Star formation and interstellar medium (ISM) structure were investigated in the Taurus, Auriga, Perseus and California (TAP) nearby star forming regions. Properties of the cold ISM was derived using AKARI FIR all sky maps, the Osaka-1.85m CO survey focusing to the all-sky Planck catalogue of Galactic Cold Clumps (PGCC). As many as 1041 infrared point sources were classified as young stellar object (YSO) based on multiband photometric data, and 384 of those are associated to a PGCC object. About 30% of the TAP PGCC clumps have associated YSOs.

A moon in synchronous rotation has longitudinal librations because of its non-spherical mass distribution and its elliptical orbit around the planet. We study the librations of Titan with periods of 14.7y and 29.5y and include deformation effects and the existence of a subsurface ocean. We take into account the fact that the orbit is not Keplerian and has other periodicities than the main period of orbital motion around Saturn due to perturbations by the Sun, other planets and moons. An orbital theory is used to compute the orbital perturbations due to these other bodies.

We numerically evaluate the amplitude of the long-period librations for many interior structure models of Titan constrained by the mass, radius and gravity field. Measurements of the librations may give constraints on the interior structure of the icy satellites.

The Maya 2012 prophecy foretells events that will occur at the close of the current Maya ‘era’ and at the end of the 13th BˈAKTUN period of the Maya calendar. This paper explores the mythic and astronomical events that occurred previously at the start of the Maya era in 3114 BC corresponding to the close of the first 13-BˈAKTUN period. These two 13-BˈAKTUN Period Endings, separated by a span of approximately 5125 years, are like two bookends on a single shelf that inextricably link ancient Maya conceptions of time, mythic history and prophecy. The following presentation will demonstrate how in this case, the past is very much prologue. Mythic events and godly actions recorded at the beginning of the era directly parallel those actions that will occur at the end of the era. In addition, new insights will be shared into how ancient Maya scribes linked Era Day events to temple dedications and architecture to reflect the sun's daily solar trek—a journey charted and revered by ancient peoples from all corners of the Americas.

The long term goal of large-scale chemical tagging is to use stellar elemental abundances as a tracer of dispersed substructures of the Galactic disk. The identification of such lost stellar aggregates and exploring their chemical properties will be key in understanding the formation and evolution of the disk. Present day stellar structures such as open clusters and moving groups are the ideal testing grounds for the viability of chemical tagging, as they are believed to be the remnants of the original larger star-forming aggregates. We examine recent high resolution abundance studies of open clusters to explore the various abundance trends and reassess the prospects of large-scale chemical tagging.

KIC 4851217 is a short period eclipsing binary (P = 2.47 days) in the field of the Kepler K1 mission. As well as variability caused by the eclipses, low-amplitude pulsations are also present in the data. A frequency analysis of the residual light-curve revealed δ Sct pulsations in the frequency range from 15–21 d−1 with amplitudes up to 3.5 mmag. Strong linear coupling (fi = fp + kforb) to orbital frequency was found, indicating tidally locked modes. From an analysis of 5 selected groups of frequencies we identified a radial mode on the secondary component, 3 dipole modes (l = |m| = 1), one of them present on the secondary component, and a quadrupole mode (l = |m| = 2), also located on the secondary component.

Most pre-college teachers in the United States have not been trained in astronomy. In Texas, astronomical concepts enter the pre-college science curriculum at all levels.

During the last six years, I have presented two different types of workshops: intensive three-week summer institutes for rather small numbers of teachers, and shorter 6- to 18-hour workshops for larger groups.

The University of Texas Astronomy Department and McDonald Observatory have hosted five of the intensive institutes. The institutes were established to offer an opportunity to learn astronomy through hands-on activities (Texas education regulations mandate that 40 per cent of all pre-college science classes should be laboratory oriented), and to introduce the teachers to modern astronomical research and facilities.

The paper emphasizes the connection between observations and theory in the Lower Instability Strip. It is argued that the $\delta$ Scuti and $\gamma$ Doradus pulsators are very close relatives in the sense that the $\gamma$ Doradus phenomenon can also be seen in the slightly hotter $\delta$ Scuti variables.

New developments and recent progress are reviewed. Arguments are given why all (or almost all) stars in the Lower Instability Strip are pulsators. Furthermore, the question of the so-called missing modes is answered as very extensive photometry campaigns have revealed a large number of pulsation modes with amplitudes less than one millimag. Arguments are given that the 500+ $\ell$ = 0 to 2 modes predicted for $\delta$ Scuti stars are actually present.

