We present an analytic solution for a jet flow from a young stellar object (YSO). This solution allows us to compute the speed, density, and magnetic field strength of the flow, but it is only true if YSO jet flows are powered by toroidal magnetic fields. We illustrate how the balance between centrifugal force and magnetic pressure provides the converging/diverging nozzle shape required to accelerate the flow.

A method is presented that will enable the bivariate luminosity/surface brightness distribution of galaxies to be determined from a relatively small HI selected sample. This will be taken from the HI Parkes All Sky Survey (HIPASS). The advantages of using an HI sample in order to avoid the selection effects that are present at optical wavelengths are discussed. We are developing an algorithm to automatically extract a uniform sample of galaxies from the HIPASS data cubes and to determine the parameters of these galaxies. We have so far conducted tests involving both simulated sources injected into cubes with real noise and data from the Multibeam Deep survey. Results from these tests are encouraging.

Therecently discovered massive binary system Apep is the most powerful synchrotron emitter among the known Galactic colliding-wind binaries. This makes this particular system of great interest to investigate stellar winds and the non-thermal processes associated with their shocks. This source was detected at various radio bands, and in addition the wind-collision region was resolved by means of very-long baseline interferometric observations. We use a non-thermal emission model for colliding-wind binaries to derive physical properties of this system. The observed morphology in the resolved maps allows us to estimate the system projection angle on the sky to be $\psi \approx 85^\circ$ . The observed radio flux densities also allow us to characterise both the intrinsic synchrotron spectrum of the source and its modifications due to free–free absorption in the stellar winds at low frequencies; from this, we derive mass–loss rates of the stars of $\dot{M}_\mathrm{WN} \approx 4\times10^{-5}\;\mathrm{M}_\odot\,\mathrm{yr}^{-1}$ and $\dot{M}_\mathrm{WC} \approx 2.9\times10^{-5}\;\mathrm{M}_\odot\,\mathrm{yr}^{-1}$ . Finally, the broadband spectral energy distribution is calculated for different combinations of the remaining free parameters, namely the intensity of the magnetic field and the injected power in non-thermal particles. We show that the degeneracy of these two parameters can be solved with observations in the high-energy domain, most likely in the hard X-rays but also possibly in $\gamma$ -rays under favourable conditions.

The substantial number of binary central stars of planetary nebulae (CSPNe) now known ($\sim 50$) has revealed a strong connection between binarity and some morphological features including jets and low-ionisation structures. However, some morphological features and asymmetries might be too complex or subtle to ascribe to binary interactions alone. In these cases, a tertiary component, that is, a triple nucleus, could be the missing ingredient required to produce these features. The only proven triple, NGC 246, is alone insufficient to investigate the shaping role of triple nuclei, but one straightforward way to identify more triples is to search for binaries in nuclei with known visual companions. Here we demonstrate this approach with the SALT HRS (High Resolution Spectrograph on the Southern African Large Telescope) discovery of a 4.81-d orbital period in the CSPN of Sp 3 which has a visual companion 0.31 arcsec away. The spectroscopic distance of the visual companion is in agreement with distance estimates to the nebula, the Gaia DR2 parallax of the central star, and the gravity distance of the central star. This supports a physical association between the visual companion and the inner 4.81 d binary, making the nucleus of Sp 3 a likely triple. We determine $T_\mathrm{eff}=68^{+12}_{-6}\ \text{kK},\ \log g=4.6\pm0.2\ \text{cm s}^{-2}$, and $v_\mathrm{rot}=80\pm20\ \text{km s}^{-1}$ for the primary from non-local thermodynamic equilibrium model atmosphere analysis. The peculiar nebula presents an apparent bipolar morphology, jets, and an unexpected ‘extreme’ oxygen abundance discrepancy factor (adf) of $24.6^{+4.1}_{-3.4}$. The adf is inconsistent with the purported trend for longer orbital period post-common-envelope (CE) PNe to exhibit normal adfs, further highlighting the dominant influence of selection effects in post-CE PNe. Lastly, the Type I nebular abundances of Sp 3, whose origin is often attributed to more massive progenitors, are incongruous with the likely Galactic Thick Disk membership of Sp 3, possibly suggesting that rotation and binarity may play an important role in influencing the AGB nucleosynthesis of PNe.

