Stars are massive resonators that may be used as gravitational-wave (GW) detectors with isotropic sensitivity. New insights on stellar physics are being made possible by asteroseismology, the study of stars by the observation of their natural oscillations. The continuous monitoring of oscillation modes in stars of different masses and sizes (e.g., as carried out by NASA's Kepler mission) opens the possibility of surveying the local Universe for GW radiation. Red-giant stars are of particular interest in this regard. Since the mean separation between red giants in open clusters is small (a few light years), this can in principle be used to look for the same GW imprint on the oscillation modes of different stars as a GW propagates across the cluster. Furthermore, the frequency range probed by oscillations in red giants complements the capabilities of the planned eLISA space interferometer. We propose asteroseismology of red giants as a novel approach in the search for gravitational waves.

Gravitational waves (GW) are a natural consequence of Einstein's theory of gravity (general relativity), and minute distortions of space-time. Gravitational Wave Astronomy is an emerging branch of observational astronomy which aims to use GWs to collect observational data about objects such as neutron stars and black holes, about events such as supernovae and about the early universe shortly after the big bang.This field will evolve to become an established component of 21st century multi-messenger astronomy, and will stand shoulder-to-shoulder with gamma-ray, x-ray, optical, infrared and radio astronomers in exploring the cosmos. In this paper, we state a recent theoretical study on GW sources, and present the results of our studies on the field using a binary population synthesis (BPS) approach, which was designed to investigate the formation of many interesting binary-related objects, including close double white dwarfs, AM CVn stars, ultra-compact X-ray binaries(UCXBs), double neutron stars, double stellar black holes. Here we report how BPS can be used to determine the GW radiation from double compact objects.

Millisecond pulsars (MSPs) are a class of radio pulsars with extremely stable rotation. Their excellent timing stability can be used to study a wide variety of astrophysical phenomena. In particular, a large sample of these pulsars can be used to detect low-frequency gravitational waves. We have developed a precision pulsar timing backend for the NASA Deep Space Network (DSN), which will allow the use of short gaps in tracking schedules to time pulses from an ensemble of MSPs. The DSN operates clusters of large dish antennas (up to 70-m in diameter), located roughly equidistant around the Earth, for communication and tracking of deep-space spacecraft. The backend system will be capable of removing entirely the dispersive effects of propagation of radio waves through the interstellar medium in real-time. We will describe our development work, initial results, and prospects for future observations over the next few years.

The gravitational wave radiation will release the energy momentum, which will dissipate the rotation of neutron star while in the accretion process. If the deformation of star is known, then we can estimate the maximum spin frequency of pulsar, based on which we can interpret why the spin periods of all millisecond pulsars cannot be less than one millisecond.

Water is the common ground between astronomy and planetary science as the presence of water on a planet is universally accepted as essential for its potential habitability. Water assists many biological chemical reactions leading to complexity by acting as an effective solvent. It shapes the geology and climate on rocky planets, and is a major or primary constituent of the solid bodies of the outer solar system. Water ice seems universal in space and is by far the most abundant condensed-phase species in our universe. Water-rich icy layers cover dust particles within the cold regions of the interstellar medium and molecular ices are widespread in the solar system. The poles of terrestrial planets (e.g. Earth, Mars) and most of the outer-solar-system satellites are covered with ice. Smaller solar system bodies, such as comets and Kuiper Belt Objects (KBOs), contain a significant fraction of water ice and trace amounts of organics. Beneath the ice crust of several moons of Jupiter and Saturn liquid water oceans probably exist.

Water and organics are commonly believed to be the essential ingredients for life on Earth. The development of infrared and submillimeter observational techniques has resulted in the detection of water in circumstellar envelopes, interstellar clouds, comets, asteroids, planetary satellites and the Sun. Complex organics have also been found in stellar ejecta, diffuse and molecular clouds, meteorites, interplanetary dust particles, comets and planetary satellites. In this Focus Meeting, we will discuss the origin, distribution, and detection of water and other life's building blocks both inside and outside of the Solar System. The possibility of extraterrestrial organics and water on the origin of life on Earth will also be discussed.

