Janssen (France)

The Spectral and Photometric Imaging REceiver (SPIRE), is the <i>Herschel<i/> Space Observatory`s submillimetre camera and spectrometer. It contains a three-band imaging photometer operating at 250, 350 and 500 <i>μ<i/>m, and an imaging Fourier-transform spectrometer (FTS) which covers simultaneously its whole operating range of 194–671 <i>μ<i/>m (447–1550 GHz). The SPIRE detectors are arrays of feedhorn-coupled bolometers cooled to 0.3 K. The photometer has a field of view of 4´× 8´, observed simultaneously in the three spectral bands. Its main operating mode is scan-mapping, whereby the field of view is scanned across the sky to achieve full spatial sampling and to cover large areas if desired. The spectrometer has an approximately circular field of view with a diameter of 2.6´. The spectral resolution can be adjusted between 1.2 and 25 GHz by changing the stroke length of the FTS scan mirror. Its main operating mode involves a fixed telescope pointing with multiple scans of the FTS mirror to acquire spectral data. For extended source measurements, multiple position offsets are implemented by means of an internal beam steering mirror to achieve the desired spatial sampling and by rastering of the telescope pointing to map areas larger than the field of view. The SPIRE instrument consists of a cold focal plane unit located inside the <i>Herschel<i/> cryostat and warm electronics units, located on the spacecraft Service Module, for instrument control and data handling. Science data are transmitted to Earth with no on-board data compression, and processed by automatic pipelines to produce calibrated science products. The in-flight performance of the instrument matches or exceeds predictions based on pre-launch testing and modelling: the photometer sensitivity is comparable to or slightly better than estimated pre-launch, and the spectrometer sensitivity is also better by a factor of 1.5–2.

The European Space Agency's Planck satellite, dedicated to studying the early Universe and its subsequent evolution, was launched 14 May 2009 and has been scanning the microwave and submillimetre sky continuously since 12 August 2009. In March 2013, ESA and the Planck Collaboration released the initial cosmology products based on the first 15.5 months of Planck data, along with a set of scientific and technical papers and a web-based explanatory supplement. This paper gives an overview of the mission and its performance, the processing, analysis, and characteristics of the data, the scientific results, and the science data products and papers in the release. The science products include maps of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) and diffuse extragalactic foregrounds, a catalogue of compact Galactic and extragalactic sources, and a list of sources detected through the Sunyaev-Zeldovich effect. The likelihood code used to assess cosmological models against the Planck data and a lensing likelihood are described. Scientific results include robust support for the standard six-parameter ΛCDM model of cosmology and improved measurements of its parameters, including a highly significant deviation from scale invariance of the primordial power spectrum. The Planck values for these parameters and others derived from them are significantly different from those previously determined. Several large-scale anomalies in the temperature distribution of the CMB, first detected by WMAP, are confirmed with higher confidence. Planck sets new limits on the number and mass of neutrinos, and has measured gravitational lensing of CMB anisotropies at greater than 25σ. Planck finds no evidence for non-Gaussianity in the CMB. Planck's results agree well with results from the measurements of baryon acoustic oscillations. Planck finds a lower Hubble constant than found in some more local measures. Some tension is also present between the amplitude of matter fluctuations (σ8) derived from CMB data and that derived from Sunyaev-Zeldovich data. The Planck and WMAP power spectra are offset from each other by an average level of about 2% around the first acoustic peak. Analysis of Planck polarization data is not yet mature, therefore polarization results are not released, although the robust detection of E-mode polarization around CMB hot and cold spots is shown graphically. © 2014 ESO.

The study of stellar populations in galaxies is entering a new era with the availability of large and high-quality data bases of both observed galactic spectra and state-of-the-art evolutionary synthesis models. In this paper we investigate the power of spectral synthesis as a means to estimate the physical properties of galaxies. Spectral synthesis is nothing more than the decomposition of an observed spectrum in terms of a superposition of a base of simple stellar populations of various ages and metallicities, producing as output the star formation and chemical histories of a galaxy, its extinction and velocity dispersion. Our implementation of this method uses the recent models of Bruzual & Charlot and observed spectra in the 3650-8000 range. The reliability of this approach is studied by three different means: (1) simulations, (2) comparison with previous work based on a different technique, and (3) analysis of the consistency of results obtained for a sample of galaxies from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS).

