<p>This thesis deals with the development and calibrations of sensors to measure energetic neutral atoms (ENAs) at Mars, Venus, and the Earth. ENAs are formed in charge exchange processes between energetic, singly--charged ions and a cold neutral gas. Since ENAs can travel in long straight trajectories, unaffected by electric or magnetic fields, they can be used to remotely image plasma interactions with neutral atmospheres. ENA instrument techniques have matured over the last decade and ENA images of the Earth's ring current for example, have successfully been analyzed to extract ion distributions and characterize plasma flows and currents in the inner magnetosphere.</p><p>Three different ENA sensors have been developed to image ENAs at Mars, Venus, and the Earth. Two of them, the nearly identical Neutral Particle imagers (NPIs) are on-board the Mars Express and Venus Express spacecraft as a part of the Analyzer of Space Plasmas and Energetic Atoms (ASPERA-3 and 4) instruments. The third is the Neutral Atom Detector Unit, NUADU, aboard the TC-2 spacecraft of the Double Star mission. The NPI design is based on a surface reflection technique to measure low energy (~0.3-60 keV) ENAs, while the NUADU instrument is based on a simple design with large geometrical factor and solid state detectors to measure high energy ENAs (~20-300 keV).</p><p>The calibration approach of both NPI sensors were to define the detailed response, including properties such as the angular response function and efficiency of one reference sensor direction then find the relative response of the other sensor directions. Because of the simple geometry of the NUADU instrument, the calibration strategy involved simulations to find the cutoff energy, geometrical factor and angular response. The NUADU sensor head was then calibrated to find the response to particles of different mass and energy. The NPI sensor for the Mars Express mission revealed a so-called priority effect in the sensor that lowers the angular resolution at high detector bias. During the calibration of the Venus Express NPI sensor tests were made which showed that the priority effect is a result of low amplitude (noise) pulses generated in the detector system. The conclusion is that the effect is caused by capacitive couplings between different anode sectors of the sensor. The thresholds on the preamplifiers were set higher on the Venus Express NPI, which removed the priority effect.</p><p>Two of the three ENA experiments, the Double Star NUADU instrument and the Mars Express NPI sensor, have successfully measured ENAs that are briefly described in the thesis. The first ENA measurements at Mars were performed with Mars Express. Initial results from the NPI include measurements of ENAs formed in the Martian magnetosheath and solar wind ENAs penetrating to the nightside of Mars. The first results from NUADU in Earth orbit show the expected ENA emissions from a storm time ring current. Also, together with the HENA instrument on the IMAGE spacecraft, NUADU have produced the first multi-point ENA image of the ring current.</p>

This thesis deals with the development and calibrations of sensors to measure energetic neutral atoms (ENAs) at Mars, Venus, and the Earth. ENAs are formed in charge exchange processes between energetic, singly--charged ions and a cold neutral gas. Since ENAs can travel in long straight trajectories, unaffected by electric or magnetic fields, they can be used to remotely image plasma interactions with neutral atmospheres. ENA instrument techniques have matured over the last decade and ENA images of the Earth's ring current for example, have successfully been analyzed to extract ion distributions and characterize plasma flows and currents in the inner magnetosphere. Three different ENA sensors have been developed to image ENAs at Mars, Venus, and the Earth. Two of them, the nearly identical Neutral Particle imagers (NPIs) are on-board the Mars Express and Venus Express spacecraft as a part of the Analyzer of Space Plasmas and Energetic Atoms (ASPERA-3 and 4) instruments. The third is the Neutral Atom Detector Unit, NUADU, aboard the TC-2 spacecraft of the Double Star mission. The NPI design is based on a surface reflection technique to measure low energy (~0.3-60 keV) ENAs, while the NUADU instrument is based on a simple design with large geometrical factor and solid state detectors to measure high energy ENAs (~20-300 keV). The calibration approach of both NPI sensors were to define the detailed response, including properties such as the angular response function and efficiency of one reference sensor direction then find the relative response of the other sensor directions. Because of the simple geometry of the NUADU instrument, the calibration strategy involved simulations to find the cutoff energy, geometrical factor and angular response. The NUADU sensor head was then calibrated to find the response to particles of different mass and energy. The NPI sensor for the Mars Express mission revealed a so-called priority effect in the sensor that lowers the angular resolution at high detector bias. During the calibration of the Venus Express NPI sensor tests were made which showed that the priority effect is a result of low amplitude (noise) pulses generated in the detector system. The conclusion is that the effect is caused by capacitive couplings between different anode sectors of the sensor. The thresholds on the preamplifiers were set higher on the Venus Express NPI, which removed the priority effect. Two of the three ENA experiments, the Double Star NUADU instrument and the Mars Express NPI sensor, have successfully measured ENAs that are briefly described in the thesis. The first ENA measurements at Mars were performed with Mars Express. Initial results from the NPI include measurements of ENAs formed in the Martian magnetosheath and solar wind ENAs penetrating to the nightside of Mars. The first results from NUADU in Earth orbit show the expected ENA emissions from a storm time ring current. Also, together with the HENA instrument on the IMAGE spacecraft, NUADU have produced the first multi-point ENA image of the ring current.

