The development process of astronomy in Cuba is analysed from the point of view of a person actually working in astrophysics. It is concluded that the key word for astronomy development is “engagement” between a mature partner and the new developing group. It can not be forgotten that only astronomers do astronomy and that should be the main goal: to develop people working in astronomy.

The local planetary nebula (PN) census is dominated by extremely evolved examples, and until recently, was incomplete. New discoveries from the AAO/UKST H$\alpha$ Survey and SHASSA, have partially remedied this problem. In addition, we find that some currently accepted nearby PNe are in fact Strömgren spheres in the ISM ionised by a hot white dwarf. Distance estimates for a robust sample of calibrating PNe from the literature, plus new distances for a number of highly evolved PNe, have allowed a new H$\alpha$ surface brightness – radius relationship to be devised as a useful distance indicator. It covers $>$6 dex in SB, and while the spread in SB is $\sim$1 dex at a given radius, optically thick (mainly bipolar and bipolar-core) PNe tend to populate the upper bound of the trend, while common-envelope PNe and very high-excitation PNe form a sharp lower boundary. Hence, distances can be estimated for all remaining local PNe, allowing the definition of a relatively complete census of PNe in the solar neighbourhood within 1.0 kpc. This provides a first look at the faint end of the PN luminosity function, and new estimates of the space density, scale height, total number, and birth rate of Galactic PNe.

The ground electronic state of neutral atomic carbon has three fine-structure levels. In the interstellar medium, the relative populations of the upper two levels are established by collisional excitations (and de-excitations) balanced against spontaneous radiative decay. Consequently, the fractions of C I in the upper two levels indicate acceptable combinations of local temperature and density, which in turn indicate the approximate thermal pressures of the medium. We can measure the values of these fractions and how they vary from one location to the next by observing the multiplets of C I seen in absorption in the ultraviolet spectra of hot stars.

We have identified 102 stars for which the HST MAST archive has E140H STIS spectra that are suitable for measuring the absorption features of C I at velocity resolutions of 3 kms−1(or better). A special analysis method developed by Jenkins & Tripp (2001) permits determinations of the amounts of C I in each of the three levels as a function of radial velocity over a wide dynamic range in column density, since several multiplets of vastly different strengths can be considered simultaneously.

The C I data reveal that the much of the diffuse, cold, neutral medium has pressures that are distributed in an approximately log-normal fashion, spread over a range 1000 < p/k < 104 cm−3 K (FWHM), but with low level tails outside this range. The dispersion of pressures increases slightly for gases that have radial velocities outside the expected range for quiescent material along each line of sight. This link to the kinematics of the gas is consistent with the picture that pressure fluctuations are driven by the dynamics of a turbulent medium. If the gas is a single medium that is being driven by turbulent forces, its barytropic index (slope of log p vs. log n) is more than 0.9, which is inconsistent with the value 0.72 for material that is expected to be in thermal equilibrium. Slightly less than one part in a thousand of the gas is at pressures of order or greater than ~105cm−3 K and seems to nearly always accompany the gas at normal pressures.

A summary of the round table discussion following Session A on Modelling Convection and Radiative Transfer is provided based on the video recording made during the conference.

The Rayleigh-Taylor instability (RTI) of a continuously stratified fluid has implications on the stability of solar and planetary interiors. A nonlinear stage of the two-dimensional RTI is studied by including various effects. By using the multiple scale method, we derived a nonlinear Schrödinger equation (NLSE) in 2+1 dimensions. We show the general soliton solutions of the NLSE and this allows to discuss their stability.

A remarkable variety of particle acceleration occurs in the solar system, from lightning-related acceleration of electrons to tens of MeV energy in less than a millisecond in planetary atmospheres; to acceleration of auroral and radiation belt particles in planetary magnetospheres; to acceleration at planetary bow shocks, co-rotating interplanetary region shocks, shocks driven by fast coronal mass ejections, and possibly at the heliospheric termination shock; to acceleration in magnetic reconnection regions in solar flares and at planetary magnetopause and magnetotail current sheets. These acceleration processes often occur in conjunction with transient energy releases, and some are very efficient. Unlike acceleration processes outside the solar system, the accelerated particles and the physical conditions in the acceleration region can be studied through direct in situ measurements, and/or through detailed imaging and spectroscopy. Here I review recent observations of tens of MeV electron acceleration in the Earth's atmosphere and in the Earth's radiation belts, electron and ion acceleration related to magnetic reconnection in solar flares, electron acceleration to ≥ 300 keV in magnetic reconnection regions in the Earth's deep magnetotail, and acceleration of solar energetic particles (SEPs) by shocks driven by fast coronal mass ejections (CMEs).