X-shooter is the first 2nd generation instrument of the ESO Very Large Telescope (VLT). It is a very efficient, single-target, intermediate-resolution spectrograph that was installed at the Cassegrain focus of UT2 in 2009. The instrument covers, in a single exposure, the spectral range from 300 to 2500 nm. It is designed to maximize the sensitivity in this spectral range through dichroic splitting in three arms with optimized optics, coatings, dispersive elements and detectors. It operates at intermediate spectral resolution (R ~ 4000−17 000, depending on wavelength and slit width) with fixed échelle spectral format (prism cross-dispersers) in the three arms. It includes a 1.8″ × 4″ integral field unit as an alternative to the 11′′ long slits. A dedicated data reduction package delivers fully calibrated two-dimensional and extracted spectra over the full wavelength range. We describe the main characteristics of the instrument and present its performance as measured during commissioning, science verification and the first months of science operations.

We present the all-sky Planck catalogue of Sunyaev-Zeldovich (SZ) sources detected from the 29 month full-mission data. The catalogue (PSZ2) is the largest SZ-selected sample of galaxy clusters yet produced and the deepest systematic all-sky surveyof galaxy clusters. It contains 1653 detections, of which 1203 are confirmed clusters with identified counterparts in external data sets, and is the first SZ-selected cluster survey containing >103 confirmed clusters. We present a detailed analysis of the survey selection function in terms of its completeness and statistical reliability, placing a lower limit of 83% on the purity. Using simulations, we find that the estimates of the SZ strength parameter Y5R500are robust to pressure-profile variation and beam systematics, but accurate conversion to Y500 requires the use of prior information on the cluster extent. We describe the multi-wavelength search for counterparts in ancillary data, which makes use of radio, microwave, infra-red, optical, and X-ray data sets, and which places emphasis on the robustness of the counterpart match. We discuss the physical properties of the new sample and identify a population of low-redshift X-ray under-luminous clusters revealed by SZ selection. These objects appear in optical and SZ surveys with consistent properties for their mass, but are almost absent from ROSAT X-ray selected samples.

The European Space Agency’s Planck satellite, which is dedicated to studying the early Universe and its subsequent evolution, was launched on 14 May 2009. It scanned the microwave and submillimetre sky continuously between 12 August 2009 and 23 October 2013. In February 2015, ESA and the Planck Collaboration released the second set of cosmology products based ondata from the entire Planck mission, including both temperature and polarization, along with a set of scientific and technical papers and a web-based explanatory supplement. This paper gives an overview of the main characteristics of the data and the data products in the release, as well as the associated cosmological and astrophysical science results and papers. The data products include maps of the cosmic microwave background (CMB), the thermal Sunyaev-Zeldovich effect, diffuse foregrounds in temperature and polarization, catalogues of compact Galactic and extragalactic sources (including separate catalogues of Sunyaev-Zeldovich clusters and Galactic cold clumps), and extensive simulations of signals and noise used in assessing uncertainties and the performance of the analysis methods. The likelihood code used to assess cosmological models against the Planck data is described, along with a CMB lensing likelihood. Scientific results include cosmological parameters derived from CMB power spectra, gravitational lensing, and cluster counts, as well as constraints on inflation, non-Gaussianity, primordial magnetic fields, dark energy, and modified gravity, and new results on low-frequency Galactic foregrounds.

