We are studying how stellar masses assemble through cosmic time since the Universe had only 30% of its present age. We are conducting a census of galaxies which covers the end of the most active star-forming phase, using a mass-limited sample of approximately 5,000 objects selected from the VIMOS VLT Deep Survey (VVDS) in the redshift range 0.45 < z < 1.3. With a criterion based on the direct spectral measurement of the 4000Å Balmer break, Dn(4000), we have classified our sample in spectroscopically early and late-type galaxies. The trends existing between stellar mass, spectroscopic classification, and star formation activity are clearly shown in our analysis.

The improvement of the dynamical models of solar system bodies’ motions will be very useful for the future space astrometry mission Gaia for a fast identification of objects, to discriminate between the well-known objects and the new ones. ‘Observations in the Past’ with plate archives allow realising it.

This is an ongoing project.

During last few years, new instruments like GIRAFFE (Flores, H., Hammer, F., Puech, M., et al., 2006, A&A 455,107) or SINFONI (Förster Schreiber, N.M., Genzel, R., Lehnert, M.D., et al., 2006, ApJ 645,1062) have began investigations on 3D kinematics of high redshift galaxies. This is just the head of the iceberg as Extremely Large Telescope will allow this kind of study on a larger sample. By now, it is important to be able to recover the actual kinematic parameters, and overall to disentangle evolutionnary effects from distance effects.

Numerous new Solar System objects, mainly asteroids, are still detected nowadays but their physical and dynamical characteristics remain not accurately determined, until dedicated observations and analysis are made. However, the Virtual Observatory is a perfect framework to search for this characterization by data mining. We are developing two studies for this goal by exploring the DENIS infrared and DFBS spectroscopic surveys. In order to scan the survey catalogues and to search for Solar System objects, we have developed a VO compliant workflow founded on the use of a recent VO tool labelled SkyBoT (Sky Bodies Tracker) (Berthier et al. 2005) and on the VizieR service provided by CDS. A public version of SkyBoT is implemented in the sky atlas Aladin since January 2006. It allows us to quickly get the precise coordinates of the asteroids, planets and natural satellites in any star field, provided we know its center, its size and the precise date of the exposure (between 1949 and 2009). Our data mining workflow performs cone search queries on SkyBoT and VizieR to extract all the known astronomical objects observed by the survey. Then the sources which are detected in the survey are correlated with the known objects to determine the matched and unmatched objects.

Using HST WFPC2 and NICMOS observations, and our 2D image weighting and modelling technique (Floyd et al. 2004), we have reliably disentangled host from nucleus for nine optically matched radio-loud quasars (RLQ) and nine radio-quiet quasars (RQQ) at z = 1&2, in two bands spanning the 4000Å break. The resulting galaxy colours provide the first unbiased estimates of galaxy mass for a statistical sample of quasars at high redshift, and indicates a difference in the evolution of radio-loud and radio-quiet objects.

The Virtual Observatory effort has undergone a substantial evolution over the last four years. In the talk we will discuss the directions of the current effort, and consider the direction along which the Virtual Observatory might evolve along with various other large astronomy projects. We will also discuss similar efforts in other disciplines and the relation of the VO to Grid Computing.

We have conducted sensitive HCN(1-0) line observations of four high redshift submillimeter (sub-mm) galaxies and QSOs with the VLA. Although none is significantly detected in either line or continuum emission, thanks to the gravitational lens, sub-mm galaxy SMM J16359+6612 is marginally (at the 3-4σ level) detected once the three lensed components are stacked up. The HCN source appears to be double with a separation of ~1.5'', consistent with what has been implied from other observations. This first possible HCN detection of a submm galaxy, and three stringent HCN upper limits, combined with previous HCN detections and upper limits strongly constrain the HCN/CO ratios at high-z to be comparable to that of local ULIRGs.

Since 2005, the workflow working group of OV-France gathers astronomers from five french institutes with common objectives: (i) defining use cases of general interest; (ii) identifying the simplest workflow structure allowing portability; and (iii) suggesting solutions for designing and exploiting easily such workflows (cf. Astrogrid developments). Our workflow definition is the following: a sequence of tasks executed within a controlled context by an architecture taking into account VO standards.

We consider here image analysis pipelines and examine how data and processes could be described in the context of the VO. The tasks chain is considered as a workflow, not only in terms of computing and resource allocation as in the Grid community, but in terms of data analysis know-how. Such pipelines may be published as coarse grain tool boxes and provide reference examples to the user.

The VVDS Surveys aim at understanding the combined evolution of galaxies and large scale structure and have by now collected more than 35000 redshifts in four sky areas covering a total of 4.3 square degrees. They are the only surveys of this kind using a purely apparent magnitude selection, thus avoiding the intrinsic biases present in most of the high redshift color based surveys.