We will review the chemical reaction network models of water and its D/H ratio coupled with the dynamics of star formation. Infrared observations show that water ice is abundant even in molecular clouds with relatively low visual extinction (~ 3 mag), which indicates that water ice is formed in early stage of molecular clouds. We thus start from a possible formation site of molecular clouds, i.e. the converging flow of diffuse gas. Then we proceed to dense cloud cores and its gravitational collapse, during which a significant deuterium enrichment occurs. The gas and ice accrete onto the circumstellar disks, which evolve to protoplanetary disks in T Tauri phase. If the disks are turbulent, water could be photodissociated in the disk surface and re-formed in deeper layers. The cycle continues until the dust grains with ice mantle are decoupled from the turbulence and settle to the midplane. The water D/H ratio could thus vary within the disk.

Water ice is the dominant constituent of icy grain mantles in the interstellar medium, and as such one of the most abundant species during all stages of star and planet formation. Its formation through atom addition reactions on grain surfaces, its destruction through different desorption channels, and its influence on the chemistry and desorption efficiencies of other species in icy grain mantles have all been the objects of intense study. This contribution reviews our current understanding of these processes, and the laboratory experiments that have been instrumental in establishing the existing paradigm.

Water is observed to be a major constituent of planet-forming disks around young stars and its presence likely plays a major role in formation of planets and their atmospheres, including those destined to orbit in a habitable zone. Yet, the path from disks to planets is one fraught with complexity, making it difficult to derive precise theoretical predictions for planetary chemistry. Planet-forming disks are no longer considered uniform well-mixed structures; rather, they are complex worlds with many different heterogenous environments, most of which play some part in determining the composition of planetesimals and planets. Direct observations of atomic and molecular abundances on all size scales are therefore needed for understanding planet formation at a very fundamental level, and for answering the question of how chemically common the Earth is among exoplanets. In the past years, great progress has been made in observing protoplanetary chemistry, in particular in measuring the molecular composition in protoplanetary disks across the planet-forming regions from 1 to 10s of AU. We will present recent observations of water with Herschel, the VLT and Gemini in disks, and we will demonstrate how we retrieve the local abundances and radial distribution of water vapor and ice using detailed radiative transfer models. We find that most of the oxygen is likely bound in water near 1 AU in disks around solar-mass stars and that the disk surface composition at these radii is likely dominated by local gas-phase chemistry rather than by primordial material delivered from the interstellar medium. We discuss how these observations relate to complementary constraints from the solar system. We further discuss the implications for the observed composition of exoplanetary atmospheres.

This paper reviews recent observations of water in Galactic interstellar clouds and nearby galactic nuclei. Two results are highlighted: (1) Multi-line H2O mapping of the Orion Bar shows that the water chemistry in PDRs is driven by photodissociation and -desorption, unlike in star-forming regions. (2) High-resolution spectra of H2O and its ions toward 5 starburst / AGN systems reveal low ionization rates, unlike as found from higher-excitation lines. We conclude that the chemistry of water strongly depends on radiation environment, and that the ionization rates of interstellar clouds decrease by at least 10 between galactic nuclei and disks.

Life on Earth depends on an aqueous biochemistry, and water is a key component of habitability on Earth and for likely other habitable environments in the solar system. While water is ubiquitous in the interstellar medium, and plays a key role in protoplanetary disk chemistry, the inner solar system is relatively dry. We now have evidence for potentially thousands of extrasolar planets, dozens of which may be located in their host stars habitable zones. Understanding how planets in the habitable zone accrete their water, is key to understanding the likelihood for habitability. Given that many disk models show that Earth formed inside the water-ice snow line of our solar system, understanding how the inner solar system received its water is important for understanding the potential for other planetary systems to host habitable worlds. Boundaries for the timing of the water delivery are constrained by cosmochemistry and geochemistry. Possible scenarios for the delivery of water to the inner solar system include adsorption on dust from protoplanetary disk gas, chemical reactions on the early earth, and delivery from planetesimals forming outside the water-ice snow line. This talk will set the stage for understanding the isotopic and geochemical markers along with the dynamical delivery mechanisms that will help uncover the origins of Earths water. This introduction will provide an overview for understanding the distribution of water in the solar system, in particular for the inner solar system and terrestrial planets Xand the details will be developed in the subsequent talks. Additionally information will be presented regarding new inner solar system reservoirs of water that can shed light on origins (the main belt comets), and new research about water in the Earth.

