We present new M and L-dwarfs confirmed through follow-up of 2MASS color-selected objects with the CorMASS near-infrared spectrograph (R ˜ 300) on the Palomar 60-inch telescope as part of a continuing follow-up survey. Most of the objects are bright (Ks < 13).

A planetary nebula consists mainly of gas ejected slowly by a red giant. Its dynamics is dominated by the hot central star which is left behind later. In particular a fast wind from this star forms a bubble of hot gas which fills the inner part of the nebula and pushes the envelope into a shell. This shell remains only partly ionized for a considerable time. Its non-ionized part is subject to a Rayleigh-Taylor instability, and is expected to break up into fragments which remain behind in the HII part of the nebula.

Our understanding of the evolution of Central Stars of Planetary Nebulae (CPN) has made considerable progress during the last years. This was possible since consistent computations through the asymptotic giant branch (AGB), with thermal pulses and (in some cases) mass loss taken into account, became available (Schönberner, 1979, 1983; Kovetz and Harpaz, 1981; Harpaz and Kovetz, 1981; Iben, 1982, 1984; Wood and Faulkner, 1986). It turned out that the evolution depends very sensitively on the inital conditions on the AGB. More precisely, the evolution of an AGB remnant is a function of the phase of the thermal-pulse cycle during which this remnant was created on the tip of the AGB by the planetary-nebula (PN) formation process (Iben, 1984, 1987). This was first shown by Schönberner (1979), and then fully explored by Iben (1984). In short, two major modes of PAGB evolution to the white dwarf stage are possible, according to the two main phases of a thermally pulsing AGB star: the hydrogen-burning or helium-burning mode. If, for instance, the PN formation, i.e. the removal of the stellar envelope by mass loss, happens during a luminosity peak that follows a thermal pulse of the helium-burning shell, the remnant leaves the AGB while still burning helium as the main energy supplier (Härm and Schwarzschild, 1975). On the other hand, PN formation may also occur during the quiescent hydrogen-burning phase on the AGB, and the remnant continues then to burn mainly hydrogen on its way to becoming a white dwarf.

I describe a model of energetic gamma ray and neutrino emission in blazars which is consistent with most of the gamma-ray observations, and use this model to estimate the diffuse intensity of high energy neutrinos from blazars.

Recent observational studies of intermediate- and high-mass star-forming regions at submillimeter and infrared wavelengths are reviewed, and chemical diagnostics of the different physical components associated with young stellar objects are summarized. Procedures for determining the temperature, density and abundance profiles in the envelopes are outlined. A detailed study of a set of infrared-bright massive young stars reveals systematic increases in the gas/solid ratios, the abundances of evaporated molecules, and the fraction of heated ices with increasing temperature. Since these diverse phenomena involve a range of temperatures from < 100 K to 1000 K, the enhanced temperatures must be communicated to both the inner and outer parts of the envelopes. This ‘global heating’ plausibly results from the gradual dispersion of the envelopes with time. Similarities and differences with low-mass YSOs are discussed. The availability of accurate physical models will allow chemical models of ice evaporation followed by ‘hot core’ chemistry to be tested in detail.

I review measurements of heavy element abundances within H II regions in the Magellanic Clouds, highlighting in particular improved determinations of carbon abundances based on UV spectroscopy with Hubble Space Telescope. In general, the Magellanic Cloud H II regions show average underabundances in O, Ne, and S (relative to their Galactic counterparts) that are similar to those measured in Magellanic Cloud stars. However, comparison of stars and ionized gas shows discrepancies in C and N abundances that may be related to recently recognized mixing processes that may be operating in massive stars.

The discovery via gravitational waves of binary black hole systems with total masses greater than 60Mʘ has raised interesting questions for stellar evolution theory. Among the most promising formation channels for these systems is one involving a common envelope binary containing a low metallicity, core helium burning star with mass ⁓30 – 40Mʘ and a black hole with mass ⁓30 – 40Mʘ. For this channel to be viable, the common envelope binary must eject more than half the giant star’s mass and reduce its orbital separation by as much as a factor of 80. We discuss issues faced in numerically simulating the common envelope evolution of such systems and present a 3D AMR simulation of the dynamical inspiral of a low-metallicity red supergiant with a massive black hole companion.

