3 results
The science of EChO
- Giovanna Tinetti, James Y-K. Cho, Caitlin A. Griffith, Olivier Grasset, Lee Grenfell, Tristan Guillot, Tommi T. Koskinen, Julianne I. Moses, David Pinfield, Jonathan Tennyson, Marcell Tessenyi, Robin Wordsworth, Alan Aylward, Roy van Boekel, Angioletta Coradini, Therese Encrenaz, Ignas Snellen, Maria R. Zapatero-Osorio, Jeroen Bouwman, Vincent Coudé du Foresto, Mercedes Lopez-Morales, Ingo Mueller-Wodarg, Enric Pallé, Franck Selsis, Alessandro Sozzetti, Jean-Philippe Beaulieu, Thomas Henning, Michael Meyer, Giuseppina Micela, Ignasi Ribas, Daphne Stam, Mark Swain, Oliver Krause, Marc Ollivier, Emanuele Pace, Bruce Swinyard, Peter A.R. Ade, Nick Achilleos, Alberto Adriani, Craig B. Agnor, Cristina Afonso, Carlos Allende Prieto, Gaspar Bakos, Robert J. Barber, Michael Barlow, Peter Bernath, Bruno Bézard, Pascal Bordé, Linda R. Brown, Arnaud Cassan, Céline Cavarroc, Angela Ciaravella, Charles Cockell, Athéna Coustenis, Camilla Danielski, Leen Decin, Remco De Kok, Olivier Demangeon, Pieter Deroo, Peter Doel, Pierre Drossart, Leigh N. Fletcher, Matteo Focardi, Francois Forget, Steve Fossey, Pascal Fouqué, James Frith, Marina Galand, Patrick Gaulme, Jonay I. González Hernández, Davide Grassi, Matt J. Griffin, Ulrich Grözinger, Manuel Guedel, Pactrick Guio, Olivier Hainaut, Robert Hargreaves, Peter H. Hauschildt, Kevin Heng, David Heyrovsky, Ricardo Hueso, Pat Irwin, Lisa Kaltenegger, Patrick Kervella, David Kipping, Geza Kovacs, Antonino La Barbera, Helmut Lammer, Emmanuel Lellouch, Giuseppe Leto, Mercedes Lopez Morales, Miguel A. Lopez Valverde, Manuel Lopez-Puertas, Christophe Lovi, Antonio Maggio, Jean-Pierre Maillard, Jesus Maldonado Prado, Jean-Baptiste Marquette, Francisco J. Martin-Torres, Pierre Maxted, Steve Miller, Sergio Molinari, David Montes, Amaya Moro-Martin, Olivier Mousis, Napoléon Nguyen Tuong, Richard Nelson, Glenn S. Orton, Eric Pantin, Enzo Pascale, Stefano Pezzuto, Ennio Poretti, Raman Prinja, Loredana Prisinzano, Jean-Michel Réess, Ansgar Reiners, Benjamin Samuel, Jorge Sanz Forcada, Dimitar Sasselov, Giorgio Savini, Bruno Sicardy, Alan Smith, Lars Stixrude, Giovanni Strazzulla, Gautam Vasisht, Sandrine Vinatier, Serena Viti, Ingo Waldmann, Glenn J. White, Thomas Widemann, Roger Yelle, Yuk Yung, Sergey Yurchenko
-
- Journal:
- Proceedings of the International Astronomical Union / Volume 6 / Issue S276 / October 2010
- Published online by Cambridge University Press:
- 10 November 2011, pp. 359-370
- Print publication:
- October 2010
-
- Article
-
- You have access Access
- Export citation
-
The science of extra-solar planets is one of the most rapidly changing areas of astrophysics and since 1995 the number of planets known has increased by almost two orders of magnitude. A combination of ground-based surveys and dedicated space missions has resulted in 560-plus planets being detected, and over 1200 that await confirmation. NASA's Kepler mission has opened up the possibility of discovering Earth-like planets in the habitable zone around some of the 100,000 stars it is surveying during its 3 to 4-year lifetime. The new ESA's Gaia mission is expected to discover thousands of new planets around stars within 200 parsecs of the Sun. The key challenge now is moving on from discovery, important though that remains, to characterisation: what are these planets actually like, and why are they as they are?