Water in form of ice or vapour is observed in comets, transneptunian objects and icy satellites formed in the outer regions of the Solar System, as well as in objects orbiting in the inner Solar System, such as dwarf planet Ceres. I will present an overview of the water content and properties in these objects and the implications in terms of solar system formation and evolution.

After years of thinking the Moon is dry, we now know there are three manifestations in which water appears on the Moon today: 1) Previously hypothesized buried deposits of volatiles at the lunar poles were found at Cabeus crater. There are questions about the origin of such volatiles (i.e., in-falling comets & meteorites, migration of recently formed surficial OH/H2O, and accumulated release from the interior), but there is no doubt the water is there. 2) Widespread, thinly-distributed, surficial OH (or H2O) has been clearly detected across all types of lunar terrain. The consensus is that the OH is derived from solar wind, but we do not know how quickly it forms, nor how mobile it is. 3) The amount of water present soon after the Moon formed is now documented in new analyses of lunar materials in volcanic glass beads, apatites and plagioclase feldspars. Apollo era sample analyses were not precise enough to distinguish between indigenous lunar water and terrestrial contamination. Measurements with modern equipment are more precise (both elemental and isotopic), and can better constrain a host of processes (e.g. diffusion, thermal cycling). Scientists around the world are studying lunar water. Ongoing analyses are informing a number of hypotheses and theories about the connection between the Earth and its wet Moon.

Rocky planets are built through a series of highly energetic accretionary impacts. The accreting bodies are thought to carry small amounts of water to the growing planet, but it is debated whether the planet can retain this water through the accretionary process, or if water needs to be added largely after the planet is complete and cooled. Most of the relatively few measurements of deuterium to hydrogen in cometary water do not match Earths water, though the single example of 103P/Hartley 2 is a good match (Mumma & Charnley 2011, Hartogh et al. 2011). Alexander et al. (2012) point out, however, that organic materials in comets have far higher D/H than does their water, so in bulk no comet matches Earths D/H ratio, not even comet Hartley. Meteorites provide evidence that the material that built planets had small but sufficient amounts of water, and analysis of its isotopic composition demonstrates that water from rocky material, and not comets, provided water to the Earth (Alexander et al. 2012). This current evidence that Earths water came from rocky asteroidal material does not solve the question of whether this material was the accreting material that built the planet, or if it was added later. Mission data from the Moon and Mercury demonstrates that those bodies are not completely devoid of volatiles (McCubbin et al. 2010, Saal et al. 2008, Peplowski et al. 2011). The Moon, in particularly, has small amounts of internal water that survived its energetic origins (Hauri et al. 2011). Thus, the giant accretionary impacts that build planets do not completely dry them, and the water from their initial building blocks can be retained. If volatiles are delivered and partly retained during accretion, then the initial habitability of a young planet may be set by degassing of a magma ocean. Models predict that cooling can result in liquid water oceans within ten or tens of millions of years (Abe and Matsui 1986, Elkins-Tanton 2011). Thus, rocky planets in solar systems similarly composed to our own have a good chance of forming with water oceans, and of being habitable, at least for some period of time.

The analysis of the organic content of meteorites provides a window into the conditions of the early solar system, such as the extension of aqueous alteration or thermal metamorphism on the meteorite parent bodies. The analysis of the soluble organic content of CM chondrites indicates that extensive aqueous alteration on their meteorite parent body may result on 1) the decomposition of α-amino acids; 2) synthesis of β- and γ-amino acids; 3) higher relative abundances of alkylated polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs); and 4) higher L-enantiomer excess (Lee) value of isovaline. Exogenous delivery of organic matter by meteorites may have contributed to the organic inventory of the early Earth, providing a diversity of resources to the first living organisms on Earth and on other places of our solar system where life could have potentially originated.

The composition of interstellar matter is driven by environmental parameters and results from extreme interstellar medium physico-chemical conditions. Astrochemists must rely on remote observations to monitor and analyze the interstellar solids composition. They bring additional information from the study of analogues produced in the laboratory, placed in simulated space environments. Planetologists and cosmochemists access and spectroscopically examine collected extraterrestrial material in the laboratory. Diffuse interstellar medium and molecular clouds observations set constraints on the composition of organic solids that can then be compared with collected extraterrestrial materials analyses, to shed light on their possible links.

