, we predict the nuclear de-excitation line emission arising from interactions with the heavy elements in the supernova ejecta. This illustrative example highlights the importance of MeV gamma ray observations of the hadronic fingerprint of cosmic rays. The lines could be observed in the MeV band with a future space mission such as GRIPS which has been proposed to ESA as an all-sky survey mission with gamma-ray, X-ray and near-infrared telescopes. In MeV gamma rays, its sensitivity will improve by a factor of 40 compared with previous missions.

Exploring the Universe from hard X-rays to gamma rays with GRIPS

The Universe is still largely unexplored between hard X-rays and 100 MeV gamma rays. Using advanced detector technology, the combined pair and Compton telescope GRIPS can achieve a sensitivity improvement by a factor of up to 40 compared with previous observatories. The gamma ray imaging, polarimetry, and spectroscopy mission GRIPS would be a pathfinder in the transient Universe, discovering the most redshifted gamma ray bursts and blazars, detecting for the first time the primary 56Ni from supernovae, identifying sources of cosmic ray nuclei, exploring white territory in the plasma chart by measuring the emission of magnetars, and resolving the structure of the enigmatic pair halo of our Galaxy.

The COSPIX mission: focusing on the energetic and obscured Universe

Tracing the formation and evolution of all supermassive black holes, including the obscured ones, understanding how black holes influence their surroundings and how matter behaves under extreme conditions, are recognized as key science objectives to be addressed by the next generation of instruments. These are the main goals of the COSPIX proposal, made to ESA in December 2010 in the context of its call for selection of the M3 mission. In addition, COSPIX, will also provide key measurements on the non thermal Universe, particularly in relation to the question of the acceleration of particles, as well as on many other fundamental questions as for example the energetic particle content of clusters of galaxies. COSPIX is proposed as an observatory operating from 0.3 to more than 100 keV. The payload features a single long focal length focusing telescope offering an effective area close to ten times larger than any scheduled focusing mission at 30 keV, an angular resolution better than 20 arcseconds in hard X-rays, and polarimetric capabilities within the same focal plane instrumentation. In this paper, we describe the science objectives of the mission, its baseline design, and its performances, as proposed to ESA.

Fermi Observation of Solar System Gamma-Ray sources

The Large Area Telescope (LAT) onboard the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope (Fermi) is a pair-conversion detector operating at energies from 20 MeV to >300 GeV. Its main operating mode is the all-sky survey. Since the beginning of the mission the Fermi-LAT has observed the high-energy gamma-ray emission from the sources in the solar system: the Sun, the Moon, and the Earth. This emission is induced by Galactic cosmic ray (CR) interactions with their surface. Additionally, an extended emission around the sun is produced by CR electrons via inverse Compton scattering of solar photons. In this paper we report the current status of observations of the solar system sources.

Correlation data compatibility for the "Radioastron" mission

Euclid: an optical-NIR all sky space mission for Cosmology

How much food will there be in Heaven?’: Lutherans and Aborigines around Cooktown before 1900

The founding of the Lutheran mission at Cape Bedford in Cooktown and events leading to the establishment of the Aboriginal Hopevale community around 1900 are discussed. The Aborigines frequented the mission for food and settled there eventually through marriage to girls in the missionary.

Aboriginal fertility at the time of European contact: the Daly River Mission Baptismal Register

Data from the Daly River Mission baptismal register maintained from 1888 to 1901 are used to study patterns of Aboriginal fertility at the time of European contact. It is concluded that Aboriginal fertility was high, but so was the mortality rate of infants and small children, which eventually resulted in small family sizes.

Off the mission stations: Aborigines in Gippsland 1860–1890

An account on the lifestyle and activities of some of the Kurnai people of Gippsland between 1860 and 1890, who lived independently away from mission stations, is presented. The manner in which the residents of the mission stations also mingled in the wider community is discussed.

Learning times. An experience of Arabana life and mission education