The current paradigm in planet formation theory is developed around a hierarquical growth of solid bodies, from interstellar dust grains to rocky planetary cores. A particularly difficult phase in the process is the growth from meter-size boulders to planetary embryos of the size of our Moon or Mars. Objects of this size are expected to drift extremely rapid in a protoplanetary disk, so that they would generally fall into the central star well before larger bodies can form. In this thesis, we used numerical simulations to find a physical mechanism that may retain solids in some parts of protoplanetary disks long enough to allow for the formation of planetary embryos. We found that such accumulation can happen at the borders of so-called dead zones. These dead zones would be regions where the coupling to the ambient magnetic field is weaker and the turbulence is less strong, or maybe even absent in some cases. We show by hydrodynamical simulations that material accumulating between the turbulent active and dead regions would be trapped into vortices to effectively form planetary embryos of Moon to Mars mass. We also show that in disks that already formed a giant planet, solid matter accumulates on the edges of the gap the planet carves, as well as at the stable Lagrangian points. The concentration is strong enough for the solids to clump together and form smaller, rocky planets like Earth. Outside our solar system, some gas giant planets have been detected in the habitable zone of their stars. Their wakes may harbour rocky, Earth-size worlds.

The molecular compositions of the atmospheres of the giant planets (Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune) are fundamental to understanding the processes which formed these planets and the solar system as a whole. Microwave observations of these planets probe regions in their atmospheres from approximately 0.1 to several bars, a process otherwise unachievable by visible and infrared means. Many gases and various cloud layers influence the millimeter wave spectra of the outer planets; however phosphine and ammonia are the main microwave absorbers at Saturn at pressures less than two bars. Understanding the pressure induced absorption of both constituents at observational frequencies is therefore vital to the analysis of any observational data. Laboratory measurements have been conducted to measure the microwave absorptivity and refractivity of phosphine and ammonia at Ka-band (32-40 GHz) and W-band (94 GHz), under conditions characteristic of the atmosphere of Saturn. The results were used to verify the accuracy of the phosphine formalism created by Hoffman et. al (2001) for use at millimeter wavelengths. Based on the laboratory measurements conducted, new formalisms were also created to express the opacity of ammonia at the measured frequencies. An important method for the study of planetary atmospheres is the radio occultation experiment ??method that uses radio links between Earth, and the spacecraft which passes behind the planet. The Cassini mission to Saturn, which will be conducting such experiments at Ka-band as well as S (2.3 GHz) and X (8.4 GHz) bands, has prompted the development of a radio occultation simulator used to calculate excess Doppler shifts and attenuation profiles for Saturn, utilizing the newest formalisms for phosphine and ammonia. The results indicate that there will be unambiguous detection and profiling of phosphine and ammonia, and predictions are made for the pressures at which loss of signal is anticipated.

With the goal to continue interplanetary exploration and search for past or existent life on Mars, software and hardware for unmanned subsurface drills are being developed. Unlike drilling on Earth, interplanetary exploration drills operate with very low available power and require on-board integrated health monitoring systems, with quick-response recovery procedures, under complete autonomous operations. As many drilling faults are not known a priori, Earth-based direction and control of an unmanned interplanetary drilling operation is not practical. Such missions also require advanced robotic systems that are more susceptible to structural and mechanical failures, which motivates a need for structural health monitoring techniques relevant to interplanetary exploration systems. Structural health monitoring (SHM) is a process of detecting damage or other types of defects in structural and mechanical systems that have the potential to adversely affect the current or future performance of these systems. Strict requirements for interplanetary drilling missions create unique research problems and challenges compared with SHM procedures and techniques developed to date. These challenges include implementing sensors and devices that do not interfere with the drilling operation, producing "real-time" diagnostics of the drilling condition, and developing an automation procedure for complete autonomous operations. Thus, the completed thesis work presents basic research leading to the dynamic analysis of rotating structures with specific application to interplanetary subsurface drill systems, and the formulation of an autonomous, real-time, dynamics-based SHM technique for drilling applications. This includes modeling and validating the structural dynamic system, with and without damage or faults, for a prototype interplanetary subsurface drill, exploring the use of Laser Doppler Velocimeter sensors for use in real-time SHM, developing signal filters to remove inherent harmonic components from the dynamic signal of rotating structures, developing an automation procedure with the associated software, and validating the SHM system through laboratory experiments and field tests. The automated dynamics-based structural health monitoring technique developed in this thesis presents advanced research accomplishments leading to real-time, autonomous SHM, and it has been validated on an operating dynamic system in laboratory and field tests. The formulated SHM and drilling operation also met or exceeded all specified requirements. Other major contributions of this thesis work include the formulation and demonstration of real-time, autonomous SHM in rotating structures using Laser Doppler Velocimeter sensors.