We present the results of the search for an isotropic stochastic gravitational wave background (GWB) at nanohertz frequencies using the second data release of the European Pulsar Timing Array (EPTA) for 25 millisecond pulsars and a combination with the first data release of the Indian Pulsar Timing Array (InPTA). A robust GWB detection is conditioned upon resolving the Hellings-Downs angular pattern in the pairwise cross-correlation of the pulsar timing residuals. Additionally, the GWB is expected to yield the same (common) spectrum of temporal correlations across pulsars, which is used as a null hypothesis in the GWB search. Such a common-spectrum process has already been observed in pulsar timing data. We analysed (i) the full 24.7-year EPTA data set, (ii) its 10.3-year subset based on modern observing systems, (iii) the combination of the full data set with the first data release of the InPTA for ten commonly timed millisecond pulsars, and (iv) the combination of the 10.3-year subset with the InPTA data. These combinations allowed us to probe the contributions of instrumental noise and interstellar propagation effects. With the full data set, we find marginal evidence for a GWB, with a Bayes factor of four and a false alarm probability of 4%. With the 10.3-year subset, we report evidence for a GWB, with a Bayes factor of 60 and a false alarm probability of about 0.1% (≳3 σ significance). The addition of the InPTA data yields results that are broadly consistent with the EPTA-only data sets, with the benefit of better noise modelling. Analyses were performed with different data processing pipelines to test the consistency of the results from independent software packages. The latest EPTA data from new generation observing systems show non-negligible evidence for the GWB. At the same time, the inferred spectrum is rather uncertain and in mild tension with the common signal measured in the full data set. However, if the spectral index is fixed at 13/3, the two data sets give a similar amplitude of (2.5 ± 0.7) × 10 −15 at a reference frequency of 1 yr −1 . Further investigation of these issues is required for reliable astrophysical interpretations of this signal. By continuing our detection efforts as part of the International Pulsar Timing Array (IPTA), we expect to be able to improve the measurement of spatial correlations and better characterise this signal in the coming years.

The recently initiated Arecibo Legacy Fast ALFA (ALFALFA) survey aims to map 7000 square degrees of the high galactic latitude sky visible from Arecibo, providing a HI line spectral database covering the redshift range between -1600 km/s and 18,000 km/s with 5 km/s resolution. Exploiting Arecibo's large collecting area and small beam size, ALFALFA is specifically designed to probe the faint end of the HI mass function in the local universe and will provide a census of HI in the surveyed sky area to faint flux limits, making it especially useful in synergy with wide area surveys conducted at other wavelengths. ALFALFA will also provide the basis for studies of the dynamics of galaxies within the Local and nearby superclusters, will allow measurement of the HI diameter function, and enable a first wide-area blind search for local HI tidal features, HI absorbers at z &lt; 0.06 and OH megamasers in the redshift range 0.16 &lt; z &lt; 0.25. Although completion of the survey will require some five years, public access to the ALFALFA data and data products will be provided in a timely manner, thus allowing its application for studies beyond those targeted by the ALFALFA collaboration. ALFALFA adopts a two-pass, minimum intrusion, drift scan observing technique which samples the same region of sky at two separate epochs to aid in the discrimination of cosmic signals from noise and terrestrial interference. Survey simulations, which take into account large scale structure in the mass distribution and incorporate experience with the ALFA system gained from tests conducted during its commissioning phase, suggest that ALFALFA will detect on the order of 20,000 extragalactic HI line sources out to z=0.06, including several hundred with HI masses of less than 10^{7.5} msun.

Context. CoRoT is a space telescope dedicated to stellar seismology and the search for extrasolar planets. The mission is led by the CNES in association with French laboratories and has a large international participation. The European Space Agency (ESA), Austria, Belgium, and Germany contribute to the payload, and Spain and Brazil contribute to the ground segment. Development of the spacecraft, which is based on a PROTEUS low earth orbit (LEO) recurrent platform, commenced in October 2000, and the satellite was launched on December 27, 2006. Aims. The instrument and platform characteristics prior to launch have been described in ESA publication (SP-1306). In the present paper we explain the behaviour in flight, based on raw and corrected data. Methods. Five runs have been completed since January 2007. The data used here are essentially those acquired during the commissioning phase and from a long run that lasted 146 days. These enable us to give a complete overview of the instrument and platform behaviour for all environmental conditions. The ground based data processing is not described in detail because the most important method has been published elsewhere. Results. We show that the performance specifications are easily satisfied when the environmental conditions are favourable. Most of the perturbations, hence data corrections, are related to LEO perturbations: high energy particles inside the South Atlantic Anomaly (SAA), eclipses and temperature variations, and line of sight fluctuations due to the attitude control system. Straylight due to the reflected light from the earth, which is controlled by the telescope and baffle design, appears to be negligible.

