Research Projects

Last Revised May 2007

This mission represents the main framework of most of my current research since 1997.
For a more detailed abstract and infos about the mission see the dedicated web page: planck@oats and my web page maris@planck.

The thermal Zodiacal Light Emission (ZLE) is seen by Far-IR observatories as a large scale foreground with  an estimated peak emissivity below 1 MJy/sr at 857 GHz or approximately up to half of the expected flux from the weakest Galactic structures (Maris, Burigana, Fogliani 2006, A&A, 452,  685).  A ground based or space born observatory surveying the sky over long times will move within the Solar System and will see a time dependent spatial distribution of the ZLE. Exploiting this variation it will be possible to separate the ZLE contribution from the background. This project is aimed at detecting the ZLE below 1 THz, improving the COBE/FIRAS determination of Fixsen and Dwek (2002), by exploiting first of all data from the forthcoming Planck mission and from past infrared missions. In case of success, this project will allow to improve the models of ZLE at frequencies below 1 THz, this is  a fundamental step toward a proper subtraction of the ZLE. In addition, it will be likely possible to asses other interesting quantities related to the interplanetary dust particles such as: the total amount of Interplanetary Dust within the Solar System or the presence of still undetected components of the interplanetary dust, in particular the so called cold dust component.

Participants:

The content of this abstract is based on already published material and does not represents an infringements in the Planck internal rules for scientific communications.

Publications:

Zodiacal light emission in the PLANCK mission
M. Maris, C. Burigana and S. Fogliani
A&A,  Vol. 452 No. 2 (June III 2006), p. 685
arXiv:astro-ph/0603048

A by-product of the Planck mission will be the observation of external planets and Main Belt Asteroids at frequencies below 1 THz. As demonstrated by previous CMB missions (as an example WMAP for planets) these sources represents a potential tool for beam calibration as an interesting scientific subject. This project is aimed at exploiting the information obtained from sub-mm missions, in particular Planck, in this field.

M.Maris (INAF-OATS), C.Burigana, A.Gruppuso e F.Finelli (INAF/IASFBO), W.T.Reach (JPL), M.R.Robinson, May (Imperial College, Londra), (U. di Santander, Spagna). M.Delbo' (Obs.Cote d'Azul, Nice, Francia), R.Hell (MPA,Munich, Germany); G.Cremonese (INAF-OAPd); F.Marzari (U.Padova);

The content of this abstract is based on already published material and does not represents an infringements in the Planck internal rules for scientific communications.

Asteroid detection at millimetric wavelengths with the Planck survey
Cremonese, G.; Marzari, F.; Burigana, C.; Maris, M.
2002, New Astronomy, Volume 7, Issue 8, p. 483-494
arXiv:astro-ph/0209373

Diffuse and point-like foregrounds from the Solar System environment in the PLANCK mission

Maris, M.; Burigana, C.; Cremonese, G.; Marzari, F.; Fogliani, S.; Fulle, M.

Memorie della Societa Astronomica Italiana Supplement, v. 3, p. 318 (2003)

MSAIS/3/PDF/318.pdf

This project seeks to determine the thermal inertia of the major satellites of Uranus by measuring their surface temperature variations, determined either from water absorption bands in the near-IR or from IR thermal emission, as satellites heat up after an eclipse. Thermal inertia, is a measure of the resistance of a material to temperature change. It is a key indicator for the properties of the surface. Thermal inertia is not available for bodies in the outer Solar System, with the exception of Pluto. The eclipse events of the Uranian satellites in 2007--2008 represent a unique and rare opportunity - occurring every 42 years - to carry out observations to measure this parameter. Our study will also be crucial for improving thermal models used for the analysis of radiometric data of bodies in the outer Solar System, such as other icy satellites and Kuiper belt objects. This research is carried within the international network for the observation of Uranus Equinox.

M.Maris, INAF - Oss. Astr. Trieste, Italy; M.Delbo, Observatoire de la Cote d'Azur (OCA), Nice, France; M.Mueller, U of Arizona Steward Observatory, USA; W.Grundy, Lowell Obs., USA; J.Stansberry, University of Arizona, Steward Observatory, USA; G.P.Tozzi, INAF-Osservatorio di Arcetri,Italy; P.Tanga, OCA, France; D.Hestroffer, IMCCE, Paris, France; W.Thuillot, IMCCE, Paris, France; D.Trilling, Steward Observatory, USA; Jeffrey Van Cleve, Ball Aerospace, USA;

In recent  years a  ''family'' of  irregular satellites  has been discovered around Uranus. These  objects  cannot  have  formed  by circumplanetary accretion as the regular satellites. But they are likely products of early  capture from  heliocentric orbits  and/or fragmentation ejecta of parent bodies. Hence, the study of the irregulars provides an important window on processes operating in the  young solar  system.  In  particular  for  Uranus  they may witness the mechanism  leading  to  its  peculiar  tilt  of the rotation axis.However, having magnitudes exceeding V ~ 20 for most of these satellites very few is known about their surface properties. In particular, colours and rotational properties are largely ill determined if not undetermined at all. The scope of this collaboration is to improve the photometry of these bodies as to determine their rotational properties.