ν Octantis is a spectroscopic binary with a semi-major axis and period of 2.55 AU and 2.9 years, respectively. Ramm et al. (2009) discovered a 52 ms^(-1) radial-velocity (RV) perturbation with a period of 417 days in this system. All evidence, both photometric and spectroscopic, suggests the perturbation is the result of a 2.5 MJ planet orbiting the primary star. However, when assuming a “normal” prograde coplanar orbit, celestial mechanics predicts this orbit is unstable, contradicting the observed stability. Simulations by Eberle and Cuntz (2010) showed a retrograde orbit for the planet to be stable for at least 10^7 years. In this thesis, we performed a 10^8 -yr simulation of the retrograde orbit, and found it remained stable. Simulations over a range of planetary semi-major axes, eccentricities, and primary/secondary masses showed that stable retrograde orbits are not possible past a semi-major axis of 1.315 +/- 0.092 AU . Therefore, planetary retrograde orbits are most likely inherently more stable than prograde orbits owing to the absence of stability at known mean-motion resonances. Eccentricity simulations showed that the period of the planet's dominant eccentricity variation is related to the planet's semi-major axis by a second order exponential. However, retrograde orbits tend to have longer eccentricity periods than prograde orbits at the same semi-major axis. There is also evidence that this eccentricity period is connected to the orbital stability. By fitting a keplerian to both Ramm et al. (2009) and current radial velocities, the period of the ν Octantis binary was determined to be 1050.04 +/- 0.02 days with an eccentricity of 0.2359 +/- 0.001 . The planetary orbital solution for just the data reduced in this thesis gave a period of 416.9 +/- 2.1 days and an eccentricity of 0.099 +/- 0.015 , with an RMS scatter of 9.6 ms^(-1). Therefore, the orbital elements are within 1σ of the Ramm et al. (2009) elements. Assuming a retrograde coplanar orbit about the primary star then the planet has a mass of M_pl = 2.3 M_J and a semi-major axis of a_pl = 1.21 +/- 0.09 AU.

Lightning is an important electrical phenomenon, known to exist in several Solar System planets. Amongst others, it carries information on convection and cloud formation, and may be important for pre-biotic chemistry. Exoplanets and brown dwarfs have been shown to host environments appropriate for the initiation of lightning discharges. In this PhD project, I aim to determine if lightning on exoplanets and brown dwarfs can be more energetic than it is known from Solar System planets, what are the most promising signatures to look for, and if these "exo-lightning" signatures can be detected from Earth. This thesis focuses on three major topics. First I discuss a lightning climatology study of Earth, Jupiter, Saturn, and Venus. I apply the obtained lightning statistics to extrasolar planets in order to give a first estimate on lightning occurrence on exoplanets and brown dwarfs. Next, I introduce a short study of potential lightning activity on the exoplanet HAT-P-11b, based on previous radio observations. Related to this, I discuss a first estimate of observability of lightning from close brown dwarfs, with the optical Danish Telescope. The final part of my project focuses on a lightning radio model, which is applied to study the energy and radio power released from lightning discharges in hot giant gas planetary and brown dwarf atmospheres. The released energy determines the observability of signatures, and the effect lightning has on the local atmosphere of the object. This work combines knowledge obtained from planetary and earth sciences and uses that to learn more about extrasolar systems. My main results show that lightning on exoplanets may be more energetic than in the Solar System, supporting the possibility of future observations and detection of lightning activity on an extrasolar body. My work provides the base for future radio, optical, and infrared search for "exo-lightning".

