We have found evidence for interaction between a standing and a traveling shock in the jet of the blazar CTA 102. Our result is based in the study of the spectral evolution of the turnover frequency-turnover flux density (νm, Sm) plane. The radio/mm light curves were taken during a major radio outburst in April 2006.

Astronomy as a discipline has not been widely established in Uganda. However, some aspects of astronomy, especially, concerning the solar system, are integrated in geography syllabi for secondary and tertiary institutions. The technological spin-off benefits from astronomy to humanity are immense and therefore, efforts should be geared towards establishing astronomy as an autonomous discipline across the entire school system in the Uganda. So far, the urge and efforts made to popularize the discipline in Uganda have started yielding tangible results. This paper presents the achievements and future strategies of establishing astronomy in Uganda's school system.

The direct detection of an extrasolar planet can provide accurate measurements of its orbit, mass and composition, greatly improving our understanding of how planets form and evolve. Recent advances in ground-based and space-based imaging techniques have now produced the first direct images of extrasolar planets. Typically these are many-Jupiter-mass planets on wide orbits. Direct imaging therefore probes the outer architecture of planetary systems and it is highly complementary to other techniques sensitive to inner architectures. This brief review summarizes the properties of the currently imaged exoplanets, provides an update on the orbit of Fomalhaut b, and highlights the emerging phenomenon of circumplanetary disks.

Acceleration processes at astrophysical collisionless shocks are reviewed with a special emphasis on the importance of in situ observations of heliospheric shocks. Topics to be included are nonlinear reaction of shock acceleration process, effect of neutral particles, and electron acceleration.

The work of this group is well covered in the report on Special Session 3 given in “Highlights of Astronomy 15”, to be published by CUP in 2010.

A magnetic field and rotational line profile variability (lpv) is found in the He-weak star HR 2949. The field measured from metallic lines varies in a clearly non-sinusoidal way, and shows a phase lag relative to the morphologically similar He i equivalent width variations. The surface abundance patterns are strong and complex, and visible even in the hydrogen lines.

Supernovae are the most energetic stellar events and influence the interstellar medium by their gasdynamics and energetics. By this, both also affect the star formation positively and negatively. In this paper, we review the development of the complexity of investigations aiming at understanding the interchange between supernovae and their released hot gas with the star-forming molecular clouds. Commencing from analytical studies the paper advances to numerical models of supernova feedback from superbubble scales to galaxy structure. We also discuss parametrizations of star-formation and supernova-energy transfer efficiencies. Since evolutionary models from the interstellar medium to galaxies are numerous and apply multiple recipes of these parameters, only a representative selection of studies can be discussed here.

The business meeting of Division X in the IAU 2009GA took place in three sessions during the day of August 6, 2009. The meeting, being well attended, started with the approval for the meeting agenda. Then the triennium reports were made in the first session by the president of Division X, Ren-Dong Nan, and by the chairs of three working groups: “Historic Radio Astronomy WG” by Wayne Orchiston, “Astrophysically Important Lines WG” by Masatoshi Ohishi, and “Global VLBI WG” by Tasso Tzioumis (proxy chair appointed by Steven Tingay). Afterwards, a dozen reports from observatories and worldwide significant projects have been presented in the second session. Business meeting of “Interference Mitigation WG” was located in the third session.

Although the powering mechanism for quasars is now widely recognized to be the accretion of matter in a geometrically thin disk, the transport of matter to the inner region of the disk where luminosity is emitted remains an unsolved question. Miralda-Escudé & Kollmeier (2005) proposed a model whereby quasars are fuelled when stars are captured by the accretion disk as they plunge through the gas. Such plunging stars can then be destroyed and deliver their mass to the accretion disk.

Here we present the first detailed calculations for the capture of stars originating far from the accretion disk near the zone of influence of the central black hole. In particular we examine the effect of adding a perturbing mass to a fixed stellar cusp potential on bringing stars into the accretion disk where they can be captured. The work presented here will be discussed in detail in an upcoming publication Kennedy et al. (2010).

This review will discuss both observational and theoretical aspects of the Sun's global magnetic field. First recent observations will be described, along with the main physical processes leading to the time evolution and structure of the global field. Following this, recent theoretical models of both the global surface and coronal magnetic field will be presented. The application of these models to the structure of the corona, formation of solar filaments, the onset of CMEs and finally the origin and variation of the Sun's open flux will be discussed.

Seventy-eight high-resolution Stokes V, Q and U spectra of the B8Iae supergiant Rigel were obtained with the ESPaDOnS spectropolarimeter at CFHT and its clone NARVAL at TBL in the context of the Magnetism in Massive Stars (MiMeS) Large Program, in order to scrutinize this core-collapse supernova progenitor for evidence of weak and/or complex magnetic fields. In this paper we describe the reduction and analysis of the data, the constraints obtained on any photospheric magnetic field, and the variability of photospheric and wind lines.

The nonlinear dynamics of the outflow driven by magnetic explosion on the surface of compact object is investigated through special relativistic magnetohydrodynamic simulations. We adopt, as an initial equilibrium state, a spherical stellar object embedded in the hydrostatic plasma which has a density ρ(r) ∝ r−α and is threaded by a dipole magnetic field. The injection of magnetic energy at the surface of compact star breaks the dynamical equilibrium and triggers two-component outflow. At the early evolutionary stage, the magnetic pressure increases rapidly in time around the stellar surface, initiating a magnetically driven outflow. Then it excites a strong forward shock, shock driven outflow. The expansion velocity of the magnetically driven outflow is characterized by the Alfvén velocity on the stellar surface, and follows a simple scaling relation υmag ∝ υA1/2. When the initial density profile declines steeply with radius, the strong shock is accelerated self-similarly to relativistic velocity ahead of the magnetically driven component. We find that the evolution of the strong forward shock can be described by a self-similar relation Γsh ∝ rsh, where Γsh is the Lorentz factor of the plasma measured at the shock surface rsh. It should be stressed that the pure hydrodynamic process is responsible for the acceleration of the shock driven outflow. Our two-component outflow model, which is the natural outcome of the magnetic explosion, would deepen the understanding of the magnetic active phenomena on various magnetized stellar objects.