We studied the orbital evolution of objects with initial orbits close to those of Jupiter-family comets (JFCs), Halley-type comets (HTCs), and long-period comets, and the probabilities of their collisions with the planets. In our runs the probability of a collision of one object with the Earth could be greater than the sum of probabilities for thousands of other objects. Even without the contribution of such a few objects, the probability of a collision of a former JFC with the Earth during the dynamical lifetime of the comet was greater than 4×10−6. This probability is enough for delivery of all the water to Earth's oceans during the formation of the giant planets. The ratios of probabilities of collisions of JFCs and HTCs with Venus and Mars to the mass of the planet usually were not smaller than that with Earth. Among 30,000 considered objects with initial orbits close to those of JFCs, a few objects got Earth-crossing orbits with semimajor axes a<2 AU and aphelion distances Q<4.2 AU, or even got inner-Earth (Q<0.983 AU), Aten, or typical asteroidal orbits, and moved in such orbits for more than 1 Myr (up to tens or even hundreds of Myr). From a dynamical point of view, the fraction of extinct comets among near-Earth objects can exceed several tens of percent, but, probably, many extinct comets disintegrated into mini-comets and dust during a smaller part of their dynamical lifetimes.

We have computed new models for stars of low and intermediate mass, with varying degrees of α-element enhancement factors, using new low-temperature molecular opacities. We present some of the effects found.

Broadening and asymmetry of spectral lines in slowly rotating late A-type stars provide evidence for high-amplitude convective motions. The properties of turbulence observed in the A-star atmospheres are not understood theoretically and contradict results of previous numerical simulations of convection. Here we describe an ongoing effort to understand the puzzling convection signatures of A stars with the help of 3-D hydrodynamic simulations. Our approach combines realistic spectrum synthesis and non-grey hydrodynamic models computed with the CO5BOLD code. We discuss these theoretical predictions and confront them with high-resolution spectra of A stars. Our models have, for the first time, succeeded in reproducing the observed profiles of weak spectral lines without introducing fudge broadening parameters.

The dynamic process of magnetic flux emergence from the solar interior to the outer atmosphere may well be related with eruptive phenomena and intense events of the Solar activity. However, the physics of the emergence is not still well understood. Thus, we have performed 3D MHD simulations to study the rising motion of a twisted flux tube from the convection zone of the Sun and its interaction with a preexisting coronal magnetic field. The results show that the reconnection process depends criticaly on the initial relative orientation between the two magnetic flux systems into contact. On the other hand, the overal process of emergence depends mostly on the dynamics of the sub-photospheric plasma.

Properties of near-relativistic (E ≳ 30 keV, NR) and relativistic (E ≳ 0.3 MeV) electron events produced near the Sun and observed within 1 AU are reviewed. Observations suggest the CME-driven shocks are the sources of many events, but flares are often sources for NR events.

The possibilities and problems of using calculated spectra from model atmospheres when analysing stellar populations in galaxies are reviewed. Various types of consistency tests for stellar models are discussed, as well as comparisons with observational data. It is argued that major improvements in the model spectra are possible and worthwhile.

It is shown that a number of key observations of the Galactic ISM can be understood, if it is treated as a highly compressible and turbulent medium, energized predominantly by supernova explosions (and stellar winds). We have performed extensive numerical high resolution 3D hydrodynamical and magnetohydrodynamical simulations with adaptive mesh refinement over sufficiently long time scales to erase memory effects of the initial setup. Our results show, in good agreement with observations, that (i) volume filling factors of the hot medium are modest (typically below 20%), (ii) global pressure is far from uniform due to supersonic (and to some extent super-Alfvénic) turbulence, (iii) a significant fraction of the mass (~60%) in the warm neutral medium is in the thermally unstable regime (500 < T < 5000 K), (iv) the average number density of Ovi in absorption is 1.81 × 10−8 cm−3, in excellent agreement with Copernicus and FUSE data, and its distribution is rather clumpy, consistent with its measured dispersion with distance.