Aims. We report the discovery of very shallow (F/F 3.4 10 -4 ), periodic dips in the light curve of an active V = 11.7 G9V star observed by the CoRoT satellite, which we interpret as caused by a transiting companion. We describe the 3-colour CoRoT data and complementary ground-based observations that support the planetary nature of the companion. Methods. We used CoRoT colours information, good angular resolution ground-based photometric observations in-and out-of transit, adaptive optics imaging, near-infrared spectroscopy, and preliminary results from radial velocity measurements, to test the diluted eclipsing binary scenarios. The parameters of the host star were derived from optical spectra, which were then combined with the CoRoT light curve to derive parameters of the companion. Results. We examined all conceivable cases of false positives carefully, and all the tests support the planetary hypothesis. Blends with separation >0.40 or triple systems are almost excluded with a 8 10 -4 risk left. We conclude that, inasmuch we have been exhaustive, we have discovered a planetary companion, named CoRoT-7b, for which we derive a period of 0.853 59 3 10 -5 day and a radius of R p = 1.68 0.09 R Earth . Analysis of preliminary radial velocity data yields an upper limit of 21 M Earth for the companion mass, supporting the finding. Conclusions. CoRoT-7b is very likely the first Super-Earth with a measured radius. This object illustrates what will probably become a common situation with missions such as Kepler, namely the need to establish the planetary origin of transits in the absence of a firm radial velocity detection and mass measurement. The composition of CoRoT-7b remains loosely constrained without a precise mass. A very high surface temperature on its irradiated face, 1800-2600 K at the substellar point, and a very low one, 50 K, on its dark face assuming no atmosphere, have been derived.

GRAVITY is a new instrument to coherently combine the light of the European Southern Observatory Very Large Telescope Interferometer to form a telescope with an equivalent 130 m diameter angular resolution and a collecting area of 200 m 2 . The instrument comprises fiber fed integrated optics beam combination, high resolution spectroscopy, built-in beam analysis and control, near-infrared wavefront sensing, phase-tracking, dual-beam operation, and laser metrology. GRAVITY opens up to optical/infrared interferometry the techniques of phase referenced imaging and narrow angle astrometry, in many aspects following the concepts of radio interferometry. This article gives an overview of GRAVITY and reports on the performance and the first astronomical observations during commissioning in 2015/16. We demonstrate phase-tracking on stars as faint as m K ≈ 10 mag, phase-referenced interferometry of objects fainter than m K ≈ 15 mag with a limiting magnitude of m K ≈ 17 mag, minute long coherent integrations, a visibility accuracy of better than 0.25%, and spectro-differential phase and closure phase accuracy better than 0.5°, corresponding to a differential astrometric precision of better than ten microarcseconds ( μ as). The dual-beam astrometry, measuring the phase difference of two objects with laser metrology, is still under commissioning. First observations show residuals as low as 50 μ as when following objects over several months. We illustrate the instrument performance with the observations of archetypical objects for the different instrument modes. Examples include the Galactic center supermassive black hole and its fast orbiting star S2 for phase referenced dual-beam observations and infrared wavefront sensing, the high mass X-ray binary BP Cru and the active galactic nucleus of PDS 456 for a few μ as spectro-differential astrometry, the T Tauri star S CrA for a spectro-differential visibility analysis, ξ Tel and 24 Cap for high accuracy visibility observations, and η Car for interferometric imaging with GRAVITY.

High-resolution spectra obtained with three ground-based facilities and the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) have been combined to produce a new abundance analysis of CS 22892-052, an extremely metal-poor giant with large relative enhancements of neutron-capture elements. A revised model stellar atmosphere has been derived with the aid of a large number of Fe-peak transitions, including both neutral and ionized species of six elements.Several elements, including Mo, Lu, Au, Pt and Pb, have been detected for the first time in CS 22892-052, and significant upper limits have been placed on the abundances of Ga, Ge, Cd, Sn, and U in this star. In total, abundance measurements or upper limits have been determined for 57 elements, far more than previously possible. New Be and Li detections in CS 22892-052 indicate that the abundances of both these elements are significantly depleted compared to unevolved main-sequence turnoff stars of similar metallicity. Abundance comparisons show an excellent agreement between the heaviest n-capture elements (Z &gt;= 56) and scaled solar system r-process abundances, confirming earlier results for CS 22892-052 and other metal-poor stars. New theoretical r-process calculations also show good agreement with CS 22892-052 abundances as well as the solar r-process abundance components.The abundances of lighter elements (40&lt;= Z &lt;= 50), however, deviate from the same scaled abundance curves that match the heavier elements, suggesting different synthesis conditions or sites for the low-mass and high-mass ends of the abundance distribution. The detection of Th and the upper limit on the U abundance together imply a lower limit of 10.4 Gyr on the age of CS 22892-052, quite consistent with the Th/Eu age estimate of 12.8 +/- ~= 3 Gyr. An average of several chronometric ratios yields an age 14.2 +/- ~= 3 Gyr.

