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A Distant Mirror: Solar Oscillations Observed on Neptune by the Kepler K2 MissionStarting in 2014 December, Kepler (K2) observed Neptune continuously for 49 days at a 1-minute cadence. The goals consisted of studying its atmospheric dynamics, detecting its global acoustic oscillations, and those of the Sun, which we report on here. We present the first indirect detection of solar oscillations in intensity measurements. Beyond the remarkable technical performance, it indicates how Kepler would see a star like the Sun. The result from the global asteroseismic approach, which consists of measuring the oscillation frequency at maximum amplitude max velocity and the mean frequency separation between mode overtones delta velocity, is surprising as the max velocity measured from Neptune photometry is larger than the accepted value. Compared to the usual reference max velocity of the sun equal to 3100 microhertz, the asteroseismic scaling relations therefore make the solar mass and radius appear larger by 13.8 plus or minus 5.8 percent and 4.3 plus or minus 1.9 percent, respectively. The higher max velocity is caused by a combination of the value of max velocity of the sun, being larger at the time of observations than the usual reference from SOHO/VIRGO/SPM (Variability of solar IRradiance and Gravity Oscillations / on board SOHO (Solar and Heliospheric Observatory) / Sun PhotoMeters) data (3160 plus or minus 10 microhertz), and the noise level of the K2 time series, being 10 times larger than VIRGO's. The peak-bagging method provides more consistent results: despite a low signal-to-noise ratio (S/N), we model 10 overtones for degrees iota equal 0, 1, 2. We compare the K2 data with simultaneous SOHO/VIRGO/SPM photometry and Bison (Birmingham Solar-Oscillations Network) velocity measurements. The individual frequencies, widths, and amplitudes mostly match those from VIRGO and BiSON within 1 sigma, except for the few peaks with the lowest S/N.
Document ID
20170004957
Acquisition Source
Goddard Space Flight Center
Document Type
Reprint (Version printed in journal)
Authors
Gaulme, P.
(New Mexico State Univ. Las Cruces, NM, United States)
Rowe, J. F.
(Montreal Univ. Quebec, Canada)
Bedding, T. R.
(Sydney Univ. Australia)
Benomar, O.
(New York Univ. NY, United States)
Corsaro, E.
(CEA Saclay, Service d'Astrophysique Gif-sur-Yvette, France)
Davies, G. R.
(Osservatorio Astrofisico Catania, Italy)
Hale, S. J.
(Birmingham Univ. United Kingdom)
Howe, R.
(Birmingham Univ. United Kingdom)
Garcia, R. A.
(CEA Saclay, Service d'Astrophysique Gif-sur-Yvette, France)
Huber, D.
(Sydney Univ. Australia)
Jimenez, A.
(Instituto de Astrofisica de Canarias Tenerife, Spain)
Mathur, S.
(Space Science Inst. Boulder, CO, United States)
Mosser, B.
(Observatoire de Paris-Meudon France)
Appourchaux, T.
(Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique Annecy-le-Vieux, France)
Boumier, P.
(Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique Annecy-le-Vieux, France)
Jackiewicz, J.
(New Mexico State Univ. Las Cruces, NM, United States)
Leibacher, J.
(Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique Annecy-le-Vieux, France)
Schmider, F.-X.
(Observatoire de la Cote d'Azur Nice, France)
Hammel, H. B.
(AURA, Inc. Washington, DC, United States)
Lissauer, J. J.
(NASA Ames Research Center Moffett Field, CA, United States)
Marley, M. S.
(NASA Ames Research Center Moffett Field, CA, United States)
Simon, A. A.
(NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Greenbelt, MD United States)
Chaplin, W. J.
(Birmingham Univ. United Kingdom)
Elsworth,Y.
(Birmingham Univ. United Kingdom)
Guzik, J. A.
(Los Alamos National Lab. NM, United States)
Murphy, N.
(Jet Propulsion Lab., California Inst. of Tech. Pasadena, CA, United States)
Aguirre, V. Silva
(Jet Propulsion Lab., California Inst. of Tech. Pasadena, CA, United States)
Date Acquired
June 2, 2017
Publication Date
December 7, 2016
Publication Information
Publication: The Astrophysical Journal Letters
Publisher: The American Astronomical Society
Volume: 833
Issue: 1
ISSN: 2041-8205
e-ISSN: 2041-8213
Subject Category
Astrophysics
Lunar And Planetary Science And Exploration
Report/Patent Number
GSFC-E-DAA-TN43097
Funding Number(s)
CONTRACT_GRANT: Australian RC-DE140101364
CONTRACT_GRANT: NSF-AST-1411685
CONTRACT_GRANT: EU-MS-C-664931
CONTRACT_GRANT: EC-FP7-312844
CONTRACT_GRANT: NNX15AF13G
CONTRACT_GRANT: NNX14AB92G
CONTRACT_GRANT: NNX12AE17G
Distribution Limits
Public
Copyright
Other
Keywords
planets and satellites: individual (Neptune) – stars: oscillations (including

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