The Purple Mountain Observatory of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the Department of Astronomy, Nanjing University, cooperating with the Albert Einstein Institute in Germany, put forward a model of the planar co-orbital circular restricted three-body problem.
Solar corona is the outermost part of the solar atmosphere. Coronal activities influence space environment between the Sun and the Earth, space weather and the Earth itself. The total solar eclipse (TSE) is the best opportunity to observe the solar corona on ground. During the TSE 2008, a series of images of the corona and partial eclipse of solar disk were obtained using telescope and CCD camera. After image processing, preliminary results of coronal structure are given, and radial brightness profiles of the corona in directions of pole and equator of the Sun are measured. Though in solar activity minimum, the shape and structure of the corona are not symmetry. The equatorial regions are more extent than the polar one, and there are also larger differences between the east and west equatorial regions and between the south and north polar regions. Coronal streamers on east side of the equator, particularly the largest one in east-south direction, are very obvious. The coronal plume in south polar region consists of more polar rays than that in north polar region. These structures are also shown in other observations and data of SOHO. The radial brightness profiles in directions of pole and equator are similar to those of the Van de Hulst model in solar minimum, but there are a few differences due to coronal activity, which is shown in the isophote map of the corona.
The Damocloids are a group of unusual asteroids that recently added a new member: 2010 EJ104. The dynamical evolution of the Damocloids may reveal a connection from the Main Belt to the Kuiper Belt and beyond the scattered disk. According to our simulations, two regions may be considered as possible origins of the Damocloids: the scattered disk, or a part of the Oort cloud, which will be perturbed to a transient region located between 700 AU and 1000 AU. Based on their potential origin, the Damocloids can be classified into two types, depending on their semi-major axes, and about 65.5% of the Damocloids are classified into type I which mainly originate from the Oort cloud. Whether the Damocloids are inactive nuclei of the Halley Family of Comets may depend on their origin. K
Su WangHai-Bin ZhaoJiang-Hui JiSheng JinYan XiaHao LuMin WangJin-Sheng Yao
Interior to Mercury's orbit is a dynamically stable region where a population of small, asteroid-like bodies called Vulcanoids has been hypothesized to reside. The Vulcanoid Zone (VZ) extends inward from about 0.18 au to about 0.08 au. During the Total Solar Eclipse (TSE) in 2008, a search for Vulcanoids was completed. Although no Vulcanoids was detected to a moving object detection limit of V=12.8, the search was far more comprehensive than previous searches.