Ground-state OH masers identified in the Southern Parkes Large-Area Survey in Hydroxyl were observed with the Australia Telescope Compact Array to obtain positions with high accuracy (~1 arcsec). We classified these OH masers into evolved star OH maser sites, star formation OH maser sites, supernova remnant OH maser sites, planetary nebula OH maser sites and unknown maser sites using their accurate positions. Evolved star and star formation OH maser sites in the Galactic Centre region (between Galactic longitudes of −5° to +5° and Galactic latitudes of −2° and +2°) were studied in detail to understand their distributions.

We present an analysis of a sample of flares on “quiescent” (i.e. non-flare) M and K stars using temporally resolved UV spectroscopy from the growing body of MUSCLES Treasury Survey data. Specifically, our analysis quantified the response of the far-UV C II, Si III, Si IV, and N V emission lines and the far-UV continuum during the flares. Using these tracers, we examined one representative event on GJ 832. In concordance with flares recorded on the Sun and AD Leo, the MUSCLES flares are well fit by a power law relationship of similar slope in frequency versus energy. Flares can strip atmospheric mass from orbiting planets, adversely affecting their long-term habitability. To gauge the amplitude of this effect, we computed an energy-balance upper-limit on the amount of atmosphere a large flare might remove from an orbiting Earth due purely to elevated EUV flux and found this limit to be modest relative to Earth's atmospheric mass.

I review theoretical models of star formation and how they apply across the stellar mass spectrum. Several distinct theories are under active study for massive star formation, especially Turbulent Core Accretion, Competitive Accretion and Protostellar Mergers, leading to distinct observational predictions. These include the types of initial conditions, the structure of infall envelopes, disks and outflows, and the relation of massive star formation to star cluster formation. Even for Core Accretion models, there are several major uncertainties related to the timescale of collapse, the relative importance of different processes for preventing fragmentation in massive cores, and the nature of disks and outflows. I end by discussing some recent observational results that are helping to improve our understanding of these processes.

Our view of the Milky Way's satellite population has radically changed after the discovery, ten years ago, of the first Ultra-Faint Dwarf galaxies (UFDs). These extremely faint, dark-matter dominated, scarcely evolved stellar systems are found in ever-increasing number in our cosmic neighbourhood and constitute a gold-mine for studies of early star formation conditions and early chemical enrichment pathways. Here we show what can be learned from the measurements of chemical abundances in UFD stars read through the lens of chemical evolution studies, point out the limitations of the classic approach, and discuss the way to go to improve the models.

The stellar radial profiles of disk galaxies are often observed to be truncated, or anti-truncated in the galaxies’ outskirts. As of now, the literature about galaxy formation lacks a model for the formation of observed anti-truncated stellar disks which is based on secular processes. We present an attempt to fill this gap. We were able to model anti-truncated disks in numerical SPH simulations of the formation of isolated galaxies. We will show that the stars in the outskirts of the simulated galactic disk are on very eccentric orbits but were formed on circular orbits at much smaller radii. We argue that a strong central bar is the main driver of the formation of such a disk configuration. The model predicts that such outer stellar disks should show very slow rotation, but high radial dispersion. If confirmed, their existence would constitute galaxy disks of qualitatively very new kinematic properties.

If spacetime is “foamy” travel along a lightpath must be subject to continual, random distance fluctuations ± δ l proportional to Planck length lP ~ 10−35 m (Lieu & Hillman 2003). Although each “kick” by itself is tiny, these may accumulate. Accounting for redshifted (bluer) emitted photons, over a cosmological distance L = (1+z)LC for co-moving distance LC, the resultant phase perturbations Δ φ = 2π δ l/λ at observed wavelength λ could grow independently of telescope diameter D to a maximum of Δφmax=(1+z)Δφ0 (Steinbring 2007) where Δφ0=2π a0 (lPα/λ)L1 - α follows Ng et al. (2003). Here a0 ~ 1 and α specifies the quantum-gravity model: 1/2 implies a random walk and 2/3 is consistent with the holographic principle; a vanishingly small ΔφP=Δφmax/[(1 + z) a0 (L/lP)1 - α]=2π lP/λ is approached when α=1.

Bootes filament of galaxies is a dispersed chain of groups residing on sky between the Local Void and the Virgo cluster. We consider a sample of 361 galaxies inside the sky area of RA = 13h0...18h.5 and Dec = .5°... + 10° with radial velocities VLG < 2000 km/s to clarify its structure and kinematics. In this region, 161 galaxies have individual distance estimates. We use these data to draw the Hubble relation for galaxy groups, pairs as well as the field galaxies, and to examine the galaxy distribution on peculiar velocities. Our analysis exposes the known Virgo-centric infall at RA < 14h and some signs of outflow from the Local Void at RA > 17h. According to the galaxy grouping criterion, this complex contains the members of 13 groups, 11 pairs and 140 field galaxies. The most prominent group is dominated by NGC 5846. The Bootes filament contains the total stellar mass of 2.7 ×1012M⊙ and the total virial mass of 9.07×1013M⊙, having the average density of dark matter to be Ωm = 0.09, i.e. a factor three lower than the global cosmic value.

