Massive luminous red galaxies (LRGs) are believed to be evolving passively and can be used as cosmic chronometers to estimate the Hubble constant (the differential age method). However, different LRGs may be located in different environments. We investigate the environmental and mass dependence of the formation of ‘quiescent’ LRGs by using the population synthesis software STARLIGHT. We derive the stellar populations in each LRG, and obtain the mean age distribution and the mean star formation history (SFH) of those LRGs. We find that there is no apparent dependence of the mean age and the SFH of quiescent LRGs on their environment, while the ages of these quiescent LRGs depend weakly on their mass. We also evaluate the possible uncertainties in estimating the Hubble constant by the differential age method when using LRGs as cosmic chronometers.

The MESSIER surveyor is a small mission designed at exploring the very low surface brightness universe. The satellite will drift-scan the entire sky in 6 filters covering the 200–1000 nm range, reaching unprecedented surface brightness levels of 34 and 37 mag arcsec−2 in the optical and UV, respectively. These levels are required to achieve the two main science goals of the mission: to critically test the ΛCDM paradigm of structure formation through (1) the detection and characterisation of ultra-faint dwarf galaxies, which are predicted to be extremely abundant around normal galaxies, but which remain elusive; and (2) tracing the cosmic web, which feeds dark matter and baryons into galactic haloes, and which may contain the reservoir of missing baryons at low redshifts. A large number of science cases, ranging from stellar mass loss episodes to intracluster light through fluctuations in the cosmological UV-optical background radiation are free by-products of the full-sky maps produced.

The main astronomical source of r-process elements has not yet been identified. One plausible site is neutron star mergers (NSMs). From the perspective of Galactic chemical evolution, however, it has been pointed out that the NSM scenario is incompatible with observations. Recently, Tsujimoto & Shigeyama (2014) pointed out that NSM ejecta can spread into much larger volume than ejecta from a supernova. We re-examine the chemical evolution of r-process elements under the NSM scenario considering this difference in propagation of the ejecta. We find that the NSM scenario can be compatible with the observed abundances of the Milky Way halo stars.

The star formation history of galaxies is a complex process usually considered to be stochastic in nature, for which we can only give average descriptions such as the color-density relation. In this work we follow star-forming gas particles in a hydrodynamical N-body simulation back in time in order to study their initial spatial configuration. By keeping record of the time when a gas particle started forming stars we can produce Lagrangian gas-star isochrone surfaces delineating the surfaces of accreting gas that begin producing stars at different times. These surfaces form a complex a network of filaments in Eulerian space from which galaxies accrete cold gas. Lagrangian accretion surfaces are closely packed inside dense regions, intersecting each other, and as a result galaxies inside proto-clusters stop accreting gas early, naturally explaining the color dependence on density. The process described here has a purely gravitational / geometrical origin, arguably operating at a more fundamental level than complex processes such as AGN and supernovae, and providing a conceptual origin for the color-density relation.

The study of active asteroids has attracted a great deal of interest in recent years since the recognition of main-belt comets (which orbit in the main asteroid belt, but exhibit comet-like activity due to the sublimation of volatile ices) as a new class of comets in 2006, and the discovery of the first disrupted asteroids (which, unlike MBCs, exhibit comet-like activity due to a physical disruption such as an impact or rotational destabilization, not sublimation) in 2010. In this paper, I will briefly discuss key areas of interest in the study of active asteroids.

We derive the extinction toward SN 2014J, a Type Ia supernova in M82, as a function of wavelength from the far ultraviolet to the near infrared by modeling the observed color excesses in terms of a mixture of silicate and graphite. With Av ≈ 1.9 mag and RV ≈ 1.7-1.8, the derived extinction law differs substantially from those of the Galaxy and the Magellanic clouds.

During a supernova explosion, fluid instabilities are generated because the star is in a hydrodynamically unstable situation, which is like the effects of stirring a fire or blowing air into a hot grill. The resulting mixing of the supernova ejecta may be observable. Here, we briefly discuss the multidimensional simulations of supernovae from very massive stars.

We present GASP, an ongoing ESO Large Program with MUSE aiming to study gas removal processes from galaxies at low redshift. GASP targets 100 galaxies with tails, tentacles and one-sided debris. MUSE data allows a detailed investigation of the ionized stripped gas, as well as of the gas and stars within the galaxy out to large distances from the galaxy center. We show the first results for two of the GASP galaxies that are striking cluster jellyfish galaxies of stellar masses ~ 1011M⊙.

This work sketches how SDSS ugr colors and Kepler 2 in halo fields can identify red giants 50–100 kpc distant with minimal metallicity bias. For these mildly-reddened, metal-poor giants, (g-r)o yields the effective temperature Teff to 100 K. K2 can detect the p-mode oscillations of red giants and measure their frequency of maximum power νmax. This sets the luminosity Lbol and thus the distance, plus an estimate of metallicity [Fe/H].

We have modeled two mid-infrared imaging photometry data sets to determine the spatial distribution of physical conditions in the BN/KL infrared complex. We observed the BN/KL region using the 10-m Keck I telescope and the LWS in the direct imaging mode, over a 13” × 19” field (Figure 1, left). We also modeled images obtained with COMICS (Kataza et al. 2000) at the 8.2-m SUBARU telescope, over a total field of view is 31” × 41” (Figure 1, right), in a total of nine bands: 7.8, 8.8, 9.7, 10.5, 11.7, 12.4, 18.5, 20.8 and 24.8 μm with ~1 μm bandwidth interference filters.

I will review the current status of stellar flare observations and models, highlight similarities and differences with solar flares, and plead for additional data and insight from the “Sun as a Star”.