The progress made in developing reliable methods of pulsation mode identification is briefly discussed. The discovery of many close modes with small amplitudes sets severe requirements concerning the length of future studies.To search for other articles by the author(s) go to: http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abstract_service.html

With the current convergence of determinations of the Hubble Constant (e.g. The Extragalactic Distance Scale, 1997, Livio, Donahue and Panagia, eds.) to values within ±25% rather than a factor of two, and the clear possibility of determining q0 using high redshift supernovae (Garnavich et al. 1998), the major remaining problem in observational cosmology is the determination of Ω — what is the dark matter, how much is there, and how is it distributed?

The most direct approach to the last two parts of the question has been to study galaxy dynamics, first through the motions of galaxies in binaries, groups and clusters, and in the last decade and a half, driven by the observation of our motion w.r.t. the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) and thenotion that DM must be clumped on larger scales than galaxy clusters if (Ω is to be unity, through the study of large scale galaxy flows.

The ratio of the mass density to the closure mass density, Ω, is thought by most observers to be ~0.1-0.3, primarily based on the results of dynamical measurements of galaxy clusters and, more recently, gravitational lensing studies of clusters. In contrast, most theoretical cosmologists opt for a high density universe, Ω = 1.0, based on the precepts of the inflation scenario, the difficulty of forming galaxies in low density models given the observed smoothness of the microwave background radiation, and the observational evidence from the matching of the available large scale flow measurements (and the absolute microwave background dipole velocity) to the local density field. However this last result is extremely controversial—matching the velocity field to the density field derived from IRAS (60μ) selected galaxy samples yields high Ω values (e.g., Dekel et al. 1993) but matching to optically selected samples yields low values (Hudson 1994; Lahav et al. 1994; Santiago et al. 1995). On small scales, the high Ω camp argues that the true matter distribution is much more extended than the distribution of galaxies, so the dynamical mass estimates are biased low.

The number of known transiting exoplanets is rapidly increasing, which has recently inspired significant interest as to whether they can host a detectable moon. Although there has been no such example where the presence of a satellite was proven, several methods have already been investigated for such a detection in the future. All these methods utilize post-processing of the measured light curves, and the presence of the moon is decided by the distribution of a timing parameter. Here we propose a method for the detection of the moon directly in the raw transit light curves. When the moon is in transit, it puts its own fingerprint on the intensity variation. In realistic cases, this distortion is too little to be detected in the individual light curves, and must be amplified. Averaging the folded light curve of several transits helps decrease the scatter, but it is not the best approach because it also reduces the signal. The relative position of the moon varies from transit to transit, the moon's wing will appear in different positions on different sides of the planet's transit. Here we show that a careful analysis of the scatter curve of the folded light curves enhances the chance of detecting the exomoons directly.

The origin of radio emission in magnetic CVs is a long standing problem without a satisfactory solution. We review the radio observations of both non-magnetic and magnetic CVs and discuss possible emission mechanisms. We pose the following questions: Is the presence of a magnetic white dwarf a necessary condition for radio emission? Is there a single cause for the radio emission or are there several radio emission mechanisms? We revisit the suggestion that asynchronism or at least the lack of strict magnetic locking might be a necessary condition for radio emission.

We use a modified TreeSPH code to simulate the MilkyWay-LMC-SMC system using the latest observational results from Hipparcos on the proper motion of the Clouds. More than 120,000 particles are used for the simulation. Gravitational and hydrodynamic interactions among gaseous and stellar components in the system have been considered. The Magellanic Stream, some high velocity clouds, and the barred structure of LMC are reproduced. A leading gas arm from the SMC is predicted. From the simulation, the long term binary status of LMC-SMC is questioned as frequent encounters between the LMC and the SMC will have difficulty in explaining the survival of the SMC.

Cultural astronomy is the study of the astronomy of ancient cultures and is sometimes called the anthropology of astronomy. The many ways that astronomy was used by ancient cultures are fascinating and this can be used to inspire interest in all astronomy, as well as astronomy in culture. Archaeoastronomy is interdisciplinary and among its practitioners are not only astronomers and astrophysicists, but also anthropologists, archaeologists, and Indigenous scholars. Much can be learned about ancient cultures though examination of how and why they used astronomy. This paper will highlight several examples that can capture public attention.

