The distance from the Local Group to the ‘sphere’ of small galaxies that no longer expand with the Universe determines the time since the Big Bang, t x M1/2, where M is the mass of the Local Group. Adopting Feast's new distance scale, this distance is found to be 1.35 ± 0.1 Mpc. The velocity of approach and the distance to M31 give a different combination of t and M, thus both can be deduced. We find the time since the Big Bang and The importance of accurate distances for such results is stressed. If all distances are revised by a factor λ then both t and M change by that factor.

We carried out three-dimensional global MHD simulations of jet formation from an accretion disk threaded by large-scale magnetic fields. Numerical results show that bipolar jets with maximum speed υjet ~ υKepler are created. The surface layer of the disk accretes faster than the equatorial part because magnetic braking most effectively affects that layer. Accretion proceeds along spiral channels which correspond to the surface avalanche flow appearing in previous axisymmetric simulations. Spirally shaped low β (= Pgas/Pmag < 1) regions appear in the innermost part of accretion disks where toroidal magnetic fields become dominant.

Several groups of close binary stars are considered in an attempt to explain their present state as a consequence of a large-scale mass transfer or mass loss in the past: Algol-like semidetached binaries, some shell stars (AX Mon), some binary X-ray sources (Cen X-3, Her X-1), the recurrent nova T CrB, helium-rich binaries v Sgr and KS Per, and the symbiotic variables.

Algol-like binaries like U Sge cannot be products of a conservative case A of mass transfer; rather, mass loss from system and/or a temporary contact stage must be invoked. Nova T CrB as well as the symbiotic variables probably contain a mass-losing giant and a helium star, which again may be a product of a previous mass transfer of type B. Similarly, some of the X-ray sources may actually be binaries undergoing a second process of mass transfer. The systems v Sgr and KS Per may contain helium stars expanding to the right of the helium main sequence, while the other component may be a rather inactive main-sequence star. Some shell stars may be products of mass transfer. Mass loss from convective envelopes is also discussed.

Loss of mass and of angular momentum from many binary systems must be anticipated. Behavior of the mass-accreting stars may often be decisive for the appearance and evolution of the system.

With the advent of powerful instruments in various spectral domains many scientists became involved in the study of giant HII regions - i.e. regions as important as 30 Doradus in the Large Magellanic Cloud or NGC 604 in Messier 33 - and of HII complexes still more active such as isolated extragalactic HII regions, some galactic central regions, chains in large spirals and clumpy irregular galaxies.

In view of the importance of these investigations for the problems of formation and evolution of stars and of galaxies, we organized a Meeting at thelAU XVIIIth General Assembly on”Giant HII complexes outside our Galaxy”with the following program:

1. a- Observational results and their primary interpretations in the X-ray, UV, visible, IR and radio domains.

2. b- Confrontation with related investigations in our Galaxy and general interpretations.

At a time when so much of the prestigious astronomical research is devoted to new and highly speculative phenomena, it has been rewarding to see and hear the cautions and accurate approach to the measuring and interpreting of stellar quantities. It has been shown by many speakers, perhaps clearest of all by our participant of honor Professor Popper, how insufficient attention to calibration problems can lead to erroneous results.

A decade of galactic center observations at the Crawford Hill 7 m antenna is summarized. The galactic center region contains several hundred high-mass, high-density molecular clouds with physical properties very different from clouds in the outer galactic disk. There is also a considerable amount of molecular gas not bound into clouds, but sheared by differential rotation into a molecular inter-cloud medium not seen elsewhere in the Galaxy. These observations can be explained by a combination of the tidal density limit and the virial theorem. The distribution of emission on the sky and in velocity suggests that most of the dense gas is confined to a 500 pc long ridge of emission which may be a dust lane along the central bar.

The number of known diffuse radio sources in clusters of galaxies has grown in recent years, making it possible to derive statistical properties of these sources and of the hosting clusters. We show that diffuse sources are associated with X-ray luminous clusters which have undergone recent merger processes. The radio and X-ray structures are often similar, and correlations are found between radio and X-ray parameters. This is indication of a link between the diffuse relativistic and thermal plasma in clusters of galaxies.

Motivated by their role as the direct or indirect source of many of the elements in the Universe, numerical modeling of core collapse supernovae began more than five decades ago. Progress toward ascertaining the explosion mechanism(s) has been realized through increasingly sophisticated models, as physics and dimensionality have been added, as physics and numerical modeling have improved, and as the leading computational resources available to modelers have become far more capable. The past five to ten years have witnessed the emergence of a consensus across the core collapse supernova modeling community that had not existed in the four decades prior. For the majority of progenitors – i.e., slowly rotating progenitors – the efficacy of the delayed shock mechanism, where the stalled supernova shock wave is revived by neutrino heating by neutrinos emanating from the proto-neutron star, has been demonstrated by all core collapse supernova modeling groups, across progenitor mass and metallicity. With this momentum, and now with a far deeper understanding of the dynamics of these events, the path forward is clear. While much progress has been made, much work remains to be done, but at this time we have every reason to be optimistic we are on track to answer one of the most important outstanding questions in astrophysics: How do massive stars end their lives?