In the past ten years, we have learned how to obtain the first spectra of exoplanets using transit transmission and emission spectroscopy. With the high stability of Spitzer, Hubble, and large ground-based telescopes the spectra of bright close-in massive planets can be obtained and species like water vapour, methane, carbon monoxide and dioxide have been detected. With transit science came the first tangible remote sensing of these planetary bodies and so one can start to extrapolate from what has been learnt from Solar System probes to what one might plan to learn about their faraway siblings. As we learn more about the atmospheres, surfaces and near-surfaces of these remote bodies, we will begin to build up a clearer picture of their construction, history and suitability for life.
The Exoplanet Characterisation Observatory, EChO, will be the first dedicated mission to investigate the physics and chemistry of Exoplanetary Atmospheres. By characterising spectroscopically more bodies in different environments we will take detailed planetology out of the Solar System and into the Galaxy as a whole.
EChO has now been selected by the European Space Agency to be assessed as one of four M3 mission candidates.
Inter-populational variation in the cost of autotomy in the metallic skink (Niveoscincus metallicus)
- David G. Chapple, Roy Swain
-
- Journal:
- Journal of Zoology / Volume 264 / Issue 4 / December 2004
- Published online by Cambridge University Press:
- 11 November 2004, pp. 411-418
- Print publication:
- December 2004
-
- Article
- Export citation
-
Many species of lizard use tail autotomy to escape from potential predators. While frequency of tail loss is an unreliable indicator of predation intensity it may enable inter-populational comparisons of predation costs. This reasoning was applied to a study of the metallic skink Niveoscincus metallicus. A total of 368 lizards was sampled from across four populations to compare the frequency and position of tail loss and ultimately to examine whether the implications of tail autotomy differ between populations. The overall frequency of tail loss was 72%, although between populations the incidence of tail autotomy varied from 61.4% (Laughing Jack Lagoon) to 78.2% (Dynnyrne). No sexual differences were observed in the frequency of tail loss; however, the incidence of autotomy increased with age. The estimated position of tail loss did not vary between the sexes, although individuals from Dynnyrne experienced more proximal tail breaks than the other populations. This resulted in the predicted energetic cost of tail loss being significantly higher in the Dynnyrne population and, when combined with a high frequency of tail loss and relatively smaller body size, suggests that this population incurs relatively high costs as a result of autotomy. Overall, measures of tail loss in N. metallicus were found to be useful for examining inter-populational variation in the cost of tail autotomy.
Evolutionary correlations between escape behaviour and performance ability in eight species of snow skinks (Niveoscincus: Lygosominae) from Tasmania
- Jane Melville, Roy Swain
-
- Journal:
- Journal of Zoology / Volume 261 / Issue 1 / September 2003
- Published online by Cambridge University Press:
- 13 August 2003, pp. 79-89
- Print publication:
- September 2003
-
- Article
- Export citation
-
Three locomotor modes were examined (sprinting, jumping and climbing) in eight species of skinks: seven Niveoscincus spp. and Pseudemoia entrecasteauxii. These species formed four distinct ecological types: ground-dwelling, arboreal, heath/rock dwelling, and saxicolous. Significant behavioural preferences for particular escape modes in the field were found, which reflected the performance capabilities at an animal in the laboratory. This study used both non-phylogenetic and evolutionary based analyses to demonstrate that species occupying different microhabitats and using different escape tactics exhibit corresponding differences in performance abilities. Four Niveoscincus species are specialized in performance abilities and behavioural responses (N. greeni, N. ocellatus, N. pretiosus, N. orocryptus) by excelling in some performance abilities but having behavioural restrictions at attemping other locomotor modes. Only N. microlepidotus and N. orocryptus used escape tactics opportunistically; these species possess a suite of behavioural responses that may reflect the wide range of microhabitats they occupy. Ground-dwelling species N. metallicus, N. coventryi and Pseudemoia entrecasteauxii performed poorly at all performance abilities and seemed to have biomechanical limitations, rather than behavioural restrictions, on locomotor mode. Thus, when making interspecific comparisons, the behaviour of an animal needs to be considered before appropriate performance measures are selected. Phylogenetic analyses demonstrate that escape tactics and performance abilities have co-evolved in Niveoscincus, with an evolutionary trend towards behavioural and locomotor specialization.