The 2dF Galaxy Redshift Survey (2dFGRS) of 230 000 redshifts of nearby (z ~ 0.1) galaxies is now complete. It has allowed the 2dFGRS Team and others to estimate fundamental cosmological parameters and to study galaxy intrinsic properties. Here we highlight three recent key results from the survey: (a) an upper limit of about 2 eV on the total mass of the three neutrino flavours, and an intriguing reasonable fitting of the 2dFGRS power spectrum to a Mixed Dark Matter model without a Cosmological Constant but with a low Hubble constant; (b) the bimodality of the galaxy population in both spectral parameterisation and in colour; and (c) the clustering of different galaxy types and evidence for relative stochastic biasing.

We have used the Australia Telescope Compact Array to search for a number of centimetre wavelength methanol transitions which are predicted to show weak maser emission towards star formation regions. Sensitive, high spatial, and spectral resolution observations towards four high-mass star formation regions which show emission in a large number of class II methanol maser transitions did not result in any detections. From these observations, we are able to place an upper limit of ≲ 1300 K on the brightness temperature of any emission from the 31A+–31A−, 17−2–18−3 E (vt = 1), 124–133 A−, 124–133 A+, and 41A+–41A− transitions of methanol in these sources on angular scales of 2 arcsec. This upper limit is consistent with current models for class II methanol masers in high-mass star formation regions and better constraints than those provided here will likely require observations with next-generation radio telescopes.

The Australian SKA Pathfinder (ASKAP) has surveyed the sky at multiple frequencies as part of the Rapid ASKAP Continuum Survey (RACS). The first two RACS observing epochs, at 887.5 (RACS-low) and 1 367.5 (RACS-mid) MHz, have been released (McConnell, et al. 2020, PASA, 37, e048; Duchesne, et al. 2023, PASA, 40, e034). A catalogue of radio sources from RACS-low has also been released, covering the sky south of declination $+30^{\circ}$ (Hale, et al., 2021, PASA, 38, e058). With this paper, we describe and release the first set of catalogues from RACS-mid, covering the sky below declination $+49^{\circ}$. The catalogues are created in a similar manner to the RACS-low catalogue, and we discuss this process and highlight additional changes. The general purpose primary catalogue covering 36 200 deg$^2$ features a variable angular resolution to maximise sensitivity and sky coverage across the catalogued area, with a median angular resolution of $11.2^{\prime\prime} \times 9.3^{\prime\prime}$. The primary catalogue comprises 3 105 668 radio sources, including those in the Galactic Plane (2 861 923 excluding Galactic latitudes of $|b|<5^{\circ}$), and we estimate the catalogue to be 95% complete for sources above 2 mJy. With the primary catalogue, we also provide two auxiliary catalogues. The first is a fixed-resolution, 25-arcsec catalogue approximately matching the sky coverage of the RACS-low catalogue. This 25-arcsec catalogue is constructed identically to the primary catalogue, except images are convolved to a less-sensitive 25-arcsec angular resolution. The second auxiliary catalogue is designed for time-domain science and is the concatenation of source lists from the original RACS-mid images with no additional convolution, mosaicking, or de-duplication of source entries to avoid losing time-variable signals. All three RACS-mid catalogues, and all RACS data products, are available through the CSIRO ASKAP Science Data Archive (https://research.csiro.au/casda/).

Powerful extragalactic radio sources are characterised by kpc-scale synchrotron emission associated with highly-collimated outflows of relativistic plasma. It is hypothesised that this outflowing plasma is powered by accretion processes concomitant with a central massive black hole. The radio morphologies of these sources comprise jets, lobes and for the most powerful sources, hotspots. At first sight, powerful extragalactic radio sources are a mixed group of objects, with the result that only some gross property delineates them further (e.g. steep-spectrum or flat-spectrum). However, there is accumulating observational evidence which suggests that it is the orientation of the radio axis to our line of sight that dictates their observed characteristics. This orientation dependence has been incorporated into ‘unified schemes’, which physically link apparently disparate radio source types via the random orientation of a ‘parent’ population on the plane of the sky. This paper summarises the ‘dual-population unified scheme’ paradigm investigated by Wall & Jackson (1997) and Jackson & Wall (1999) and discusses some of its implications with respect to radio source cosmology.