O Sistema Solar é um dos temas da Astronomia mais abordados em sala de aula por professores de Ciências. Reconhecendo sua importância, nesta pesquisa buscamos investigar uma proposta de ensino-aprendizagem no tema \"A forma e os movimentos dos planetas no Sistema Solar\", que teve como eixo central a relação entre a observação cotidiana e os modelos científicos atualmente aceitos. Para ajudar na construção dessa proposta, analisamos os Cadernos de Ciências da Proposta Curricular do Estado de São Paulo e as teses e dissertações produzidas no Brasil nas últimas décadas, procurando investigar como estes materiais propõem atividades para o ensino-aprendizagem de conceitos de astronomia. Dialogamos com as ideias de Paulo Freire ao refletir sobre os significados da problematização, do diálogo, da atividade de Extensão Universitária e da importância da formação de sujeitos críticos para compreender o mundo que os cercam. Construímos uma proposta de ensino-aprendizagem com 12 atividades estruturadas a partir da metodologia dos Três Momentos Pedagógicos e realizamos intervenções em um curso para a formação de professores, com o caráter de extensão universitária, oferecido pela Universidade de São Paulo. O objetivo da proposta elaborada foi desenvolver o senso crítico ao relacionar a observação cotidiana com os modelos científicos atualmente aceitos, que geralmente são ensinados em sala de aula. Os dados obtidos na aplicação desta proposta foram analisados com base em três grandes categorias gerais que tinham como focos principais avaliar a percepção das limitações da observação imediata e ingênua e a contradição entre esta e o modelo científico. Os resultados parecem indicar que uma parte dos professores não percebeu a contradição aparente entre a forma da Terra observada no cotidiano e a forma descrita no modelo. Os que percebiam, forneciam argumentos com base em noções de referencial e de escalas e proporção. Embora metade dos professores de nossa amostra tenha percebido esta contradição, a maior parte deles não consegue explicar esta percepção com argumentos científicos ou astronômicos. Na problematização dos movimentos observáveis, todos os professores perceberam a contradição aparente entre o movimento do Sol e os movimentos da Terra aceitos atualmente no modelo. Ainda que apresentassem muitas dificuldades em justificar as razões disso, os professores usaram noções de observação de outros astros e planetas para justificar o modelo. Ao final do curso, percebemos que os professores apresentaram nos debates do tipo Júri Simulado uma série de argumentos trabalhados ao longo do curso, o que parece indicar que, após as atividades, eles passaram a argumentar de maneira menos ingênua sobre as relações entre a observação cotidiana e o modelo. Embora reconheçamos as limitações da proposta apresentada, esta parece se mostrar uma alternativa de grande potencial para intervenções na formação de professores que busquem trabalhar além do conhecimento presente nos materiais didáticos, promovendo um diálogo constante entre o conhecimento astronômico e os aspectos vivenciáveis no cotidiano. / The Solar System is one of the most discussed topics of Astronomy in science classes. Recognizing its importance, this study investigates a teaching-learning proposal about \"the shape and movements of the planets in the Solar System\" which focus on the relationship between daily observation and scientific models currently accepted. We analyze the sciences curriculum proposal of the State of São Paulo and theses and dissertations produced in Brazil in recent decades, describing how these materials propose activities for teaching and learning about astronomy. We have dialogued with the ideas of Paulo Freire in order to reflect on the meanings of \"problematization\", dialogue, university extension and the importance of educating critical subjects to understand the world around them. We created a teaching and learning proposal with 12 structured activities based on the methodology of Three Pedagogical Moments and interventions conducted in a course for the training of teachers, with the character of university extension, offered by the University of São Paulo. The objective of this proposal was develop a critical sense of the subjects relate to everyday observation with currently accepted scientific models, which are usually taught in the classroom. The data obtained in the implementation of this proposal were analyzed based on three main general categories that had as main focus to evaluate the perception of contradiction and limitations of immediate and naive observation and the scientific model. The results seem to indicate that some of the teachers do not realize the apparent contradiction between the Earth\'s shape observed in everyday life and as described in the model. Those who perceived provided arguments based on notions of reference and scales and proportion. Although half of the teachers in our sample have noticed this contradiction, most of them can not explain this perception with astronomical or scientific arguments. In questioning the observable movements, all teachers realized the contradiction between the apparent motion of the Sun and the Earth in the movements currently accepted model. Although presented many difficulties in justifying the reasons that many teachers have used notions of observation of other astronomical bodies and planets to justify the model. At the end of the course, we realize that the teachers presented in the discussions of the type Simulated Jury worked a series of arguments along the course, which seems to indicate that after the activities, they began to argue less naive way relations between everyday observation model. While we recognize the limitations of the proposal, this seems to show a great potential for alternative interventions in teacher seeking work beyond the present knowledge in textbooks, promoting an ongoing dialogue between the astronomical knowledge and aspects in daily life.

