Re: Wild Speculation

["Richard Miles" <rmiles@baa.u-net.com>]

Michael Richmond has pointed people in the correct direction.  Thanks.

The web address I quote below doesn't appear to work partly as it has had a
CR inserted which has split the tail-end text.

Follow Michael's suggestion or try
http://adsabs.harvard.edu/bib_abs.html

In the Query Form use ApJ for the Journal abbreviation, 1989 for the year,
337 for the volume and 927 for the page.

Apologies for this unforeseen error.
Richard

----- Original Message -----
From: Richard Miles <rmiles@baa.u-net.com>
To: <tass@listserv.wwa.com>; Tom Droege <tdroege2@earthlink.net>
Sent: Monday, May 19, 2003 10:32 PM
Subject: Re: Wild Speculation


> Tom,
>
> Start looking at:
>
> http://adsbit.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-iarticle_query?bibcode=1989ApJ...337
>..927S
>
> You can download GIF images of each of the six pages.
> Click on 'Next Page' to get each in turn.
>
> I've attached the first page for people's information.
>
> BTW - The frequency rate estimate is very uncertain.
>
> Richard
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: Tom Droege <tdroege2@earthlink.net>
> To: Richard Miles <rmiles@baa.u-net.com>; <tass@listserv.wwa.com>
> Sent: Monday, May 19, 2003 4:09 PM
> Subject: Re: Wild Speculation
>
>
> > Richard,
> >
> > Thank you.   Do you know if the Ap.J. is available to me on line?  I can
> > always go into Fermilab to read it.
> >
> > Hmmm!  I have 22 star years of observations and I see a few.  So they
> would
> > have to happen more than once a century per star to match what I see.
> >
> > Tom
> >
> > At 09:12 PM 5/19/03 +0100, you wrote:
> > >Tom,
> > >
> > >Some input.
> > >Brad Schaefer published a paper in the Astrophysical Journal (Ap.J.
337,
> > >927-933, 1989 Feb 15) entitled "Flashes from Normal Stars".
> > >That was some 14 years ago and I'm not sure what happened subsequently
as
> I
> > >haven't done any literature search on the subject but it was certainly
a
> > >thought-provoking paper and well worth a read.  How did the
astronomical
> > >community react to Schaefer's suggestion??
> > >
> > >In that paper, two mechanisms were considered to explain the observed
> > >phenomena :
> > >One involved the reconnection of a star's magnetic field' - i.e. where
a
> > >large part of the energy stored in a star's magnetic field is released.
> > >The second involved the impact of an asteroid (or comet) onto an
> unobserved
> > >white dwarf companion.
> > >
> > >(Not sure why a white dwarf has to be postulated here - I would have
> thought
> > >that impacts by massive comets or planetesimals loose in interstellar
> space
> > >could also be considered).  The frequency rate estimated was of the
order
> of
> > >once per century per normal field star.
> > >
> > >I tend to favour the comet / minor planet / planetesimal impact as our
> > >knowledge of these bodies is very sketchy and there may be some regions
> in
> > >our galaxy where the equivalent 'Oort Clouds' are relatively highly
> > >populated with large bodies so we can't use our Sun as a typical
example.
> > >Indeed, that life evolved here may be evidence that our circumsolar
> > >environment is atypical.
> > >
> > >Hope this helps.
> > >Maybe others may have another angle on this.
> > >
> > >Cheers,
> > >Richard Miles
> > >
> > >
> > >----- Original Message -----
> > >From: Tom Droege <tdroege2@earthlink.net>
> > >To: <tass@listserv.wwa.com>
> > >Sent: Monday, May 19, 2003 11:55 AM
> > >Subject: Wild Speculation
> > >
> > >
> > > > First, I am encouraged that the data is picking up real asteroid
> crossings
> > > > of stars in the data base.  This gives me some confidence in the
data.
> No
> > > > doubt we could track this asteroid (and others) with the single hit
> data.
> > > >
> > > > So far, we have a sample of two.  One is an asteroid, the other is
> > > > unknown.  Is anyone interested in looking at more examples?
> > > >
> > > > I could search the data for stars that have 10 or more measurements
> with
> > > > one or more high points.  My dumb approach would be to compute sigma
> for
> > > > the measurements of each star and then look for 5 sigma high points.
> I
> > > > could probably do this in a couple of days.  My guess from manually
> paging
> > > > through the data is that I might get a couple of hundred objects
from
> my 2
> > > > million star list.
> > > >
> > > > Would anyone want to work on this data set if I make it?
> > > >
> > > > Even better, does someone want to write a perl script that will
> process
> > >the
> > > > data file and output a string or interesting star measurements?  I
can
> do
> > > > this, but it will take me a few days.   I suspect that most of you
can
> > >dash
> > > > it off in 10 minutes.   OK, the actual file that I have is called
> > > > collected.t and is the result of merging the .cal files, sorting,
> removing
> > > > flagged entries and processing the result through collect_stars.pl.
> > > >
> > > > In a spirit of fun, I will give the first person who sends me a
> working
> > > > perl script a week head start on the resulting data.  Send me a
> script, I
> > > > will send you a data set.  It should be small enough that I can just
> > >attach
> > > > it to an e-mail.   I reserve the right to allow ties if I don't get
> back
> > >to
> > > > reading my e-mail soon enough.
> > > >
> > > > The format was presented in the post.  I will answer any questions
> about
> > > > it, but it is well defined by collect_stars.pl which is available on
> the
> > > > home page.
> > > >
> > > > Tom Droege
> > > >
> > > >
> > > >
> > > >
> > > >
> >
> >
> >
> >
>