Astronomy for development projects conceive of development in very broad terms and seek to affect a wide range of social outcomes. The histories of education, development economics and science communication research indicate that positive social impacts are often difficult to achieve. Without a scientific approach, astronomy's potential as a tool for development may never be realised nor recognised. Evidence-informed project design increases the chances of a project's success and likely impact while reducing the risk of unintended negative outcomes. The IAU Office of Astronomy for Development (OAD) Impact Cycle is presented here as a possible framework for integrating evaluation and evidence-based practice in global Astronomy outreach and education delivery. The suggested framework offers a way to gradually accumulate knowledge about which approaches are effective and which are not, enabling the astronomy community to gradually increase its social impact by building on its successes.

The dynamics of massive black holes (BHs) in galaxy mergers is a rich field of research that has seen much progress in recent years. In this contribution we briefly review the processes describing the journey of BHs during mergers, from the cosmic context all the way to when BHs coalesce. If two galaxies each hosting a central BH merge, the BHs would be dragged towards the center of the newly formed galaxy. If/when the holes get sufficiently close, they coalesce via the emission of gravitational waves. How often two BHs are involved in galaxy mergers depends crucially on how many galaxies host BHs and on the galaxy merger history. It is therefore necessary to start with full cosmological models including BH physics and a careful dynamical treatment. After galaxies have merged, however, the BHs still have a long journey until they touch and coalesce. Their dynamical evolution is radically different in gas-rich and gas-poor galaxies, leading to a sort of “dichotomy” between high-redshift and low-redshift galaxies, and late-type and early-type, typically more massive galaxies.

We examine the stacked integrated Sachs-Wolfe (ISW) imprints on the CMB along the lines of sight of voids and superclusters in galaxy surveys, using the Jubilee ISW simulation and mock luminous red galaxy (LRG) catalogues. We show that the expected signal in the concordance \Lam CDM model is much smaller than the primary anisotropies arising at the last scattering surface and therefore any currently claimed detections of such an imprint cannot be caused by the ISW effect in \Lam CDM. We look for the existence of such a signal in the Planck CMB using a catalogue of voids and superclusters from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS), but find a result completely consistent with \Lam CDM – i.e., a null detection.

We revisit the well known H i size-mass relation of galaxies with an unprecedented large sample of over 500 galaxies (Wang et al. 2016). We find that the relation and the scatter about the relation do not depend on the galaxy type, optical luminosity or H i richness. It indicates a fundamental unrecognised mechanism that drives the distribution of H i in different galaxies.

The study of galaxy mergers and supermassive binary black holes (SMBBHs) is central to our understanding of the galaxy and black hole assembly and (co-)evolution at the epoch of structure formation and throughout cosmic history. Galaxy mergers are the sites of major accretion episodes, they power quasars, grow supermassive black holes (SMBHs), and drive SMBH-host scaling relations. The coalescing SMBBHs at their centers are the loudest sources of gravitational waves (GWs) in the Universe, and the subsequent GW recoil has a variety of potential astrophysical implications which are still under exploration. Future GW astronomy will open a completely new window on structure formation and galaxy mergers, including the direct detection of coalescing SMBBHs, high-precision measurements of their masses and spins, and constraints on BH formation and evolution in the high-redshift Universe.

In 2012, the International Astronomical Union (IAU), through its Office of Astronomy for Development (OAD), established the three Task Forces which drive global activities using astronomy as a tool to stimulate development. These Task Forces are: (i) Astronomy for Universities and Research; (ii) Astronomy for Children and Schools; and (iii) Astronomy for the Public.

We use SCUBA-2, HARP C18O J= 3 → 2, Herschel and IRAM N2H+ J= 1 → 0 observations of the Ophiuchus molecular cloud to identify and characterise the properties of the starless cores in the region. The SCUBA-2, HARP and Herschel data were taken as part of the JCMT and Herschel Gould Belt Surveys. We determine masses and temperatures and perform a full virial analysis on our cores, and find that our cores are all either bound or virialised, with gravitational energy and external pressure energy on average of similar importance in confining the cores. There is wide variation from region to region, with cores in the region influenced by B stars (Oph A) being substantially gravitationally bound, and cores in the most quiescent region (Oph C) being pressure-confined. We observe dissipation of turbulence in all our cores, and find that this dissipation is more effective in regions which do not contain outflow-driving protostars. Full details of this analysis are presented by Pattle et al. (2015).

Ultra-Compact dwarf galaxies, which inhabit the outskirts of galaxies, may conceal a significant population of hitherto overlooked super-massive black holes.

Early-type galaxies (ETGs) host a hot ISM produced mainly by stellar winds, and heated by Type Ia supernovae and the thermalization of stellar motions. High resolution 2D hydrodynamical simulations showed that ordered rotation in the stellar component results in the formation of a centrifugally supported cold equatorial disc. In a recent numerical investigation we found that subsequent generations of stars are formed in this cold disc; this process consumes most of the cold gas, leaving at the present epoch cold masses comparable to those observed. Most of the new stellar mass formed a few Gyrs ago, and resides in a disc.