We present the results of observations of distant galaxies (z ~ 0.8) at high spatial resolution (~0.1"). We observed 7 fields of 1' × 1' with the NACO Adaptive Optics system (VLT) in Ks (2.2μm) band with typical V ~ 14 guide stars and 3h integration time per field. Observed fields are selected within the COSMOS survey area. We analyze the morphologies by means of B/D (Bulge/Disk) decomposition with GIM2D and CAS (Concentration-Asymmetry) estimators for 79 galaxies with magnitudes between Ks = 17 − 23 and classify them in three main morphological types (Late Type, Early Type and Irregulars). We obtain for the first time an estimate of the distribution of galaxy types at redshift z ~ 1 as measured from the near infrared at high spatial resolution.

Most plotting tools tend to load all the data to be plotted into main memory and then use the in-memory data for the actual operations such as plotting. Our Analysis shows that in case of such interactive applications, as the memory usage grows, the response time increases in a significant fashion resulting in poor user interactivity. Further, in cases where the data size exceeds the limits imposed by the available physical memory, the entire data cannot be loaded in memory for performing any kind of operation.

We discovered 30 candidate galaxies are clustering in a small ~200 Mpc2 region at z = 6 with 5σ local density excess in a wide 876 arcmin2 field. Four of them were spectroscopically identified as z = 5.9–6.0 Lyα emitters (~34 Mpc in line-of-sight). This structure is comparable to z = 4.8 and 5.7 galaxy proto-clusters previously found. Since the other candidates are likely to be real galaxies due to low sample contamination, the overdensity can be a z~6 proto-cluster.

Montage is a portable, scaleable toolkit that runs on end-users desktops, clusters, and computing grids. It generates astronomical image mosaics that preserve the calibration and photometry in the input FITS files. The code is available for download at the project website at <http://montage.ipac.caltech.edu>, and includes independent modules for image discovery (including support for VO image access protocols), image reprojection, rectification of the sky background to a common level and image co-addition.

We present the first results derived from the spectrophotometric properties of the Vimos VLT Deep Survey (VVDS) first epoch data. We have measured the spectral features (emission/absorption lines, 4000Å break) of a sample a ≈8000 galaxies taken from the VVDS deep 02h and CDFS fields using the platefit VVDS pipeline. We first selected a sub-sample of star-forming galaxies, which were distinguished from narrow-line AGNs by standard and blue diagnostic diagrams. Then the gas-phase oxygen abundances have been derived by fitting all available emission lines towards photo-ionization models. Finally the masses have been derived by fitting all photometric points together with significant spectral features to a library of stellar population models with complex star formation histories. The mass-metallicity relation that we find at low redshifts is in good agreement with previsous studies performed in the local Universe. We find moreover a significant evolution of the mass-metallicity relation with the redshift, the galaxies having on average less metals at a given mass when the redshift increases. We also find a flattening of the mass-metallicity relation up to z ~ 1.

We present VisIVO a software for the visualisation and analysis of astrophysical data which can be retrieved from the Virtual Observatory framework and for cosmological simulations. VisIVO is VO standards compliant and supports the most important astronomical data formats such as FITS, HDF5 and VOTables. Data can be retrieved directly connecting to an available VO service (i.e., VizieR WS), loaded in the local computer memory where they can be further selected, visualised and manipulated.

We present a study of the nature of the blue early-type galaxies found in the HST/ACS images of the GOODS north and south fields.

The Virtual Observatory is one of the very few truly global endeavours of astronomy, and IAU General Assemblies are the natural places to present the VO to the community. The three-year time scale of IAU is also well suited to measure progress. At the IAU XXV GA in Sydney, 2003, half of the two-day Joint Discussion 8 on Large Telescopes & Virtual Observatories: Visions for the Future was devoted to VO talks: the main goal was to review what was expected from the VO in different disciplines of astronomy; many projects were also presented in the poster sessions. This time the three-day VO Special Session has given an excellent overview of present status of the VO, showing both tremendous progress and the work which remains to be done. Several scientific communities (astronomy, solar and heliospheric physics) are working on VO development, national communities have been organizing themselves in VO projects. Implementation by data centres has begun. Additional technical development is required, and there are still technical challenges. There is also a huge work ahead for providing high quality data and services, but the VO development already has a very positive influence on astronomers' work environment, and more is to come.

The role of primordial CH molecules in the first structures formation epoch is considered. We discuss the plausibility of observing protostructures in the Dark Age epoch of the Universe by studying the rotational structure of the CH molecule. It is stressed that considerable abundances of this molecule could be formed for different Inhomogeneous BBN models, which could lead to observable spectral-spatial fluctuations in the CMBR spectrum. The calculation is carried out for the Lambda-CDM cosmology and for typical first structures physical conditions. The chemical evolution of the structures is followed numerically, and the optical depth for the most important ground rotational transitions of the CH molecule are proposed. It is shown that under reasonable conditions the primordial CH molecule can be observed with mm-telescopes under construction.