We have digitized and processed the daily K-CaII-line full disk spectroheliograms from the archive of the Kodaikanal Observatory during 1907-1995. The programm has been worked out to determine the boundaries of the bright areas (plages, decayed plages, enhanced network features, K-CaII bright points and so on) with contrast that exceeded a level of the quiet Sun on the given value. About the $1.2\,{\times}\,10^6$ K-CaII active regions of different scales were processed. The coordinates, areas, the tilt and latitude-time distributions of bright features were determined. At the high latitudes the K-CaII bright points form a polar branch of solar activity at the period between the polar magnetic field reversals. This polar activity shows both 11-year's and 22-year's cycles. We found that the polar K-CaII bright point cycles proceed on average 5.5 years the sunspot cycles.To search for other articles by the author(s) go to: http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abstract_service.html

Diffuse intracluster light (ICL) has now been observed in nearby and in intermediate redshift clusters. Individual intracluster stars have been detected in the Virgo and Coma clusters and the first color-magnitude diagram and velocity measurements have been obtained. Recent studies show that the ICL contains of the order of 10% and perhaps up to 30% of the stellar mass in the cluster, but in the cores of some dense and rich clusters like Coma, the local ICL fraction can be high as 40%-50%. What can we learn from the ICL about the formation of galaxy clusters and the evolution of cluster galaxies? How and when did the ICL form? What is the connection to the central brightest cluster galaxy? Cosmological N-body and hydrodynamical simulations are beginning to make predictions for the kinematics and origin of the ICL. The ICL traces the evolution of baryonic substructures in dense environments and can thus be used to constrain some aspects of cosmological simulations that are most uncertain, such as the modeling of star formation and the mass distribution of the baryonic component in galaxies.

Shells may be the result of the disruption of a small companion in the potential of a much larger galaxy (e.g., Hernquist & Quinn, 1986; Dupraz & Combes, 1985), the disturbance of a disk system in a tidal encounter (Toomre, 1972), an accumulation of resonant stellar orbits (Binney, pers.comm.) or the result of some shock phenomenon in a hot galactic atmosphere (e.g., Williams & Christiansen, 1985; Wilkinson & Bailey, 1985;). To distinguish between these formation mechanisms, CCD direct images in B and R have been obtained at the Anglo-Australian 3.8m telescope for 66 of the 74 galaxies in the range 01h 40′ α < 13h 46' in the Malin-Carter (1983) catalogue of shell galaxies.

With the substantial improvements in observational techniques we have to deal with very big databases, consisting of a few positions of an object over a short time span; this is often not enough to compute a preliminary orbit with traditional tools. In this paper we first review a classical method by C.F. Gauss to compute a preliminary orbit for asteroids. This method, followed by a least squares fit to improve the orbit, still today gives successful results when we have at least three separate observations. Then we introduce the basics of a very recent orbit determination theory, that has been thought just to be used with modern sets of data. These data allow us in many cases to know the angular position and velocity of an asteroid at a given time, even though the radial distance and velocity $(r,\dot r)$, needed to compute its full orbit, are unknown. The variables $(r,\dot r)$ can be constrained to a compact set, that we call the admissible region(AR), whose definition requires that the body belongs to the Solar System, that it is not a satellite of the Earth, and that it is not a “shooting star” (i.e. very close and very small). We provide a mathematical description of the AR: its topological properties are surprisingly simple, in fact it turns out that the AR cannot have more than two connected components. A sampling of the AR can be performed by means of a Delaunay triangulation; a finite number of six-parameter sets of initial conditions are thus defined, with each node of the triangulation representing a possible orbit (a virtual asteroid).To search for other articles by the author(s) go to: http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abstract_service.html

As we enter the era of gravitational wave astronomy, we are beginning to collect observations which will enable us to explore aspects of astrophysics of massive stellar binaries which were previously beyond reach. In this paper we describe COMPAS (Compact Object Mergers: Population Astrophysics and Statistics), a new platform to allow us to deepen our understanding of isolated binary evolution and the formation of gravitational-wave sources. We describe the computational challenges associated with their exploration, and present preliminary results on overcoming them using Gaussian process regression as a simulation emulation technique.