We present the revised ``Meudon'' model of Photon Dominated Region (PDR code), presently available on the web under the Gnu Public Licence at: http://aristote.obspm.fr/MIS. General organisation of the code is described down to a level that should allow most observers to use it as an interpretation tool with minimal help from our part. Two grids of models, one for low excitation diffuse clouds and one for dense highly illuminated clouds, are discussed, and some new results on PDR modelisation highlighted.

We describe the all-sky Planck catalogue of clusters and cluster candidates derived from Sunyaev-Zeldovich (SZ) effect detections using the first 15.5 months of Planck satellite observations. The catalogue contains 1227 entries, making it over six times the size of the Planck Early SZ (ESZ) sample and the largest SZ-selected catalogue to date. It contains 861 confirmed clusters, of which 178 have been confirmed as clusters, mostly through follow-up observations, and a further 683 are previously-known clusters. The remaining 366 have the status of cluster candidates, and we divide them into three classes according to the quality of evidence that they are likely to be true clusters. The Planck SZ catalogue is the deepest all-sky cluster catalogue, with redshifts up to about one, and spans the broadest cluster mass range from (0.1 to 1.6) 10 15 M . Confirmation of cluster candidates through comparison with existing surveys or cluster catalogues is extensively described, as is the statistical characterization of the catalogue in terms of completeness and statistical reliability. The outputs of the validation process are provided as additional information. This gives, in particular, an ensemble of 813 cluster redshifts, and for all these Planck clusters we also include a mass estimated from a newly-proposed SZ-mass proxy. A refined measure of the SZ Compton parameter for the clusters with X-ray counter-parts is provided, as is an X-ray flux for all the Planck clusters not previously detected in X-ray surveys.

We have used UVES on VLT-UT2 to take spectra of 15 red giants in the Sculptor, Fornax, Carina and Leo I dwarf spheroidal galaxies. We measure the abundances of alpha, iron peak, s and r-process elements. No dSph giants in our sample show the deep mixing abundance pattern seen in nearly all globular clusters. At a given metallicity, the dSph giants exhibit lower [el/Fe] abundance ratios for the alpha elements than stars in the Galactic halo. This can be caused by a slow star formation rate and contribution from Type Ia SN, and/or a small star formation event (low total mass) and mass dependent Type II SN yields. Differences in the even-Z [el/Fe] ratios between these galaxies, as well as differences in the evolution of the s&amp;r-process elements are interpreted in terms of their star formation histories. Comparison of the dSph abundances with those of the Galactic halo reveals some consistencies. In particular, we find stars that mimic the abundance pattern found by Nissen &amp; Shuster (1997) for metal-rich, high R_max, high z_max halo stars, supporting their suggestion that disrupted dSph's may explain up to 50% of the metal-rich halo. A comparison with the metal-poor Galactic halo reveal no consistencies suggesting that the majority of the metal-poor Galactic halo could not have been formed from objects similar to these dSph. Finally, we use the dSph abundances to place new constraints on the nucleosynthetic origins, including Cu and Mn which are more consistent with metallicity dependent SN yields than the more commonly assumed SN Ia production.

International audience

The availability of a number of new interferometric measurements of Main Sequence and subgiant stars makes it possible to calibrate the surface brightness relations of these stars using exclusively direct angular diameter measurements. These empirical laws make it possible to predict the limb darkened angular diameters of dwarfs and subgiants using their dereddened Johnson magnitudes, or their effective temperature. The smallest intrinsic dispersions of in are obtained for the relations based on the K and L magnitudes, for instance or . Our calibrations are valid between the spectral types A0 and M2 for dwarf stars (with a possible extension to later types when using the effective temperature), and between A0 and K0 for subgiants. Such relations are particularly useful for estimating the angular sizes of calibrators for long-baseline interferometry from readily available broadband photometry.