Interplanetary dust particles (IDPs) and larger micrometeorites (MMs) impinge on the upper atmosphere where they decelerate at 90 km altitude and settle to the Earths surface. Comets and asteroids are the major sources and the flux, 30,000-40,000 tons/yr, is comparable to the mass of larger meteorites impacting the Earths surface. The sedimentary record suggests that the flux was much higher on the early Earth. The chondritic porous (CP) subset of IDPs together with their larger counterparts, ultracarbonaceous micrometeorites (UCMMs), appear to be unique among known meteoritic materials in that they are composed almost exclusively of anhydrous minerals, some of them contain >> 50% organic carbon by volume as well as the highest abundances of presolar silicate grains including GEMS. D/H and 15N abundances implicate the Oort Cloud or presolar molecular cloud as likely sources of the organic carbon. Prior to atmospheric entry, IDPs and MMs spend 104-105 year lifetimes in solar orbit where their surfaces develop amorphous space weathered rims from exposure to the solar wind (SW). Similar rims are observed on lunar soil grains and on asteroid Itokawa regolith grains. Using valence electron energy-loss spectroscopy (VEELS) we have detected radiolytic water in the rims on IDPs formed by the interaction of solar wind protons with oxygen in silicate minerals. Therefore, IDPs and MMs continuously deliver both water and organics to the earth and other terrestrial planets. The interaction of protons with oxygen-rich minerals to form water is a universal process.

We look at the icy moons in our outer solar system in which we find organics and the possibility for habitabile conditions therein.

Interplanetary dust particles (IDPs) collected in the Earths stratosphere derive from collisions among asteroids and by the disruption and outgassing of short-period comets. Chondritic porous (CP) IDPs are among the most primitive Solar System materials. CP-IDPs have been linked to cometary parent bodies by their mineralogy, textures, C-content, and dynamical histories. CP-IDPs are fragile, fine-grained (< um) assemblages of anhydrous amorphous and crystalline silicates, oxides and sulfides bound together by abundant carbonaceous material. Ancient silicate, oxide, and SiC stardust grains exhibiting highly anomalous isotopic compositions are abundant in CP-IDPs, constituting 0.01-1% of the mass of the particles. The organic matter in CP-IDPs is isotopically anomalous, with enrichments in D/H reaching 50x the terrestrial SMOW value and 15N/14N ratios up to 3x terrestrial standard compositions. These anomalies are indicative of low T (10-100 K) mass fractionation in cold molecular cloud or the outermost reaches of the protosolar disk. The organic matter shows distinct morphologies, including sub-um globules, bubbly textures, featureless, and with mineral inclusions. Infrared spectroscopy and mass spectrometry studies of organic matter in IDPs reveals diverse species including aliphatic and aromatic compounds. The organic matter with the highest isotopic anomalies appears to be richer in aliphatic compounds. These materials also bear similarities and differences with primitive, isotopically anomalous organic matter in carbonaceous chondrite meteorites. The diversity of the organic chemistry, morphology, and isotopic properties in IDPs and meteorites reflects variable preservation of interstellar/primordial components and Solar System processing. One unifying feature is the presence of sub-um isotopically anomalous organic globules among all primitive materials, including IDPs, meteorites, and comet Wild-2 samples returned by the Stardust mission. We will present an overview of the current state of understanding of the properties and origins of organic matter in primitive IDPs.

Building models capable of successfully matching the Terrestrial Planet's basic orbital and physical properties has proven difficult. Meanwhile, improved estimates of the nature of water-rich material accreted by the Earth, along with the timing of its delivery, have added even more constraints for models to match. While the outer Asteroid Belt seemingly provides a source for water-rich planetesimals, models that delivered enough of them to the still-forming Terrestrial Planets typically failed on other basic constraints - such as the mass of Mars.

Recent models of Terrestrial Planet Formation have explored how the gas-driven migration of the Giant Planets can solve long-standing issues with the Earth/Mars size ratio. This model is forced to reproduce the orbital and taxonomic distribution of bodies in the Asteroid Belt from a much wider range of semimajor axis than previously considered. In doing so, it also provides a mechanism to feed planetesimals from between and beyond the Giant Planet formation region to the still-forming Terrestrial Planets.