Quiescent solar prominences are cool and dense plasma clouds located inside the hot and less dense solar corona. They are highly dynamic structures displaying flows, instabilities, oscillatory motions, etc. The oscillations have been mostly interpreted in terms of magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) waves, which has allowed to perform prominence seismology as a tool to determine prominence physical parameters difficult to measure. Here, several prominence seismology applications to large and small amplitude oscillations are reviewed.

Observations of the large-scale magnetic field show that the current extended solar cycle minimum is different from the three previous well-observed minima. The weaker polar fields increase the relative influence of middle and low-latitude flux patterns on the configuration of the corona and heliosphere. A much larger portion of the open flux originates in equatorial coronal holes. Even though the mean magnetic field of the Sun as a star is the weakest since measurements began, the sector structure of the interplanetary field, though smaller in magnitude, reached fairly high latitude until 2009. The emergence of active regions through the cycle and transport of flux from low to high latitudes also show quite different patterns, providing insight into the dynamo that drives the cycle. Long records of synoptic observations provide a rich source of information about solar activity that must be maintained.

Radiation-hydrodynamical simulations of surface convection in low-mass stars can be exploited to derive estimates of i) the efficiency of the convective energy transport in the stellar surface layers; ii) the convection-related photometric micro-variability. We comment on the universality of the mixing-length parameter, and point out potential pitfalls in the process of its calibration which may be in part responsible for the contradictory findings about its variability across the Hertzsprung-Russell digramme. We further comment on the modelling of the photometric micro-variability in HD 49933 – one of the first main COROT targets.

In early summer of 1972, we discovered an anomalous brightness in the spectrum of Io near the sodium D-lines. This effect is revealed to be time-varying emission by free sodium atoms on Io.

Preliminary analysis of spectra collected with the RESIK Bragg bent crystal X-ray spectrometer aboard CORONAS-F indicates the presence of many spectral features which until recently were unidentified. We present RESIK spectra in which the H-like Cl XVII Ly$\alpha$ line at 4.182 Å and He-like Cl XVI triplet components in the range 4.43 Å-4.45 Å are identified.To search for other articles by the author(s) go to: http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abstract_service.html

Radioactive 26Al, ejected by massive stars through winds and supernova explosions, leads to γ-ray line emission that can serve as a probe of the interstellar environment in and near young star clusters. The ~ 1 Myr decay time of 26Al is long enough to allow transport over significant distances, which can cause substantial angular offsets between γ-ray emission and cluster stars. Details of such offsets are determined by the morphology of the ISM. We discuss observations in Cygnus and Orion, and models based on population synthesis methods.

A summary is given of the present state of our knowledge of High-Mass X-ray Binaries (HMXBs), their formation and expected future evolution. Among the HMXB-systems that contain neutron stars, only those that have orbital periods upwards of one year will survive the Common-Envelope (CE) evolution that follows the HMXB phase. These systems may produce close double neutron stars with eccentric orbits. The HMXBs that contain black holes do not necessarily evolve into a CE phase. Systems with relatively short orbital periods will evolve by stable Roche-lobe overflow to short-period Wolf-Rayet (WR) X-ray binaries containing a black hole. Two other ways for the formation of WR X-ray binaries with black holes are identified: CE-evolution of wide HMXBs and homogeneous evolution of very close systems. In all three cases, the final product of the WR X-ray binary will be a double black hole or a black hole neutron star binary.

The history of the cosmological constant and the Lemaître models is reviewed briefly. Using recent cosmological observations, it is found that the cosmological constant if non-zero must be in absolute value less than 2 × 10-56 cm-2. The predictions of the Lemaître models are compared with modern observations. It is shown that Lemaître models without evolution fail to reproduce the observed radio source counts. The existence of quasars with large redshift (z > 2.5) is shown to be strong evidence against the Lemaître models.