The International Astronomical Union's Commission 51 was established in 1982 as\break “Bioastronomy: Search for Extraterrestrial Life”. As the interests of Commission members expanded to include all aspects of the study of the origin, evolution, and distribution of life in the universe, C51 was renamed simply “Bioastronomy” in 2006. Thus, the term “bioastronomy” became for the Commission essentially synonymous with the NASA-coined term “astrobiology“. Since the latter term has been adopted by many scientific societies around the world with similar interests, under the new Division and Commission structure of the IAU the Commission has been again renamed and is now Commission F-3 “Astrobiology”.

The South African Astronomical Observatory (SAAO) observing station near Sutherland, Northern Cape in South Africa, is one of the darkest sites in the world for optical and IR astronomy. The SAAO hosts and operates several facilities, including the Southern African Large Telescope (SALT) and a number of international robotic telescopes. To ensure that the conditions remain optimal for astronomy, legislation called the Astronomy Geographic Advantage (AGA) Act, of 2007, was enacted. The Act empowers the Department of Science and Technology (DST) to regulate issues that pose a threat to optical and/or radio astronomy in areas declared Astronomy Advantage Areas in South Africa. For optical astronomy, the main challenges are those posed by light and dust pollution as result of wind energy developments, and petroleum gas and oil exploration/exploitation in the area. We give an update of possible threats to the quality of the night skies at SAAO, and the challenges relating to the AGA Act implementation and enforcement. We discuss measures that are put in place to protect the Observatory, including a study to quantify the threat by a planned wind energy facility.

Focus Meeting 6 of the IAU 2015 Symposium centered around the topic of “X-ray Surveys of the Hot and Energetic Universe.” Within this two-day meeting seven sessions (31 total talks) were presented, whose topics included galaxy cluster physics and evolution, cluster cosmological studies, AGN demographics and X-ray binary populations, first quasars, accretion and feedback, large-scale structures, and normal and starburst galaxies. Herein, I summarize the results presented during session #5, which focused on AGN accretion and feedback. Six authors contributed their work to our session: Laura Brenneman, Kazushi Iwasawa, Massimo Gaspari, Michaela Hirschmann, Franz Bauer and Yuan Liu. I provide a brief introduction below, followed by the details of the presentations of each author in the order in which the presentations were given.

This communication proposes a methodical approach trying to link the concept of “Windows to the Universe” to the uses of the Criteria defined by the World Heritage Convention (UNESCO 1972). The first issue is well advanced today after more than 10 years of active studies and preservation projects such as “Starlight Reserves” by specialists of astronomy, archaeoastronomy and environmental sciences. The second issue is related to a UNESCO Convention ruled by the WH Committee that has led to the recognition of around 1000 World Heritage sites over 40 years. The official booklet Operational Guidelines for the Implementation of the World Heritage Convention (latest edition 2015) (UNESCO 2015) summarizes conceptual ideas and methodological recommendations for WH nominations. In practice the WH Committee's decisions rely on the scientific and professional evaluation of each site by UNESCO's advisory bodies: ICOMOS for cultural heritage and IUCN for natural heritage.

The first goal of this presentation is to establish appropriate understanding of a very specific conceptual approach (Windows to the Universe) in the context of a very large UN Convention (the World Heritage List) related both to cultural and natural heritage in general. The second goal is to give a readable understanding of the WH requirements coming from the strict evaluation of the “Outstanding Universal Value” (OUV) of a given place, including the choice of WH Criteria expressing OUV with respect to the format of the Guidelines. Furthermore, and due to concepts coming from two very different fields, the communication aims to present a practical methodology in the case of a possible WH nomination: how to understand relationships between different classes of value and how to demonstrate OUV and justify the choice of Criteria for the place. Beyond potential WH projects, obviously limited in number, the communication tries to propose an efficient and general methodology for assessing the value and creating understanding of places having a “Windows to the Universe” facet.

This short article is about Prime Focus Spectrograph (PFS), a very wide-field, massively-multiplexed, and optical & near-infrared (NIR) spectrograph as a next generation facility instrument on Subaru Telescope. More details and updates are available on the PFS official website (http://pfs.ipmu.jp), blog (http://pfs.ipmu.jp/blog/), and references therein.

SWAG (“Survey of Water and Ammonia in the Galactic Center”) is a multi-line interferometric survey toward the Center of the Milky Way conducted with the Australia Telescope Compact Array. The survey region spans the entire ~400 pc Central Molecular Zone and comprises ~42 spectral lines at pc spatial and sub-km/s spectral resolution. In addition, we deeply map continuum intensity, spectral index, and polarization at the frequencies where synchrotron, free-free, and thermal dust sources emit. The observed spectral lines include many transitions of ammonia, which we use to construct maps of molecular gas temperature, opacity and gas formation temperature (see poster by Nico Krieger et al., this volume). Water masers pinpoint the sites of active star formation and other lines are good tracers for density, radiation field, shocks, and ionization. This extremely rich survey forms a perfect basis to construct maps of the physical parameters of the gas in this extreme environment.