Claims of a significant underdensity or void in the density distribution on scales out to ≃ 300 Mpc have recently been made using samples of galaxies. We present the results of an alternative test of the matter distribution on these scales using clusters of galaxies, which provide an independent and powerful probe of large-scale structure. We study the density distribution of X-ray clusters from the ROSAT-based REFLEX II catalogue, which covers a contiguous area of 4.24 steradians in the southern hempsphere (34% of the entire sky). Using the normalised comoving number density of clusters we find evidence for an underdensity (30-40%), out to z∼ 0.04, equivalent to ≃170 Mpc and with a significance of 3.4σ. On scales between 300 Mpc and 1 Gpc the distribution of REFLEX II clusters is consistent with being uniform. We also confirm recent results that the underdensity has a large contribution from the direction of the South Galactic Cap region, but is not significant in the direction of the Northern Galactic Cap as viewed from the southern sky. Both the limited size of the detected underdensity and its lack of isotropy, argue against the idea that the Type Ia supernovae data can be explained without the need for dark energy.

A brief description of International Aerospace School (IASS) is given.

We still do not know the timescale for the merging of binary black holes (BHs). This timescale has important implications for gravitational wave predictions and our understanding of BH demographics. Here we discuss efforts to constrain the fraction of BH pairs on kpc scales using observations of dual active galactic nuclei.

We use properties of void populations identified in N-body simulations to forecast the ability of upcoming galaxy surveys to differentiate models of f(R) gravity from \lcdm cosmology. We analyze simulations designed to mimic the densities, volumes, and clustering statistics of upcoming surveys, using the public {\tt VIDE} toolkit. We examine void abundances as a basic probe at redshifts 1.0 and 0.4. We find that stronger f(R) coupling strengths produce voids up to ∼20% larger in radius, leading to a significant shift in the void number function. As an initial estimate of the constraining power of voids, we use this change in the number function to forecast a constraint on the coupling strength of Δ fR0 = 10-5.

The existence of grand design spiral galaxies in the universe is still a standing problem. The passage of a small companion is known to be able to induce spiral structures in disc galaxies, but there remains questions over how relevant this mechanism is to the galaxies observed in the real universe. Our study aims to address two key points regarding such interactions; the limiting mass companion needed to drive tidal spiral structures, and the differences between the resulting gas and stellar morphology. We find the minimum mass of a companion to be as low as 5% of the stellar mass of the galaxy, and that the arms formed in the gas and the stars display very minor dynamical and morphological differences.

Science and technology play a key role in economic development; and Universities have a direct stake in this process. A knowledge-based economy requires scientific and technological expertise that is strongly influenced by the strength of training in science and technology. However, in Uganda not many students opt for science subject at higher levels, and subsequently in the University. Therefore, there is need to encourage and motivate students to study science subjects in order for this to be successful. This can be achieved through introduction of stimulating subjects such as astronomy in the university curriculum. Astronomy is considered as the most appealing subject and an excellent tool for conveying scientific knowledge to young students. In this paper, the role that astronomy has played to motivate and interest students to study physics in Mbarara University of Science and Technology, in Uganda, is discussed.

We have studied a small sample of star-forming outer rings in unbarred lenticular galaxies by means of long-slit spectroscopy. We have determined metallicities of the outer stellar disks and of the ionized gas in the rings. While the stellar disks of the S0s are metal-poor, [Z/H] < −0.4, the gas has strictly solar oxygen abundance in all the cases.

The role of galaxy mergers in the evolution of massive galaxies remains debated. While deep near-infrared surveys have enabled several independent merger rate measurements out to z~3, they are limited to small samples and results are discrepant at z=2–3. In Man et al., we use the UltraVISTA and CANDELS surveys to obtain the largest sample of photometric galaxy pairs at z>1 for measuring the galaxy merger fraction and rate of massive galaxies. We find that the discrepancy of previous studies is due to selection effect. Defining galaxy pairs by stellar mass ratio leads to a flat z-evolution of the merger fraction, while defining by flux ratio leads to an increasing trend. The implications on the evolution of massive galaxies are summarized here.

We have obtained optical to near-infrared (300-2500 nm) VLT/X-shooter spectra of six candidate mYSOs, deeply embedded in the massive star forming region M17. These mYSO candidates have been identified based on their infrared excess and spectral features (double-peaked emission lines, CO band-head emission) indicating the presence of a disk (Hanson et al. 1997). In most cases, we detect a photospheric spectrum allowing us to measure the physical properties of the mYSOs and to confirm their PMS nature.

The West African International Summer School for Young Astronomers (WAISSYA) is a week-long program for university science students and teachers from West Africa to develop their interest in astronomy. The first summer school was held in Abuja, Nigeria, in 2013; the second Summer School was held in Nsukka, Nigeria, in July 2015. West Africa has a large number of students interested in science, but a paucity of facilities or interest from funding bodies in developing West African astronomy. Our broad goals for the WAISSYA program are: (1) to introduce West African students to astronomy; (2) to exchange ideas about teaching and learning in West Africa and abroad; and (3) to continue building a sustained astronomy partnership between West Africa and Canada. We now briefly describe three defining aspects of WAISSYA 2015.

We use a dynamical model for the decay of supermassive black hole binaries (BHBs) coupled with a cosmological simulation and semi-empirical approaches to the occupation of halos by galaxies and BHs, in order to investigate the properties of galaxies hosting BHBs. We found bimodal distributions of hosts properties, with one peak corresponding to BHBs suitable to be detected by PTAs and the other to BHBs in the eLISA frequency window. We note that for some of the scenarios explored there must be a considerable population of such sources in the nearby Universe that might show detectable EM signatures, representing an important laboratory for multimessenger astrophysics.