Hot-Jupiters are a common sub-class of exoplanets, which are enough close to the star to undergo tidal dissipation. The continuous action of tides modify the rotation of the planets until an equilibrium situation is reached. It is often assumed that synchronous motion is the most probable outcome of tidal evolution, since synchronous rotation is observed for the majority of the satellites in the Solar System. This is true for circular orbits, but when the orbits are eccentric, tidal effects are stronger when the planets are closer to the star, and therefore, the rotation rate tends to equalize the orbital speed rate at the pericenter (which is faster than synchronous rotation). An additional complication arises if the eccentricity is not constant and undergoes periodic perturbations from an external companion. Here we obtain an expression for the equilibrium rotation of Hot-Jupiters undergoing tidal dissipation and planetary perturbations. We show that for these planets, the equilibrium rotation rate is faster than for non-perturbed eccentric orbits.

On the African continent, most of the activities in Astronomy are found in South Africa where full training in Astrophysics is given in a few Universities and where most of the professional astronomers and of the research instruments (from small telescopes to the 11m SALT, in the optical) can be found. In 2007, we started a full program (undergraduate and graduate) in Astrophysics at the Université de Ouagadougou and an Observatory (ODAUO), for teaching purposes, was also built. In October 2009, we put in crates the 1m Marly telescope in La Silla, Chile which will be rebuilt in 2011-12, as a full research telescope, on mount Djaogari in Burkina Faso.

We present high resolution simulations on the impact of ionizing radiation on turbulent molecular clouds. The combination of hydrodynamics, gravitational forces and ionization in the tree-SPH code iVINE naturally leads to the formation of elongated filaments and clumps, which are in excellent agreement with the pillars observed around HII regions. Including gravity the formation of a second generation of low-mass stars with surrounding protostellar disks is triggered at the tips of the pillars, as also observed. A parameter study allows us to determine the physical conditions under which irregular structures form and whether they resemble large pillars or a system of small, isolated globules.

The 16m quasar 3C 345 is one of the best examples of an AGN showing structural and flux variability on parsec scales around a compact unresolved radio core. It has been observed from radio to γ-ray wavebands with a special focus on Very Long Baseline Interferometry (VLBI) observations in the range 1-100 GHz that cover a period of over 30 years. The complex pc-scale jet of 3C 345 exemplifies an archetypal “superluminal” jet with helical substructure. Existing VLBI observations of 3C 345 form an unprecedented database enabling a unique insight into the long-term evolution of the pc-scale radio emission. Here we present the latest results from our ongoing long-term VLBI monitoring of 3C 345, focusing on the morphological, kinematic, and spectral evolution of the pc-scale jet. Special attention will be given to the recent onset of a new period of high activity in the source that has been manifesting itself since 2008 from radio through γ-rays. Recent VLBI and high energy observations to study the relation between the radio emission and the production of high energy photons in 3C 345 are combined.

The IAU Working Group on Radio Frequency Interference (RFI) Mitigation was setup in the 2000 IAU GA in Manchester and its mandate was renewed at subsequent IAU GAs in 2003 and 2006. It was noted that that there are important issues related to RFI mitigation that extend beyond the regulatory function of IUCAF, and hence a more extended working group, which may include IUCAF members, was established.

The coronal sidereal rotation rate as a function of latitude for each year, extending from 1992 to 2001 for soft X-ray images and from 1998 - 2005 for radio images are obtained. The present analysis reveals that the equatorial rotation rate of the corona is comparable to the photosphere and the chromosphere, However, at the higher latitudes, the corona rotation quite differently than the photosphere and chromosphere. The latitude differential obtained by both radio and X-ray images is quite variable throughout the period of the study. The equatorial rotation period seems to vary almost systematically with sunspot numbers which indicates its dependence on the phases of the solar activity cycle.

In 2002 the International Virtual Observatory Alliance (IVOA) has been created in order to gather efforts on data standardization and dissemination. Since then, the virtual Observatory allowed to spread validated data all over the world and to use data from everywhere from earth. From the standards definitions to development of tools, developers have set up a technical infrastructure used by astronomers to easily search for data and make science with all available products, more tools and more confidence on the quality of data. The goal of this review is to present the state of the art of the VO data, standards and tools. This review focuses on basic astronomer's questions : what kind of data are accessible, how to deal with these data and how to use them.

Waves propagating obliquely in a magnetized cold pair plasma experience an approximate resonance in the wavevector component perpendicular to the magnetic field, which is the analogue of the Alfvén resonance in normal electron-ion plasmas. Wave absorption at the resonance can take place via mode conversion to the analogue of the short wavelength inertial Alfvén wave. The Alfvén resonance could play a role in wave propagation in the pulsar magnetosphere leading to pulsar radio emission. Ducting of waves in strong plasma gradients may occur in the pulsar magnetosphere, which leads to the consideration of Alfvén surface waves, whose energy is concentrated in the region of strong gradients.