La connaissance des étoiles et des planètes denses nécessite une détermination fine du comportement thermodynamique de la matière dans ces objets. L'une des approches les plus fécondes aujourd'hui est celle des simulations ab initio, utilisant le formalisme de la physique statistique et la théorie de la fonctionnelle de la densité. Cette approche a notamment montré ses performances en reproduisant avec succès un grand nombre de résultats expérimentaux.Dans la première partie de ce travail de thèse, ces méthodes sont appliquées à l'étude des« glaces », impliquées dans des planètes telles que Uranus ou Neptune. Nous avons dans un premier temps confirmé le travail pré-existant sur le cas de l'eau (équations d'état et existence d'une phase superionique), puis nos avons étendu ces résultats aux cas de planètes plus denses, telles que les exoplanètes appelées« super-Jupiters ». Nous atteignons des limites de pression auxquelles le comportement est analytiquement connu, nous permettant de proposer un ajustement numérique pour l'eau dans une gamme de pression et température extrêmement large. Les autres glaces(méthane et ammoniac) ont seulement été étudiés dans les conditions des planètes de notre système solaire.Nous nous sommes ensuite intéressés au cas des naines blanches et à leur dynamique de refroidissement ~; il s'agit des restes d'étoiles les plus courants, et ils peuvent ainsi être utilisés comme moyen de datation de la galaxie. En particulier, la composition de ces objets conduit à des transitions de phase binaires ayant de lourdes répercussions sur leur temps de refroidissement. Nous avons investigué ce diagramme binaire à l'aide d'une méthode ab initio, et nous proposons de nouvelles stratégies numériques ainsi que des résultats confirmant partiellement les récents travaux dans le domaine. / A correct knowledge of dense stars and planets need an accurate determination of the thermodynamic behavior of matter in these objects. One of the most efficient approaches nowadays is to perform ab initio simulations, using both the statistical physics formalism and the density functionnal theory. This approach has shown its capabilities by reproducing many experimental data.In the first part of this thesis project, these methods are used to study planetary``ices'', found in planets such as Uranus or Neptun. We first confirmed the existing literature on water (equations of state and existence of a superionic phase); we then extended these results to denser planets, such as the so-called ``super-Jupiter''exoplanets. We reach very high pressures, until where the behavior is analytically established; this permitted us to construct a numerical fit for water in a very large temperature and pressure range. The other planetary ices (methane and ammonia) were thenstudied in the conditions of our solar system.We then considered white dwarves, and their cooling dynamics: they are the most usualstar remnants, so that they can be used as cosmochronometers. The composition of these objects lead to binary phase transitions, which can have important consequences on their cooling time. We used ab inition methods to investigate this binary diagram, and wesuggest new numerical strategies, leading to new results which partially confirm theprevious literature.

HD 141569 A is a pre-main sequence B9.5 Ve star surrounded by a prominent and complex circumstellar disk, likely still in a transition stage from protoplanetary to debris disk phase. Here, we present a new image of the third inner disk component of HD 141569 A made in the L' band (3.8 mu m) during the commissioning of the vector vortex coronagraph that has recently been installed in the near-infrared imager and spectrograph NIRC2 behind the W.M. Keck Observatory Keck II adaptive optics system. We used reference point-spread function subtraction, which reveals the innermost disk component from the inner working distance of similar or equal to 23 au and up to similar or equal to 70 au. The spatial scale of our detection roughly corresponds to the optical and near-infrared scattered light, thermal Q, N, and 8.6 mu m PAH emission reported earlier. We also see an outward progression in dust location from the L' band to the H band (Very Large Telescope/SPHERE image) to the visible (Hubble Space Telescope (HST)/STIS image), which is likely indicative of dust blowout. The warm disk component is nested deep inside the two outer belts imaged by HST-NICMOS in 1999 (at 406 and 245 au, respectively). We fit our new L'-band image and spectral energy distribution of HD 141569 A with the radiative transfer code MCFOST. Our best-fit models favor pure olivine grains and are consistent with the composition of the outer belts. While our image shows a putative very faint point-like clump or source embedded in the inner disk, we did not detect any true companion within the gap between the inner disk and the first outer ring, at a sensitivity of a few Jupiter masses.