I will review the impressive advances in the observations of the galactic magnetic field made since the time of van de Hulst's review at the 1966 Noordwijk Symposium (van de Hulst, 1967). Most of these observations are so recent that the consequences have not yet been worked out very well and are in need of discussion. Luckily the emphasis in the present Symposium, unlike that in many others, is on discussion. For this reason I will not hesitate to include in my review provocative speculations. I will base my discussion on Mathewson's (1968) elegant magnetic field model, consisting of a local field in the form of a sheared helix, superimposed on a large scale longitudinal field. I will include the criticism of this model by Gardner et al. (1969b). Mathewson has succeeded in accounting for such data as the distribution of background polarized radiation from the Galaxy, the distribution of rotation measures of extra-galactic radio sources and even the spurs and ridges in galactic continuum emission. There are critics who inherently distrust models that account for too many things at one time, but I feel that we should try to account for as many things as possible with the least number of models. Mathewson has succeeded in uniting much data and I will only add a few pieces to his model.

We present narrow band images and spectra illustrating the morphological and kinematical characteristics of a new class of planetary nebulae. It consists of all those objects in the catalogue by Schwarz et al. (1992) whose morphology shows no other symmetries than point–reflection about the central source. This peculiar shape is often determined by pairs of ansae or blobs separated from the central body of the nebula. The kinematical data show both low (e.g. IC 4634) and high (He 2–186; Vexp > 135 km s−1) velocity outflows.

The question of what sort of guidelines should be used to classify substellar mass objects was considered and debated during an evening panel discussion at the IAU 211 Symposium on Brown Dwarfs.

Up-to-date models of the interstellar medium should account for the existence of at least three phases of the interstellar gas, a hot phase at ˜ 106 K (HICM), a warm phase at ˜ 104 K (WICM) and a cold phase at ≤ 102 K (clouds). Recent observations of interstellar absorption lines are used to derive information about the physical properties and the spatial distribution of these phases. Evidence based on observations of C+ absorption lines indicates that the photoelectric threshold of interstellar dust grains is about 6 eV, much lower than previously thought. If the photoelectric threshold is indeed of this magnitude the WICM can easily be heated to temperatures in the range 6000 to 8000 K by photons of the general interstellar radiation field with λ > 912 Å. The analysis of interstellar CH+ and 0 VI absorption lines suggests that these lines are formed in gas associated with clouds in regions of enhanced pressure that occupy about 10 percent of interstellar space (SN cavities). The CH+ lines are formed in compressed WICM shells around clouds and the 0 VI lines in conductive interfaces between the WICM and the HICM. The velocity characteristics of the observed lines make shock waves a less probable source of the absorbing gases.

The structure of the near-polar accretion spots on accreting magnetic white dwarfs has been studied theoretically and observationally in numerous papers over the last decade. Detailed treatments are available for the regime of low mass flux, usually termed the bombardment case, and for higher mass fluxes which create a strong shock standing above the photosphere of the white dwarf. No general treatment is so far available for the case of shocks buried deep in the photosphere. I review the theoretical foundations, present some applications of theory, and discuss in short the open questions which still need to be addressed.

A non-negligible (∼ 15–20%) fraction of planetary nebulae is expected to be formed in close binaries in which one component fills its Roche lobe after the exhaustion of hydrogen or helium at its center. The nebula is ejected as a consequence of a frictional interaction between the stellar cores and a common envelope; the ionizing component of the central binary star may be a relatively high luminosity contracting star with a degenerate CO core, burning hydrogen or helium in a shell, or it may be a lower luminosity shell hydrogen-burning star with a degenerate helium core or a core helium-burning star. Even more exotic ionizing central stars are possible. Once the initial primary has become a white dwarf or neutron star, the secondary, after exhausting central hydrogen, will also fill its Roche lobe and eject a nebular shell in a common envelope event. The secondary becomes the ionizing star in a tight orbit with its compact companion. In all, there are roughly twenty different possibilities for the make-up of binary central stars, with the ionizing component being a post asymptotic giant branch star with a hydrogen- or helium-burning shell, a CO dwarf, a core helium-burning star, a shell helium-burning star with a degenerate CO core, a shell hydrogen-burning star with a degenerate helium core, or a helium degenerate dwarf, while its companion is a main sequence star, a CO degenerate dwarf, a helium star, a helium degenerate dwarf, or a neutron star. We estimate the occurrence frequency of several of these types and comment on the prior evolutionary history of 4 observed binary central stars.