The local planetary nebula (PN) census is dominated by extremely evolved examples, and until recently, was incomplete. New discoveries from the AAO/UKST H$\alpha$ Survey and SHASSA, have partially remedied this problem. In addition, we find that some currently accepted nearby PNe are in fact Strömgren spheres in the ISM ionised by a hot white dwarf. Distance estimates for a robust sample of calibrating PNe from the literature, plus new distances for a number of highly evolved PNe, have allowed a new H$\alpha$ surface brightness – radius relationship to be devised as a useful distance indicator. It covers $>$6 dex in SB, and while the spread in SB is $\sim$1 dex at a given radius, optically thick (mainly bipolar and bipolar-core) PNe tend to populate the upper bound of the trend, while common-envelope PNe and very high-excitation PNe form a sharp lower boundary. Hence, distances can be estimated for all remaining local PNe, allowing the definition of a relatively complete census of PNe in the solar neighbourhood within 1.0 kpc. This provides a first look at the faint end of the PN luminosity function, and new estimates of the space density, scale height, total number, and birth rate of Galactic PNe.

The centimeter wavelength continuum radiation seen toward the Galactic center (Figure 1) is a mixture of thermal (free-free) and nonthermal (synchrotron) radiation which originates in the nucleus and along the line-of-sight. In this review we discuss only the thermal emission (also see Mezger 1974 and Oort 1977). High-frequency radio continuum and recombination line observations show that the thermal radiation comes from extend, low-density (ELD) HII, and a number of giant “radio HII regions” (see Mezger 1978 for definitions). The approximate half-power contour of the ELD HII (labelled EI in Fig. 1), probably represents a superposition of evolved and expanded HII regions. Thermal radiation outside EI comes predominantly from along the line-of-sight (see Pauls and Mezger 1975).

The study of the optical counterparts to the radio jets has been the subject of a number of observing programs with the Hubble Space Telescope (HST). We know that these jets play a fundamental role in transporting energy from the central source to the extended radio lobes. Observations at optical and ultraviolet wavelengths with the HST are essential to obtain spatial resolutions similar to, or better than, those achieved in the radio band and, thus, provide the possibility of directly comparing the sites and mechanisms responsible for the emission at these different wavelengths.

Silicon and especially carbon bound-free absorptions considerably reduce the emergent flux in the ultraviolet for stars near spectral type A0 (Teff = 10000 K). An overabundance of silicon and/or an underabundance of carbon can affect the Balmer discontinuity and the Paschen continuum by a few per cent at most. However, the abundances of these ultraviolet absorbers will have little effect on the temperature distribution calculated for a star if the model is chosen to match the visual spectrum. An examination of the ultraviolet spectrum of Sirius shows that still more opacity is needed; part of this absorption can be supplied by line blanketing.

Over the past ten years, there has been a revolution in our understanding of massive young stellar clusters in the Galaxy. Initially, there were no known examples having masses >104, yet we now know that there are at least a half dozen such clusters in the Galaxy. In all but one case, the masses have been determined through infrared observations. Several had been identified as clusters long ago, but their massive natures were only recently determined. Presumably, we are just scratching the surface, and we might look forward to having statistically significant samples of coeval massive stars at all important stages of stellar evolution in the near future. I review the efforts that have led to this dramatic turn of events and the growing sample of young massive clusters in the Galaxy.

We present results of stratification analyses for Mg, Si, Ca, Cr and Fe in the atmospheres of two Cr-type sharp-lined peculiar stars HD 133792 and HD 204411. Even in the absence of strong magnetic fields their atmospheres are stable which is confirmed by zero microturbulence. Both stars are slightly evolved, their $\log g \approx 3.5$, whereas their effective temperatures are 9200 and 8400 K, respectively. We find a moderate Cr and Fe stratification. However the abundances of these elements do not fall below the solar value throughout the atmosphere. Si and Ca are strongly stratified, in particular in HD 133792, with large underabundances in the outer atmospheric layers. Abundance stratifications derived for weakly magnetic Ap stars are compared with the empirically determined stratification in the atmospheres of strongly magnetic Ap stars in the same temperature range.To search for other articles by the author(s) go to: http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abstract_service.html

The WAPP is a new Pulsar Processor for Arecibo Observatory. Key features are wideband operation (100 MHz) and good time resolution (16 microseconds).