Based on our previous work about a co-evolution of massive black holes (MBH) and their host spheroids, we estimate the cosmic star formation history associated with AGN accretion by ROSAT X-ray All sky surveys. We show: 1) the total amount of star formation associated with MBH growth is at least half of the net star formation at high redshift, which probably totally missed by the current UV/optical deep surveys; 2) the FIR emission from the dust heated by star formation on-going during the MBH growth could be a significant energy source for SCUBA populations; 3)the peak redshift of the massive spheroid formation in this case is around 1.5, not necessary to be at much higher redshift.To search for other articles by the author(s) go to: http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abstract_service.html

We present results of a self-consistent model of the spectral energy distribution (SED) of starburst galaxies. Two parameters control the IR SED, the mean pressure in the ISM and the destruction timescale of molecular clouds. Adding a simplified AGN spectrum provides mixing lines on IRAS color : color diagrams. This reproduces the observed colors of both AGNs and starbursts.To search for other articles by the author(s) go to: http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abstract_service.html

The International Heliophysical Year (IHY) in 2007 & 2008 will celebrate the 50th anniversary of the International Geophysical Year (IGY) and, following its tradition of international research collaboration, will focus on the cross-disciplinary studies of universal processes in the heliosphere.

The main goal of the IHY Education and Outreach Programme is to create more global access to exemplary resources in space and Earth science education and public outreach. By taking advantage of the IHY organization with representatives in every nation and in the partnership with the United Nations Basic Space Science Initiative (UNBSSI), we aim to promote new international partnerships. Our goal is to assist in increasing the visibility and accessibility of exemplary programmes and in the identification of formal or informal educational products that would be beneficial to improve space and Earth science knowledge in a given country; leaving a legacy of enhanced global access to resources and of world-wide connectivity between those engaged in education and public outreach efforts that are related to IHY science.

Here we describe how to participate in the IHY Education and Outreach Programme and the benefits in doing so. Emphasis will be given to the role played by developing countries; not only in selecting useful resources and helping in their translation and adaptation, but also in providing different approaches and techniques in teaching.

The existence of black holes with masses of about one billion solar masses in quasars at redshifts z > 6 presents significant challenges to theories of the formation and growth of black holes and the black hole/galaxy co-evolution in the early Universe. Here we report a recent discovery of an ultra-luminous quasar at redshift z = 6.30, which has an observed optical and near-infrared luminosity a few times greater than those of previously known z > 6 quasars. With near-infrared spectroscopy, we obtain a black hole mass of about 12 billion solar masses, which is well consistent with the mass derived by assuming an Eddington-limited accretion. This ultra-luminous quasar with at z > 6 provides a unique laboratory to the study of the mass assembly and galaxy formation around the most massive black holes at cosmic dawn. It raises further challenges to the black hole/galaxy co-evolution in the epoch of cosmic reionization because the black hole needs to grow much faster than the host galaxy.

The complex radio source Sgr A is embedded in a region near our Galactic Center. The dynamical center of our Galaxy is considered to be Sgr A*, the compact non-thermal radio source. Dynamical mass within ~0.1 pc from Sgr A* has been estimated to be ~ 3×106 M⊙. This places Sgr A* to be a candidate of a massive blackhole (Eckart and Genzel, 1997 and reference therein).

In this work I present the survey which is searching for the rise in the volume-averaged star formation rate at intermediate redshifts (z<1). This survey is a combination of the data taken with Advanced Camera for Surveys in parallel with WFPC2 (U band) of the GOODS fields. We use template fitting of the spectral energy distributions to obtain photometric redshifts and classify the objects as starbursts, early- and late-types. The colors of the starbursts were reproduced and ages were estimated with the stellar evolutionary synthesis code Starburst99. By matching the optical catalog with the Chandra X-ray catalog we have identified the X-ray sources and possible candidates for having a combination of active nuclei and starburst at intermediate redshifts. Analysis of the light concentration, asymmetry and clumpiness, shows that this sample is a mixed bag, containing dwarf ellipticals, early and late-spirals and peculiar objects which resemble mergers in progress. These results have strong implications for galaxy evolution since it shows for the first time who are the candidates for the rise of the SFR at intermediate-z.To search for other articles by the author(s) go to: http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abstract_service.html

20 OH/IR stars are monitored in the 1612 MHz OH maser line with the Nançay Radio Telescope. The program started in 2008 with monthly observations of the full sample and will last at least until end of 2012. The aim is the determination of the linear diameter of the circumstellar shell using the phase lag between the light curves of the varying OH maser lines. To use them for distance determinations, angular diameters are obtained by interferometric measurements while the stars pass the maximum of their OH maser flux density variations. The periods of the OH/IR stars monitored are between 425 and >2000 days.

The present state of the Palomar Proper Motion Survey is described. Before the CDC automated-computerized plate scanner became operational in 1972, 153 plate pairs had been blinked, whereas since then 443 pairs have been machine processed. Of the remaining 350 fields, some 40 are probably beyond the capability of the present system due to excessive star density.

Some 21000 new motions larger than 0″.18 annually have been published. The accuracy of an individual motion is about ± 0″.016 from a single machine-processed plate pair, as compared with ± 0″.025 from hand measured plates.

There is an indication that the number of large motions per unit area increases with galactic latitude.