Weak lensing detections and measurements of filaments have been elusive for a long time. The reason is that the low density contrast of filaments generally pushes the weak lensing signal to unobservably low scales. To nevertheless map the dark matter in filaments exquisite data and unusual systems are necessary. SuprimeCam observations of the supercluster system Abell 222/223 provided the required combination of excellent seeing images and a fortuitous alignment of the filament with the line-of-sight. This boosted the lensing signal to a detectable level and led to the first weak lensing mass measurement of a large-scale structure filament. The filament connecting Abell 222 and Abell 223 is now the only one traced by the galaxy distribution, dark matter, and X-ray emission from the hottest phase of the warm-hot intergalactic medium. The combination of these data allows us to put the first constraints on the hot gas fraction in filaments.

The IAU Working Group on Extrasolar Planets (WGESP) was created by the Executive Council as a Working Group of Division III. This decision took place in June 1999, that is only 7 years after the discovery of planets around the pulsar PSR B1257+12 and 4 years after the discovery of 51 Peg b. This working group was renewed for 3 years at the General Assembly in 2003 in Sydney, Australia. It was chaired by Alan Boss from Carnegie Institution of Washington. The WGESP members were Paul Butler, William Hubbard, Philip Ianna, Martin Kürster, Jack Lissauer, Michel Mayor, Karen Meech, Francois Mignard, Alan Penny, Andreas Quirrenbach, Jill Tarter, and Alfred Vidal-Madjar.

The outer parts of many galaxy disks exhibit extended spiral arms far beyond the optical radius. To understand the nature and the origin of such outer spiral structure, we investigate the propagation in the outer gaseous regions of large-scale spiral density waves excited in the bright optical disk. By means of 3D hydrodynamical simulations, we show that spiral density waves, penetrating in the gas through the outer Lindblad resonance, can indeed give rise to relatively regular patterns outside the bright optical stellar disk. The amplitude of spiral structure increases rapidly with radius. Beyond the optical radius, spirals become nonlinear and develop small-scale features related to shear-induced instabilities. We also construct the synthetic 21-cm data cubes extracted from simulated gaseous disks. Our synthetic HI observations point to the existence of specific kinematical features related to the presence of spiral pattern perturbations that should be found in deep HI observations.

Our understanding of the cosmic evolution of supermassive black holes (SMBHs) has been revolutionized by the advent of large multiwavelength extragalactic surveys, which have enabled detailed statistical studies of the host galaxies and large-scale structures of active galactic nuclei (AGN). We give an overview of some recent results on SMBH evolution, including the connection between AGN activity and star formation in galaxies, the role of galaxy mergers in fueling AGN activity, the nature of luminous obscured AGN, and the connection between AGN and their host dark matter halos. We conclude by looking to the future of large-scale extragalactic X-ray and spectroscopic surveys.

The Central Molecular Zone (CMZ; inner ~100 pc) hosts some of the most dense and massive molecular clouds of the Milky Way. These clouds might serve as local templates for dense clouds seen in nearby starburst galaxies or in the early universe. The clouds have a striking feature: they form stars at a very slow pace, considering their mass and high average density. Here we use interferometer data from ALMA and the SMA to show that this slow star formation is a consequence of the cloud density structure: CMZ clouds have a very flat density structure. They might, for example, exceed the average density of the Orion A molecular cloud by an order of magnitude on spatial scales ~5 pc, but CMZ “cores” of ~0.1 pc radius have masses and densities lower than what is found in the Orion KL region. This absence of highest–density gas probably explains the suppression of star formation. The clouds are relatively turbulent, and ALMA observations of H2CO and SiO indicate that the turbulence is induced by high–velocity shocks. We speculate that these shocks might prevent the formation of high–mass cores. It has been argued that the state of CMZ clouds depends on their position along the orbit around Sgr A*. Our incomplete data indicate no evolution in the density structure, and only a modest evolution in star formation activity per unit mass.

M 54 is the central cluster of the Sagittarius dwarf galaxy. This stellar system is now in process of being disrupted by the tidal interaction with the Milky Way and represents one of the building blocks of the Galactic Halo. Recent discoveries, based on the synergy of photometry and spectroscopy have revealed that the color-magnitude diagram (CMD) of some massive, anomalous, Globular Clusters (GCs) host stellar populations with different content of heavy elements. In this paper, I use multi-wavelength Hubble Space Telescope (HST) photometry to detect and characterize multiple stellar populations in M 54. I provide empirical evidence that this GC shares photometric and spectroscopic similarities with the class of anomalous GCs. These findings make it tempting to speculate that, similarly to Sagittarius nuclear cluster M 54, other anomalous GCs were born in an extra-Galactic environment.

We review nonlinear force-free field (NLFFF) modeling of magnetic fields in active regions. The NLFFF model (in which the electric current density is parallel to the magnetic field) is often adopted to describe the coronal magnetic field, and numerical solutions to the model are constructed based on photospheric vector magnetogram boundary data. Comparative tests of NLFFF codes on sets of boundary data have revealed significant problems, in particular associated with the inconsistency of the model and the data. Nevertheless NLFFF modeling is often applied, in particular to flare-productive active regions. We examine the results, and discuss their reliability.