This article summarises the subject matter of Special Session 3 at IAU General Assembly XXVII in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, which took place on August 6-7, 2009. In it, we overview the state of Astronomy in Antarctica as it is in 2009. Significant astronomical activity is now taking place at four stations on the Antarctic plateau (South Pole, Domes A, C & F), as well as at the coastal station of McMurdo.

In July 2008 the IAU became a union member of the ICSU body SCAR—the Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research. At the same time, SCAR initiated a Planning Group to establish a Scientific Research Program in Astronomy and Astrophysics from Antarctica. Broadly stated, the objectives of Astronomy and Astrophysics from Antarctica are to coordinate astronomical activities in Antarctica in a way that ensures the best possible outcomes from international investment in Antarctic astronomy, and maximizes the opportunities for productive interaction with other disciplines.

Bicep was a telescope designed to probe the polarization of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) for the signature of gravitational waves produced during the epoch of inflation. The instrument was developed by a team of scientists from Caltech/JPL, UC Berkeley, and UC San Diego. It was installed at the South Pole in November 2005 and the CMB observations were conducted from February to November each year with one winter-over scientist responsible for operating and maintaining the instrument. Taking advantage of the excellent atmospheric conditions at the South Pole, we mapped 2% of the sky at 100 and 150 GHz. We completed 3 years of observations from 2006 to 2008, mapping the CMB polarization anisotropy at degree angular scales with unprecedented sensitivity. In 2010, a next generation instrument, Bicep2, will be installed on the existing telescope mount for an even deeper survey.

The IceCube neutrino observatory, the largest particle detector in the world (1 km3), is currently being built at the South Pole. IceCube looks down through the Earth to filter out lower-energy particles and uses optical sensors embedded deep in the ultra-clean Antarctic ice to detect high energy neutrinos via Cherenkov radiation from charged particles produced in neutrino interactions. A summary of selected recent results is presented.

We present the main achievements of the ARENA network and a set of recommendations for the development of astronomy and astrophysics at CONCORDIA (Dome C)

The aim of the LUCAS program is to observe chlorophyll and atmospheric molecules in the Earthshine spectrum in order to prepare the detection of life in terrestrial extrasolar planets to be discovered. Actually, observations from Antarctica offer a unique possibility to study the variations of Earthshine spectrum during Earth rotation while various parts of Earth are facing the Moon. Special instrumentation for the LUCAS program was designed and put in the Concordia station in the Dome C. Observations are in progress.

PLATO is a 6 tonne completely self-contained robotic observatory that provides its own heat, electricity, and satellite communications. It was deployed to Dome A in Antarctica in January 2008 by the Chinese expedition team, and is now in its second year of operation. PLATO is operating four 14.5cm optical telescopes with 1k × 1k CCDs, a wide-field sky camera with a 2k × 2k CCD and Sloan g, r, i filters, a fibre-fed spectrograph to measure the UV to near-IR sky spectrum, a 0.2m terahertz telescope, two sonic radars giving 1m resolution data on the boundary layer to a height of 180m, a 15m tower, meteorological sensors, and 8 web cameras. Beginning in 2010/11 PLATO will be upgraded to support a Multi Aperture Scintillation Sensor and three AST3 0.5m schmidt telescopes, with 10k × 10 CCDs and 100TB/annum data requirements.

We have recently found signals of candidates for two historical supernovae and past solar cycles in a depth profile of nitrate ion concentrations in an ice core portion corresponding to the 10th and the 11th centuries. This ice core was drilled in 2001 at Dome Fuji (Dome F) station in Antarctica. We briefly review our findings and discuss why Dome F is appropriate for this study.

In Antarctica the cold and dry air is expected to provide the best observing conditions on the Earth for astronomical observations from the infra-red to the sub-millimetre. To utilise these advantages of Antarctica, we have devised a plan to construct an astronomical observatory at Dome Fuji, which is located in inland Antarctica. For pilot research and site testing at Dome Fuji, we have developed 40 cm infrared and 30 cm THz telescopes, which are durable for the harsh environment of inland Antarctica. As our project for astronomical research at Dome Fuji is approved for the 3-year program of NIPR, we will start the site testing and pilot research for astronomy at Dome Fuji from 2010.

We present a site testing program initiated at the SUMMIT station on the Greenland Ice Cap. A DIMM was mounted in the SWISS tower, 39 m above the ice level, during a period of 3 weeks in the late Arctic summer 2008. Tracking Polaris, the DIMM obtained continuous seeing measurements. The campaign was hampered by poor weather and the measured seeing was fluctuating, suggesting that the boundary layer was very unstable. However, during short periods, the un-calibrated seeing went below 0″.5, indicating that the free atmosphere seeing above Greenland is not significantly different from what is found above the Antarctic plateau.

The Antarctic Plateau (Dome C, also Dome A) is emerging as an especially good sitefor astronomical observations (high, dry, cold, no wind, good free seeing above a certainboundary layer). Over the last few years, several meetings and conferences tookplace to discuss potential astrophysical science cases for such exceptional atmosphericconditions. I summarise my personal conclusions from these discussions and presenta global vision (roadmap) for Antarctic Astronomy for future optical, near-IR, thermal-IR, andfar-IR/sub-mm observations. The need for international collaboration between Europe, Australia and China is stressed.