Future extremely large telescopes will be the engines of major progress in the fields of star and planet formation, brown dwarfs, and extrasolar planets. Their throughput will enable spectroscopic studies of the structure of brown dwarf atmospheres; reveal the composition and kinematics of protoplanetary disks; extend radial velocity searches for extrasolar planets to fainter stars and lower masses; and characterize the surfaces of the most distant Kuiper Belt objects. Their resolution will allow us to resolve and track the orbits of close binary young stars and brown dwarfs, establishing their dynamical masses and calibrating their evolutionary tracks; probe the inner region of young stellar object disks, resolving the jet collimation region in accreting systems and disk inner holes in more evolved ones; and move the horizon for stellar companion searches inward to 40 mas, enabling the direct detection of hot young planets orbiting 10 AU from young T Tauri stars. The high contrast imaging capability of future ELTs is uncertain, and depends on future developments in extreme adaptive optics. Wavefront control considerations suggest a fundamental atmospheric contrast limit of 10$^{-8}$ for companion searches to nearby solar-type stars, below which detections are unlikely to be possible. To reach this performance level, continuing investments will be needed in extreme adaptive optics work, in addition to careful attention to the specialized requirements of ultra-high contrast imaging in ELT design. Above the 10$^{-8}$ contrast limit, a 30m telescope has the potential to directly image about a dozen of the currently known radial velocity planets.

We present our first results on a new sample containing all single G, K and M giants down to V = 4 mag in the Solar vicinity, suitable for spectropolarimetric (Stokes V) observations with Narval at TBL, France. For detection and measurement of the magnetic field (MF), the Least Squares Deconvolution (LSD) method was applied (Donati et al. 1997) that in the present case enables detection of large-scale MFs even weaker than the solar one (the typical precision of our longitudinal MF measurements is 0.1-0.2 G). The evolutionary status of the stars is determined on the basis of the evolutionary models with rotation (Lagarde et al. 2012; Charbonnel et al., in prep.) and fundamental parameters given by Massarotti et al. (1998). The stars appear to be in the mass range 1-4 M⊙, situated at different evolutionary stages after the Main Sequence (MS), up to the Asymptotic Giant Branch (AGB).

The sample contains 45 stars. Up to now, 29 stars are observed (that is about 64% of the sample), each observed at least twice. For 2 stars in the Hertzsprung gap, one is definitely Zeeman detected. Only 5 G and K giants, situated mainly at the base of the Red Giant Branch (RGB) and in the He-burning phase are detected. Surprisingly, a lot of stars ascending towards the RGB tip and in early AGB phase are detected (8 of 13 observed stars). For all Zeeman detected stars v sin i is redetermined and appears in the interval 2-3 km/s, but few giants with MF possess larger v sin i.

The dynamical behavior of a relaxed star cluster containing a massive, central black hole poses a challenging problem for the theorist and intriguing possibilities for the observer. The historical development of the subject is sketched and the salient features of the physical solution and its observational consequences are summarized.

The full dynamical problem of a relaxed, self-gravitating, large N-body system containing a massive central black hole has all the necessary ingredients to excite the most dispassionate many-body, computational physicist: it is a time-dependent, multidimensional, nonlinear problem which must be solved over widely disparate length and time scales simultaneously. The problem has been tackled at various levels of approximation over the years. A new 2+1 dimensional Monte Carlo simulation code has been developed in appreciable generality to solve the time-dependent Fokker-Planck equation in E-J space for this problem. The code incorporates such features as (1) a particle “cloning and renormalization” scheme to provide a statistically reliable population of test particles in low density regions of phase space and (2) a time-step “adjustment” algorithm to ensure integration on local relaxation timescales without having to follow typical particles on orbital trajectories. However, critical regions in phase space (e.g. disruption “loss-cone” trajectories) can still be followed on orbital timescales. Numerical results obtained with this Monte Carlo scheme for the dynamical structure and evolution of globular star clusters and dense galactic nuclei containing massive black holes are reviewed.

Recent dynamical integrations of the Einstein field equations for spherical, collisionless (Vlasov) systems in General Relativity suggest a possible origin for the supermassive black holes believed to power quasars and active galactic nuclei. This scenario is discussed briefly.

Observational data concerning the long-term history of cyclic solar activity as recorded in sunspot and isotopic data are discussed in the context of solar dynamo theory. In particular, a simple dynamo model based on differential rotation and the mirror asymmetry of convection with random fluctuations of dynamo governing parameters is shown to reproduce some basic features of the solar magnetic activity evolution.

