arXiv subjects

Pamela Cambianica

Publications and source records attributed to Pamela Cambianica.

3 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2022

The CUBES Science Case

We introduce the scientific motivations for the development of the Cassegrain U-Band Efficient Spectrograph (CUBES) that is now in construction for the Very Large Telescope. The assembled cases span a broad range of contemporary topics across Solar System, Galactic and extragalactic astronomy, where observations are limited by the performance of current ground-based spectrographs shortwards of 400nm. A brief background to each case is presented and specific technical requirements on the instrument design that flow-down from each case are identified. These were used as inputs to the CUBES design, that will provide a factor of ten gain in efficiency for astronomical spectroscopy over 300-405nm, at resolving powers of R~24,000 and ~7,000. We include performance estimates that demonstrate the ability of CUBES to observe sources that are up to three magnitudes fainter than currently possible at ground-ultraviolet wavelengths, and we place its predicted performance in the context of existing facillities.

astro-ph.IM↗

arXiv2022

Cometary science with CUBES

The proposed CUBES spectrograph for ESO's Very Large Telescope will be an exceptionally powerful instrument for the study of comets. The gas coma of a comet contains a large number of emission features in the near-UV range covered by CUBES (305-400 nm), which are diagnostic of the composition of the ices in its nucleus and the chemistry in the coma. Production rates and relative ratios between different species reveal how much ice is present and inform models of the conditions in the early solar system. In particular, CUBES will lead to advances in detection of water from very faint comets, revealing how much ice may be hidden in the main asteroid belt, and in measuring isotopic and molecular composition ratios in a much wider range of comets than currently possible, provide constraints on their formation temperatures. CUBES will also be sensitive to emissions from gaseous metals (e.g., FeI and NiI), which have recently been identified in comets and offer an entirely new area of investigation to understand these enigmatic objects.

astro-ph.EP↗

arXiv2020

High Quality Software for Planetary Science from Space

Planetary science space missions need high quality software ed efficient algorithms in order to extract innovative scientific results from flight data. Reliable and efficient software technologies are increasingly vital to improve and prolong the exploiting of the results of a mission, to allow the application of established algorithms and technologies also to future space missions and for the scientific analysis of archived data. Here after will be given an in-depth analysis study accompanied by implementation examples on ESA and ASI missions and some remarkable results fruit of decades of important experience reached by space agencies and research institutes in the field. Space applications software quality analysis is not different from other application contexts, among the hi-tech and hi-reliability fields. We describe here a Software Quality study in general, then we will focus on the quality of space mission software (s/w) with details on some notable cases.

astro-ph.IM↗