The first set of Chinese Antarctic telescopes at Dome A is called CSTAR. It consists of four 14.5 cm wide-field telescopes and was installed at Dome A during the traverse of 2007/2008. CSTAR successfully operated for 135 days in 2008 and for more than 200 days in 2009. This paper briefly introduces recent developments in Chinese Antarctic astronomy and their international collaborative activities. It also describes future plans for Dome A, as the building of Kunlun Station began in January of this year.

The special session aims at discussing an integrated approach of the different efforts to increase and promote the teaching and learning of astronomy in the world, with emphasis on developing countries. To this end, attention will be given to research on education, specifically in the field of physics, to best practices of the use of astronomy in educational systems (specifically in developing countries), and to innovative learning initiatives other than formal education. The Special Session aims also at creating a universal perspective wherein modern (post-Copernican) astronomy will presented as an intellectual cumulus. The objective of the session is to disseminate best practices in teaching and learning activities of astronomy and to give an opportunity to learn about initiatives in different cultural and socio-economic settings. The special session also wants to give food-for-thought and proposals for reflection for an integrative approach, and for optimization processes, to enhance the interest in astronomy and its role as a trigger towards science education in the educational systems, with emphasis on the developing countries. The outcome should be a sensitization of teachers and students alike to the concept of a universal history of astronomy and creation of some reliable source material which can be used as a teaching aid in a culture-specific context. The outcome could be a set of recommendations for future integrated actions, and eventually recommendations on new initiatives, framed into the new decadal policy plan.

Astronomy is an attractive subject for education. It deals with fascination of the unknown and the unreachable, yet is uses tools, concepts and insights from various fundamental sciences such as mathematics, physics, chemistry, biology. Because of this it can be well used for introducing sciences to young people and to raise their interest in further studies in that direction. It is also an interesting subject for teaching as its different aspects (observation techniques, theory, data sampling and analysis, modelling,?) offer various didactical approaches towards different levels of pupils, students and different backgrounds. And it gives great opportunities to teach and demonstrate the essence of scientific research, through tutorials and projects. In this paper we discuss some of the challenges education in general, and astronomy in particular, faces in the coming decades, given the major geophysical and technological changes that can be deducted from our present knowledge. This defines a general, but very important background in terms of educational needs at various levels, and in geographical distribution of future efforts of the astronomical community. Special emphasis will be given to creative approaches to teaching, to strategies that are successful (such as the use of tutorials with element from computer games), and to initiatives complementary to the regular educational system. The programs developed by the IAU will be briefly highlighted.

Special Session 5 on Accelerating the Rate of Astronomical Discovery addressed a range of potential limits to progress: paradigmatic, technological, organizational, and political. It examined each issue both from modern and historical perspectives, and drew lessons to guide future progress. A number of issues were identified which may regulate the flow of discoveries, such as the balance between large strongly-focussed projects and instruments, designed to answer the most fundamental questions confronting us, and the need to maintain a creative environment with room for unorthodox thinkers and bold, high risk, projects. Also important is the need to maintain historical and cultural perspectives, and the need to engage the minds of the most brilliant young people on the planet, regardless of their background, ethnicity, gender, or geography.

Despite quite distinct bulk properties, Europa, the third largest Jovian satellite (d=3138 km), and the Saturnian satellites Enceladus (d~500 km) and Titan (d=5151 km) share a remarkable common feature which is a strong indication of the presence of liquid water at some level below the surface. The possibilities for the development of life organisms on these bodies are reviewed.

Titan, the largest satellite of the planet Saturn, has a thick atmosphere which consists of nitrogen (N2) and methane (CH4). In 2004, the Cassini-Huygens mission observed the occultation of two stars through the atmosphere of Titan and measured ultraviolet (UV) absorption spectra. Through these spectra it was possible to identify the molecular species contained in this environment. In the present work, we have simulated a spectrum of this atmosphere using some molecules such as CH4, C2H2, C2H4, C2H6, C4H2, and C6H6. Our cross sections data were experimentally obtained using the electron energy-loss technique, where the electron energy-loss spectra, measured high incident energies and in small scattering angles, are similar to photoabsorption spectra. The comparison of our synthetic spectrum with that measured by Cassini shows that this method is very efficient for identifying molecules as well as estimating abundances.

A simplified model of the Earth's atmosphere consisting of three nonlinear differential equations with a driving force was developed by Goldblatt et al. (2006). They found a steady-state solution that exhibits bistability and identified its upper value with the great oxidation of the Earth's atmosphere. Noting that the driving force in their study was a step function, it is the main goal of this paper to investigate the stability of the model by considering two different more realistic driving forces. The stability analysis is performed by using Lyapunov exponents. Our results show that the model remains stable and it does not exhibit any chaotic behavior.

A variety of molecular species up to complex polyatomic molecules/radicals have been identified in many extraterrestrial gaseous environments, including interstellar clouds, cometary comae and planetary atmospheres. Amongst the identified molecules/radicals, a large percentage are organic in nature and encompass also prebiotic molecules. Different types of microscopic processes are believed to be involved in their formation, including surface processes, ion- and radical- molecule reactions. A thorough characterization of such a complex chemistry relies on a multi-disciplinary approach, where the observations are complemented by accurate chemical modeling. Unfortunately, a literature survey reveals that only a small percentage of the elementary reactions considered in the available models have been characterized in laboratory experiments. In this contribution, a brief overview will be given of recent experimental techniques that have allowed us to reach a better description of neutral-neutral gas-phase reactions, which might be responsible for the formation of simple prebiotic molecules.

We describe three space experiments designed to expose to space conditions, and more specifically to solar UV radiation, selected samples of organic and mineral material.