Current understanding of the stability of gas and stellar disks suggests very strongly that local stability to axisymmetric modes is not sufficient for global stability. A global instability to a bar mode will develop unless the rotational kinetic energy is sufficiently small compared with the random kinetic energy for the system as a whole. A disk as cool as the galactic disk near the Sun can survive only if most of the mass of the Galaxy is in a ‘hot’ component, such as a central bulge and/or an extended halo. We review the theoretical evidence for this conclusion coming from analytic results for simple gas and stellar disks, from numerical simulations of stellar disks, and from numerical calculations of the stability of gas disks. Some new results on the precise form of dynamic bar instabilities of gas disks with and without halos are reported.

A review of observational data supports the proposal that there are two distinct phases of particle acceleration in solar flares. ‘Phase 1’ is associated with the flash phase and is here interpreted as acceleration during field-line reconnection. ‘Phase 2’ is associated with type II and type IV radio bursts, and is ascribed to stochastic acceleration in the turbulent plasma behind a magnetohydrodynamic shock formed ahead of an ejected plasmoid.

This note describes some of the initial results derived from observations of radar echoes from the moon obtained at 10-cm wavelength at the Royal Radar Establishment, Malvern. The radar, which has been described elsewhere [1], has a transmitter of 2 megawatts peak power with a pulse length of 5 microseconds and a pulse recurrence frequency of 260 per second. The receiver is of conventional design and has a bandwidth of 500 kc/s and a noise factor of 7.5. The aerial used is the 45-foot diameter radio telescope shown in Fig. 1. The telescope is controlled from a mechanical computer that converts the lunar coordinates into azimuth and elevation, which are then fed into a servo drive.

A vacuum evaporation technique has been used to produce thin, optical quality films of samples of Type II kerogen and of insoluble organic residue from the Murchison meteorite. Using these films, optical constants have been measured from 0.15 to 40 μm for kerogen, and from 2.5 to 40 μm for the Murchison residue. The infrared absorption properties of these materials show many similarities, although Murchison residue is more opaque throughout the infrared than is kerogen, and shows no distinct aliphatic absorptions.

Ethylene (C2H4) is a symmetric molecule that is best detected using mid-infrared transitions. We report on observations of the 10.5 μm ν7 band using the cryogenic grating spectrograph TEXES. These confirm the previous ethylene detection in the IRC+10216 circumstellar shell. We detect 18 ethylene lines. The lines are both narrow and weak with depths of no more than ~2%. The ethylene lines suggest an excitation temperature of ~80 K.

We review the current observational status of the ROSAT sources RX J1914.4+2456 and RX J0806.3+1527, and the evidence that these are ultra-short period (< 10 min) binary systems. We argue that an Intermediate Polar interpretation can be ruled out, that they are indeed compact binaries with a degenerate secondary, and that the period seen in the X-ray and optical is the orbital period. A white dwarf primary is preferred, but a neutron star cannot be excluded. We examine the capability of the three current double-degenerate models (Polar, Direct Accretor and Electric Star) to account for the observational characteristics of these systems. All models have difficulties with some aspects of the observations, but none can be excluded with confidence at present. The Electric Star model provides the best description, but the lifetime of this phase requires further investigation. These ultra-short period binaries will be strong gravitational wave emitters in the LISA bandpass, and because of their known source properties will be important early targets for gravitational wave studies.

Dynamical theories of the Earth’s rotation like SMART97 (Bretagnon et al., 1998) are to be considered in a DGRS (dynamically nonrotating geocentric reference system) (Brumberg et al., 1996). Such a theory gives the explicit expressions in terms of TCG (Geocentric Coordinate Time) of three Euler angles relating a DGRS to the ITRS (International Terrestrial Reference System). These angular quantities together with their TCG derivatives enable one to get all Earth’s rotation parameters. At the same time, the analysis of observations result in the values for slightly different angles and their TCG derivatives characterizing the relationship between the ITRS and a KGRS (kinematically nonrotating geocentric reference system). The differences between these two sets of six quantities represent kinematical relativistic corrections (due to geodesic precession, geodesic nutation and luni-planetary terms). The paper presents these differences computed by means of the VSOP87 series (Bretagnon and Francou, 1988). In particular, in analysing observations at the microarcsecond level these expressions will permit an experimental check of geodesic precession in a more direct manner than it is done nowadays (Bertotti et al., 1987).

We discuss formation mechanisms for low-mass X-ray binaries in globular clusters. We apply the most efficient mechanism, tidal capture in close two-body encounters between neutron and main-sequence stars, to the clusters of our galaxy. The observed number of X-ray sources in these can be explained if the birth velocities of neutron stars are higher than estimated from velocity measurements of radiopulsars, or if the initial mass function steepens at high masses. We perform a statistical test on the distribution of X-ray sources with respect to the number of close encounters in globular clusters, and find satisfactory agreement between the tidal capture theory and observation, apart from the presence of low-mass X-ray binaries in four clusters with a very low encounter rate: Ter 1, Ter 2, Gr 1 and NGC 6712.

EXOSAT observations indicate that some dim globular cluster sources may be less luminous than hitherto assumed, and support the view that the brighter dim sources may be soft X-ray transients in quiescence.