M.Maris, INAF/Osservatorio Astronomico di Trieste; G.Carraro, Universita' di Padova, Italy and ESO/Chile, Santiago de Chile; G.M.Parisi, Instituto Argentino de Radioastronomi­a, Buenos Aires, Argentina; A.Brunini, Universidad de La Plata, Argentina; M.Fulle, INAF-OATs;  G.Cremonese, INAF-OATs;

Multicolor Photometry  of the Uranus Irregular Satellites Sycorax and Caliban
M.Maris, G.,Carraro, G. Cremonese, M. Fulle
AJ, 2001, 121, 2800

Light curves and colours of the faint Uranian irregular satellites  Sycorax ,  Prospero ,  Stephano ,  Setebos , and  Trinculo
M. Maris, G. Carraro, M. G. Parisi
A&A 472, 311-319 (2007)
arXiV: astro-ph/0704.2187

Constraints to Uranus' Great Collision. IV. The Origin of Prospero
M.G.Parisi, G.Carraro, M.Maris, A.Brunini
A&A, 2008, in press
arXiV: astro-ph/0801.1258

The dwarf planet Eris is the largest KBO up to now discovered. Despite being larger than Pluto and bearing many similarities with it, it has not been possible insofar to detect a safe variability in its light curve, preventing the determination of its period and axial ratio. We attempt to assess the level of variability of the Eris light curve by determining its BVRI photometry with a target accuracy of 0.03 mag/frame in R and a comparable or better stability in the calibration. Eris has been observed between November 30th and December 5th 2005 with the Y4KCam on-board the 1.0m Yale telescope at Cerro Tololo Interamerican Observatory, Chile in photometric nights. We obtain 7 measures in B, 23 in V, 62 in R and 20 in I. Night-averaged magnitudes in R shows a statistically significant variability over a range of about 0.05 +/- 0.01$ mag. This can not be explained by known systematics, background objects or some periodical variation with periods less than two days in the light-curve. The same applies to B, V and to less extent to I due to larger errors. In analogy with Pluto and if confirmed by future observations, this apparent long term variability might be ascribed to a slow rotation of Eris, with periods longer than 5 days, or to the effect of its unresolved satellite Dysnomea which may contribute for about 0.02 mag to the total brightness.

M.Maris, INAF - OATs; G.Carraro, Universita' di Padova, Italy and ESO/Chile, Santiago de Chile; G.M.Parisi, Instituto Argentino de Radioastronomi­a, Buenos Aires, Argentina

Time series photometry of the dwarf planet ERIS (2003 UB313)

G.Carraro, M.Maris, D.Bertin, M.G.Parisi

A&A 460, L39 - L42 (2006)

arXiV: astro-ph/0610619

This has been the subject of my PhD thesys, together with Prof.B.Bertotti (advisor), Prof.A.Piazzoli, Prof.R.Dolfini, the Icarus group in Pavia and after the PhD thesys, till 2003 with Prof.S.T.Petcov in SISSA at Trieste.

Day-Night Effect Predictions on the SNO/Detector
M.Maris, S.T.Petcov
Phys.Rev.D, 62, 93006, 2000

Study of Solar Neutrinos with the 600 Ton Liquid Argon ICARUS Detector
F.Arneodo, S.Baibussinov, P.Benetti, A.Bettini, A.BoriodiTigliole, R.Brubetti, A.Bueno, E.Calligarich, M.Campanelli,  C.Carpanese, D.Cavalli, F.Cacanna, P.Cennini, S.Centro, A.Cesana, C.Chen, Y.Chen, D.Cline, I.De Mitri, R.Dolfini, A.Ferrari, A.GigliBerzolari, P.Goudsmit, K.He, X.Huang, Z.Li, F.Lu, J.Ma, G.Mannocchi, <b> M.Maris</b>, F.Mauri, D.Mazza, L.Mazzone, C.Montanari, S.Otowinowski, O.Palamara, D.Pascoli, A.Pepato, L.Periale, S.Petrera, G.PianoMortari, A.Piazzoli, P.Picchi, F.Petropaolo, A.Rappoldi, G.L.Raselli, J.P.Revol, M.Rossella, C.Rossi, A.Rubbia, C.Rubbia, P.Sala, D.Scannicchio, F.Sergiampietri, S.Suzuki, M.Terrani, S.Ventura, C.Vignoli, H.Wang, J.Woo, G.Xu, Z.Xu, C.Zhang, Q.Zhang, S.Zheng.
Nuclear Instruments and Methods A, (2000), 455, 378-391

Enhancing the seasonal variation effect in the case of the vacuum oscillation solution of the solar neutrino problem
M.Maris, S.T.Petcov
Phys.Letters B, 457, 319 (1999)

A Study of the Day - Night Effect for the Super - Kamiokande Detector: III. The Case of Transitions into Sterile Neutrino
M.Maris, S.T.Petcov
Phys.Rev.D, 58, 113008 (1998)

A Study of the Day - Night Effect for the Super - Kamiokande Detector: II. Electron Spectrum Deformations and Day - Night Asymmetries
M.Maris, S.T.Petcov
Phys.Rev.D, 56, 7444 (1997)

A Study of the Day - Night Effect for the Super - Kamiokande Detector: I. Time Averaged Solar Neutrino Survival Probability
Q.Y.Liu, M.Maris and S.T.Petcov
Phys.Rev.D, 56, 5991 (1997)