We present a high-resolution ( 75 000, S/N ) spectroscopic analysis of the bright ( 11.7), extreme halo giant CS 31082-001([Fe/H] = -2.9), obtained in an ESO-VLT Large Programme dedicated to very metal-poor stars. We find CS 31082-001 to be extremely rich in r-process elements, comparable in this respect only to the similarly metal-poor, but carbon-enriched, giant CS 22892-052. As a result of the extreme overabundance of the heaviest r-process elements, and negligible blending from CH and CN molecular lines, a reliable measurement is obtained of the U II line at 386 nm, for the first time in a halo star, along with numerous lines of Th II, as well as lines of 25 other r-process elements. Abundance estimates for a total of 43 elements (44 counting Hydrogen) are reported in CS 31082-001, almost half of the entire periodic table. The main atmospheric parameters of CS 31082-001 are as follows: K, (cgs), [Fe/H] = -2.9 (in LTE), and microturbulence 1.8 ± 0.2 km s-1. Carbon and nitrogen are not significantly enhanced relative to iron. As usual in giant stars, Li is depleted by dilution ((Li/H) = 0.85). The α-elements show the usual enhancements with respect to iron, with [O/Fe] (from [O I] 6300 Å), [Mg/Fe] , [Si/Fe] , and [Ca/Fe] , while [Al/Fe] is near -0.5. The r-process elements show unusual patterns: among the lightest elements ( 40), Sr and Zr follow the Solar r-element distribution, but Ag is down by 0.8 dex. All elements with 56 ≤ Z ≤ 72 follow the Solar r-element pattern, reduced by about 1.25 dex. Accordingly, the [ r/Fe] enhancement is about +1.7 dex (a factor of 50), very similar to that of CS 22892-052. Pb, in contrast, seems to be below the shifted Solar r-process distribution, possibly indicating an error in the latter, while thorium is more enhanced than the lighter nuclides. In CS 31082-001, log(Th/Eu) is , higher than in the Solar System (-0.46) or in CS 22892-052 (-0.66). If CS 31082-001 and CS 22892-052 have similar ages, as expected for two extreme halo stars, this implies that the production ratios were different by about 0.4 dex for the two objects. Conversely, if the Th/Eu production ratio were universal, an age of 15 Gyr for CS 22892-052 would imply a negative age for CS 31082-001. Thus, while a universal production ratio for the r-process elements seems to hold in the interval 56 ≤ Z ≤ 72, it breaks down in the actinide region. When available, the U/Th is thus preferable to Th/Eu for radioactive dating, for two reasons: because of its faster decay rate and smaller sensitivity to observational errors, and because the inital production ratio of the neighboring nuclides 238U and 232Th is more robustly predicted than the 151Eu/232Th ratio. Our current best estimate for the age of CS 31082-001 is Gyr. However, the computed actinide production ratios should be verified by observations of daughter elements such as Pb and Bi in the same star, which are independent of the subsequent history of star formation and nucelosynthesis in the Galaxy.

The current standard model of cosmology successfully describes a variety of measurements, but the nature of its main ingredients, dark matter and dark energy, remains unknown. Euclid is a medium-class mission in the Cosmic Vision 2015–2025 programme of the European Space Agency (ESA) that will provide high-resolution optical imaging, as well as near-infrared imaging and spectroscopy, over about 14 000 deg 2 of extragalactic sky. In addition to accurate weak lensing and clustering measurements that probe structure formation over half of the age of the Universe, its primary probes for cosmology, these exquisite data will enable a wide range of science. This paper provides a high-level overview of the mission, summarising the survey characteristics, the various data-processing steps, and data products. We also highlight the main science objectives and expected performance.

To investigate the universality of magnetic turbulence in space plasmas, we analyze seven time periods in the free solar wind under different plasma conditions. Three instruments on Cluster spacecraft operating in different frequency ranges give us the possibility to resolve spectra up to 300 Hz. We show that the spectra form a quasiuniversal spectrum following the Kolmogorov's law approximately k(-5/3) at MHD scales, a approximately k(-2.8) power law at ion scales, and an exponential approximately exp[-sqrt[k(rho)e]] at scales k(rho)e approximately [0.1,1], where rho(e) is the electron gyroradius. This is the first observation of an exponential magnetic spectrum in space plasmas that may indicate the onset of dissipation. We distinguish for the first time between the role of different spatial kinetic plasma scales and show that the electron Larmor radius plays the role of a dissipation scale in space plasma turbulence.