The spherical aberration in the primary mirror of the Hubble Space Telescope causes more than 80% of the light from a point source to be spread into a halo of radius of 2–3 arcsec. The point spread function (PSF) is both time variant (resulting from spacecraft jitter and desorption of the secondary mirror support structure) and space variant (owing to the Cassegrain repeater optics in the Wide Field / Planetary Camera). A variety of image restoration algorithms have been utilized on HST data with some success, although optimal restorations require better modeling of the PSF and the development of efficient restoration algorithms that accommodate a spacevariant PSF. The first HST servicing mission (December 1993) will deploy a corrective optics system for the Faint Object Camera and the two spectrographs and a second generation WF/PC with internal corrective optics. As simulations demonstrate, however, the restoration algorithms developed now for aberrated images will be very useful for removing the remaining diffraction features and optimizing dynamic range in post-servicing mission data.

Radial Velocity follow-up is essential to establish or exclude the planetary nature of a transiting companion as well as to accurately determine its mass. Here we present some elements of an efficient Doppler follow-up strategy, based on high-resolution spectroscopy, devoted to the characterization of transiting candidates. Some aspects and results of the radial velocity follow-up of the CoRoT space mission are presented in order to illustrate the strategy used to deal with the zoo of transiting candidates.

We investigate the stellar angular momentum of galaxies across the Hubble sequence from the CALIFA survey. The distribution of CALIFA elliptical and lenticular galaxies in the λRe - εe diagram is consistent with that shown by the Atlas3D survey. Our data, however, show that the location of spiral galaxies in this diagram is significantly different. We have found two families of spiral galaxies with particularly peculiar properties: (a) spiral galaxies with much higher λRe values than any elliptical and lenticular galaxy; (b) low-mass spiral galaxies with observed λRe values much lower than expected for their apparent flattening. We use these two families of objects to argue that (1) fading alone cannot explain the transformation of spiral to lenticular galaxies, and (2) that those low-mass spiral galaxies are in fact dark matter dominated, which explains the unusually low angular momentum.

Spectroheliogram movies of magnetic, velocity, and intensity fields have been obtained in a wide variety of spectral lines. The time resolution was typically 10–30 s. Some of the lines used were: CN λ 3883; CaI λ 6103; FeI λ 4071; FeI λ 5434; FeII λ 4924; CaII λ 3934; CaII λ 8542.

Among the 50 discovered extrasolar planets orbiting main-sequence solar type stars only three are confirmed to be in a binary star system. However, the majority of stars seem to form in binary or even multiple stellar systems. Standard planet formation scenarios consider the creation of planets or planetary systems only for isolated solitary stars. The presence of a companion creates tidal torques on the protoplanetary disk, which may influence the formation process of planets in disks. In this contribution the consequences of the companion's perturbation on the formation scenario of planets is briefly discussed.

The HARPS search for low-mass extrasolar planets has been ongoing for more than 4 years, targeting originally about 400 bright FGK dwarfs in the solar neighbourhood. The published low-mass planetary systems coming from this survey are fully confirmed by subsequent observations, which demonstrate the sub-m/s long-term stability reached by HARPS. The complex RV curves of these systems have led us to focus on a smaller sample of stars, accumulating more data points per star. We perform a global search in our data to assess the existence of the large population of ice giants and super-Earths predicted by numerical simulations of planet formation. We indeed detect about 45 candidates having minimum masses below 30 M⊕ and orbital periods below 50 days. These numbers are preliminary since the existence of these objects has to be confirmed by subsequent observations. However, they indicate that about 30% of solar-type stars may have such close-in, low-mass planets. Some emerging properties of this low-mass population are presented. We finally discuss the prospects for finding transiting objects among these candidates, which may possibly yield the first nearby, transiting super-Earth.