Ground-based complex for checking the optical system

The purpose TUS space experiment is to study cosmic rays of ultrahigh energies produced by extensive air showers from space. The concentrator is located on satellite, made in the form of the Fresnel mirror towards the earth’s atmosphere, the focus of which is a photodetector. The angle of view of the mirror is ±4.5° that for a given height of the orbit corresponds to the area 80 × 80 km² on ground. The ground complex consisting of a number of stations, to check the optical system of the experiment is created, (their location and the amount will be determined after the launch of the satellite based on its actual orbit).     

Line strengths and positions of the submillimeter magnetic dipole transitions of O2

Strengths and positions of lines between 14 and 160 cm^-1 from pure rotational magnetic dipole transitions of the homonuclear molecule O₂ have been measured under carefully controlled conditions over a range of pressures from 52 to 672 torr in a long-path cell using a Fourier transform spectrometer. Correction methods have been devised to alleviate the difficult problem of baseline determination in the calculation of equivalent width for each measured line. These data show excellent agreement with the theory of Tinkham and Strandberg over the above range of measurement. The possible implication of this work to the calibration of balloon-borne measurements of the cosmologically significant cosmic microwave background is also briefly discussed.     

Siliceous spicules in marine demosponges (example Suberites domuncula)

All metazoan animals comprise a body plan of different complexity. Since--especially based on molecular and cell biological data--it is well established that all metazoan phyla, including the Porifera (sponges), evolved from a common ancestor the search for common, basic principles of pattern formation (body plan) in all phyla began. Common to all metazoan body plans is the formation of at least one axis that runs from the apical to the basal region; examples for this type of organization are the Porifera and the Cnidaria (diploblastic animals). It seems conceivable that the basis for the formation of the Bauplan in sponges is the construction of their skeleton by spicules. In Demospongiae (we use the model species Suberites domuncula) and Hexactinellida, the spicules consist of silica. The formation of the spicules as the building blocks of the skeleton, starts with the expression of an enzyme which was termed silicatein. Spicule growth begins intracellularly around an axial filament composed of silicatein. When the first layer of silica is made, the spicules are extruded from the cells and completed extracellularly to reach their the final form and size. While the first steps of spicule formation within the cells are becoming increasingly clear, it remains to be studied how the extracellularly present silicatein strings are formed. The understanding of especially this morphogenetic process will allow an insight into the construction of the amazingly diverse skeleton of the siliceous sponges; animals which evolved between two periods of glaciations, the Sturtian glaciation (710-680 MYA) and the Varanger-Marinoan ice ages (605-585 MYA). Sponges are--as living fossils--witnesses of evolutionary trends which remained unique in the metazoan kingdom.