Astronomical education in Cuba is not widespread in the educational system; nevertheless the public interest in sciences in general but particularly in Astronomy issues is very high, as it has become reflected by the attention paid to educational and scientific program broadcasts in the national television channels. The “Planetario Habana” Cultural Centre for Science and Technology, which is under construction, is aimed at guiding the interest towards basic sciences and astronomical formation of the people, in the most populated and frequented area of the country. A key objective of this project shall be serving as an instructive motivation and entertainment for the casual or habitual visitors to these facilities, offering them the possibility to enjoy vivid representations, play with interactive amusement equipment and listen to instructive presentations on astronomy and related sciences, all guided by qualified specialists.

Another fundamental purpose shall be the establishment of a plan for complementary education in coordination with schools, in order to allow children and young people to participate in activities enabling them to get into the fascinating world of Astronomy, Exploration of Outer Space and Life as a Cosmic Phenomenon.

The setting up of the Planetario Habana Cultural Centre for Science and Technology is under the general administration of the Office of the Historian of the City of Havana, and methodologically is being led by the Ministry of Science, Technology and the Environment, and will show in operation the GOTO Planetarium G Cuba custom, obtained under a Japanese Cultural Grant Aid. It will develop into a an unparalleled centre in the national environment for scientific outreach and education of these sciences.

Surrounded by the attractiveness of the colonial “ambience’, it shall become a centre for dissemination of information about new discoveries and scientific programs developed at national and international level. Here we present a general view of the project, and its present and future development.

Mass loss on the Asymptotic Giant Branch provides the origin of planetary nebulae. This paper reviews several relevant aspects of AGB evolution: pulsation properties, mass loss formalisms and time variable mass loss, evidence for asymmetries on the AGB, binarity, ISM interaction, and mass loss at low metallicity. There is growing evidence that mass loss on the AGB is already asymmetric, but with spherically symmetric velocity fields. The origin of the rings may be in pulsational instabilities causing mass-loss variations on time scales of centuries.

We present the preliminary results of the X-ray spectral analysis of one of the largest samples of X-ray selected BLAGN assembled so far from the XMM-2dF Wide Angle Survey. The sample, with 641 spectroscopically identified BLAGN, provides a unique resource to carry out a statistical analysis of the emission properties of these objects over a broad range of X-ray luminosities and redshifts. The X-ray spectra of the majority of the objects were best fitted with a power law with a near constant mean spectral photon index. No obvious trend of this spectral parameter with X-ray luminosity or redshift was found.

We measured the mean photon index of our objects to be ∼1.96 ± 0.05 with an intrinsic dispersion σ=0.22±0.03. X-ray absorption was detected in ∼8% of the sources, with no preferred luminosity or redshift and having typical values of the absorbing column density ≤1022 cm−2.

The Taiwan-America Occultation Survey (TAOS) aims to determine the number of small icy bodies in the outer reach of the Solar System by means of stellar occultation. An array of 4 robotic small (D=0.5 m), wide-field (f/1.9) telescopes have been installed at Lulin Observatory in Taiwan to simultaneously monitor some thousand of stars for such rare occultation events. Because a typical occultation event by a TNO a few km across will last for only a fraction of a second, fast photometry is necessary. A special CCD readout scheme has been devised to allow for stellar photometry taken a few times per second. Effective analysis pipelines have been developed to process stellar light curves and to correlate any possible flux changes among all telescopes. A few billion photometric measurements have been collected since the routine survey began in early 2005. Our preliminary result of a very low detection rate suggests a deficit of small TNOs down to a few km size, consistent with the extrapolation of some recent studies of larger (30–100 km) TNOs.

I very briefly discuss the ages and kinematics of spheroids as well as the black hole relations, via a few recent and illustrative studies, which include results on the downsizing, scaling laws, angular momentum and central massive objects.

Astronomy in Colombia has been done since the beginning of the nineteenth century, when in 1803 one of the oldest (or maybe the oldest) astronomical observatories of America was built. This is a very beautiful, historical and ancient building. A small dome with a small telescope is also inside the university campus. The observatory marks since then the development of astronomy in Colombia as a professional science. At the present time a Master's programme and a Specialization programme are successfully carried out with a good number of smart young students. The observatory has a staff of eleven professors, all with a master's degree in sciences; two of them have a PhD and in a couple of years five staff members will have a PhD in physics. With some international collaboration, they will introduce in a few years a doctoral astronomical program. There are several research lines mainly in the fields of astrometry, Galactic and extragalactic astronomy, cosmology, astro-statistics and astrobiology. Three research groups have got recognition from the governmental institution that supports the research in sciences COLCIENCIAS. Several papers have been published in national and international journals. Besides the professional line in astronomy, the observatory sponsors several non-professional Colombian astronomical groups that work enthusiastically in the field of astronomy.