Numerical simulations predict that gas accretion from the cosmic web drives star formation in disks galaxies. The process is important in low mass haloes (< 1012 M⊙), therefore, in the early universe when galaxies were low mass, but also in dwarf galaxies of the local universe. The gas that falls in is predicted to be tenuous, patchy, partly ionized, multi-temperature, and large-scale; therefore, hard to show in a single observation. One of the most compelling cases for gas accretion at work in the local universe comes from the extremely metal poor (XMP) galaxies. They show metallicity inhomogeneities associated with star-forming regions, so that large starbursts have lower metallicity than the underlying galaxy. Here we put forward the case for gas accretion from the web posed by XMP galaxies. Two other observational results are discussed too, namely, the fact that the gas consumption time-scale is shorter than most stellar ages, and the systematic morphological distortions of the HI around galaxies.

Recent searches for supernova II-P progenitors in external galaxies have led to the identification of red objects with magnitudes and colours indicative of red supergiants, in most cases implying quite low luminosities, and hence masses. Current results would suggest that all explosions come from objects less massive than ~ 18 M⊙ and that some explosions come from stars with masses well below 10 M⊙. Stellar models, on the other hand, can only produce explosions from objects more massive than > 9 M⊙. What does our knowledge of local red supergiants tell us about the expected properties of such objects? We present the results of complementary large spectroscopic surveys and detailed studies of open clusters that point to substantially different observational characteristics depending on metallicity.

We update the list of candidates to be considered by the IAU as dwarf planets using the criterium suggested by Tancredi & Favre (2008). We add here the information collected in the last 10 years (mostly the sizes and albedos by the herschel hey program TNOs Are Cool). We compare the physical characteristics of these candidates with the physical characteristics of the rest of the TNOs. Our goal is to study if there are common physical properties among the candidates that enable the identification of a dwarf planet.

The RAdial Velocity Experiment (RAVE) collected from 2003 to 2013 medium resolution spectra for 5ċ105 low-mass stars of our Galaxy, improving our understanding of the Milky Way evolution and of its properties outside the Solar neighbourhood. This proceeding gives an overview of RAVE results obtained in the last two years.

The removal of ISM of disk galaxies through ram pressure stripping (RPS) has been extensively studied in numerous simulations (see Roediger 2009 and references therein). The models show that RPS has a significant impact on galaxy evolution (truncation of the ISM will lead to a decrease in star formation and a change in galaxy color). Nevertheless, the role of magnetic fields (MFs) on the dynamics of the gas in this process has not been sufficiently studied, although the influence of the MFs on the large scale structure is well established. This motivated us to perform a 3D MHD simulation of a disk galaxy with an isothermal, non-self gravitating and magnetized gaseous disk in equilibrium with a galaxy potential (Allen & Santillán, 1991). We model RPS on the galactic disk under the wind-tunnel approximation with the use of the RAMSES code (Teyssier, 2002) in order to understand the effects of MFs in RPS.

On February 15, 2013, 3:20 UT, an asteroid of the size of about 19 meters and mass of 12,000 metric tons entered the Earth's atmosphere unexpectedly near the border of Kazakhstan and Russia. It was the largest confirmed Earth impactor since the Tunguska event in 1908. The body moved approximately westwards with a speed of 19 km s−1, on a trajectory inclined 18 degrees to the surface, creating a fireball of steadily increasing brightness. Eleven seconds after the first sightings, the fireball reached its maximum brightness. At that point, it was located less than 40 km south from Chelyabinsk, a Russian city of population more than one million, at an altitude of 30 km. For people directly underneath, the fireball was 30 times brighter than the Sun. The cosmic body disrupted into fragments; the largest of them was visible for another five seconds before it disappeared at an altitude of 12.5 km, when it was decelerated to 3 km s−1. Fifty six second later, that ~600 kg fragment landed in Lake Chebarkul and created a 8 m wide hole in the ice. Small meteorites landed in an area 80 km long and several km wide and caused no damage. The meteorites were classified as LL ordinary chondrites and were interesting by the presence of two phases, light and dark. More material remained, however, in the atmosphere forming a dust trail up to 2 km wide and extending along the fireball trajectory from altitude 18 to 70 km. The dust then circled the Earth within few days and formed a ring around the northern hemisphere. In Chelyabinsk and its surroundings a very strong blast wave arrived 90 – 150 s after the fireball passage (depending on location). The wave was produced by the supersonic flight of the body and broke ~10% of windows in Chelyabinsk (~40% of buildings were affected). More than 1600 people were injured, mostly from broken glass. The whole event was well documented by video cameras, seismic and infrasonic records, and satellite observations. The total energy was 500 kT TNT (2 × 1015 J).

Malin 1 is the best example among giant low surface brightness galaxies. New observations of this object in 6 broad-bands allow us for the first time to perform a pan-chromatic study of the stellar population in its 200 kpc wide disk. We observe a spiral structure revealing a star forming disk. The colors indicate a long history with a low efficiency of star formation. It is well reproduced by a model of disk galaxy making it similar to the disk of the Milky Way or other nearby spirals, except for its extremely large angular momentum.

We study the evolution of the gaseous components in massive simulated galaxies and show that their early formation is fuelled by cold, low entropy gas streams. At lower redshifts of z ≲ 3 the simulated galaxies are massive enough to support stable virial shocks resulting in a transition from cold to hot gas accretion. The gas accretion history of early-type galaxies is directly linked to the formation of their stellar component in the two phased formation scenario, in which the central parts of the galaxy assemble rapidly through in situ star formation and the later assembly is dominated primarily by minor stellar mergers.