Vol 51, No 2 (2017)

The interplanetary mission, Venera-D, which is currently being planned, includes a lander. For a successful landing, it is necessary to estimate the frequency distributions of slopes of the Venusian surface at baselines that are comparable with the horizontal dimensions of lander (1–3 m). The available data on the topographic variations on Venus preclude estimates of the frequency of the short-wavelength slopes. In our study, we applied high-resolution digital terrain models (DTM) for specific areas in Iceland to estimate the slopes on Venus. The Iceland DTMs have 0.5 m spatial and 0.1 m vertical resolution. From the set of these DTMs, we have selected those that morphologically resemble typical landscapes on Venus such as tessera, shield, regional, lobate, and smooth plains. The mode of the frequency distribution of slopes on the model tessera terrain is within a 30°–40° range and a fraction of the surface has slopes <7°, which is considered as the upper safety limit. This is the primary interest. The frequency distribution of slopes on the model tessera is not changed significantly as the baseline is changed from 1 m to 3 m. The terrestrial surfaces that model shield and regional plains on Venus have a prominent slope distribution mode between 8°–20° and the fraction of the surfaces with slopes <7° is less than 30% on both 1 m and 3 m baselines. A narrow, left-shifted histogram characterizes the model smooth plains surfaces. The fraction of surfaces with slopes <7° is about 65–75% for the shorter baseline (1 m). At the longer baseline, the fraction of the shallow-sloped surfaces is increased and fraction of the steep slopes is decreased significantly. The fraction of surfaces with slopes <7° for the 3-m baseline is about 75–88% for the terrains that model both lobate and smooth plains.

Measurements of the dielectric characteristics of lunar soil samples are analyzed in the context of dielectric theory. It has been shown that the real component of the dielectric permittivity and the loss tangent of rocks greatly depend on the frequency of the interacting electromagnetic field and the soil temperature. It follows from the analysis that one should take into account diurnal variations in the lunar surface temperature when interpreting the radar-sounding results, especially for the gigahertz radio range.

We identify the asteroids in three-body mean-motion resonances with Jupiter and Mars on the set of all known on April 2016 numbered asteroids (467308 objects). The resonant objects are identified by the direct analysis of the behavior (libration/circulation) of the resonant arguments on 100000 yrs. All essential perturbations during the integration of the equations of the motion are taken into account. The number of the asteroids in different resonances has been calculated for all possible resonances with the order less or equal 6.

We describe the archive of scans of the astronomical plates obtained in the observations of comet Hale–Bopp. The observations were carried out from August 17, 1996, to April 29, 1997, at the Zeiss-400/2000 astrograph of the Zvenigorod Observatory of the Institute of Astronomy of the Russian Academy of Sciences (INASAN). The archive contains the images that can be used in astrometric, photometric, and astrophysical studies. In some of the plates, the size of the comet reaches 6.3° (23 cm). In many scans, the details of the cometary tail, including individual jets, vortexes, etc., are clearly distinguishable. The archive of the images is available free.

The discovery of the solar wind has been an outstanding achievement in heliophysics and space physics. The solar wind plays a crucial role in the processes taking place in the Solar System. In recent decades, it has been recognized as the main factor that controls the terrestrial effects of space weather. The solar wind is an unusual plasma laboratory of giant scale with a fantastic diversity of parameters and operating modes, and devoid of influence from the walls of laboratory plasma systems. It is also the only kind of stellar wind accessible for direct study. The history of this discovery is quite dramatic. Like many remarkable discoveries, it had several predecessors. However, the honor of a discovery usually belongs to a scientist who was able to more fully explain the phenomenon. Such a man is deservedly considered the US theorist Eugene Parker, who discovered the solar wind, as we know it today, almost “with the point of his pen”. In 2017, we will celebrate the 90^th anniversary birthday of Eugene Parker.