Numerical simulations are a crucial tool to understand the relationship between debris discs and planetary companions. As debris disc observations are now reaching unprecedented levels of precision over a wide range of wavelengths, an appropriate level of accuracy and consistency is required in numerical simulations to confidently interpret this new generation of observations. However, simulations throughout the literature have been conducted with various initial conditions often with little or no justification. In this paper, we aim to study the dependence on the initial conditions of N-body simulations modelling the interaction between a massive and eccentric planet on an exterior debris disc. To achieve this, we first classify three broad approaches used in the literature and provide some physical context for when each category should be used. We then run a series of N-body simulations, that include radiation forces acting on small grains, with varying initial conditions across the three categories. We test the influence of the initial parent body belt width, eccentricity, and alignment with the planet on the resulting debris disc structure and compare the final peak emission location, disc width and offset of synthetic disc images produced with a radiative transfer code. We also track the evolution of the forced eccentricity of the dust grains induced by the planet, as well as resonance dust trapping. We find that an initially broad parent body belt always results in a broader debris disc than an initially narrow parent body belt. While simulations with a parent body belt with low initial eccentricity (e ~ 0) and high initial eccentricity (0 < e < 0.3) resulted in similar broad discs, we find that purely secular forced initial conditions, where the initial disc eccentricity is set to the forced value and the disc is aligned with the planet, always result in a narrower disc. We conclude that broad debris discs can be modelled by using either a dynamically cold or dynamically warm parent belt, while in contrast eccentric narrow debris rings are reproduced using a secularly forced parent body belt.

The aggregation of a large number of planetesimals into a single body is a problem that has proved to be a stumbling block for many theories of planetary formation. This difficulty has mainly arisen because of the tendency of an orbiting stream of bodies to disperse over the equatorial plane as a result of the combined effects of collisions and gravitational interactions (Trulsen 1972; Brahic 1975). Once such a chaotic distribution of orbiting bodies has developed, it is extremely difficult for these bodies to subsequently accumulate into a single entity. This problem does not arise, however, when aggregation takes place within a differentially rotating gaseous ring as proposed by Prentice (1978). It has been shown previously (Hourigan 1977) that the gas drag overcomes the disruptive nature of collisional interactions, resulting in the formation of a thin concentrated torus of orbiting bodies.

The Figaro data reduction system was originally written for DEC VAXes running VMS, and little attention was paid to making it portable. Recently, however, a cooperative effort between the AAO, MSSSO, UNSW, the UK Starlink network and Caltech has resulted in a version for UNIX. This new version has been run under VMS and three different versions of UNIX. The files produced by any version may be read directly by any other version, although Figaro has a particularly complex file format which contains an extensible, self-defining, hierarchical structure of data items. This complexity has allowed the addition of error and quality data, as well as specific structures used, for example, for echelle data. Figaro is written mainly in Fortran (with numerous DEC extensions) but there is also a significant use of C. While C and Fortran are reasonably portable, the way one is called from the other is less portable and needs careful handling. Ports to other systems are possible, with effort; a Macintosh version is being considered.

We present near-infrared images and spectra of the peculiar radio galaxy Centaurus A. The images reveal extended emission regions at the longer wavelengths and show colours characteristic of reddened starlight. We believe we are seeing stars within the warped disc of Cen A, which are obscured in the optical by dust. Both images and spectra indicate the presence of a compact core, whose colours are much redder than those of the surrounding stars. In the spectrum of the core, detections have been made of [Fe II] 1.644 μm, H2 2.122 μm and Br γ. These lines appear to peak on the nucleus and their presence and width suggest starburst activity.

In this paper we present maps showing the distribution of HCO+ (J= 1→0 transition at 89.18855 GHz) in the direction of NGC 6334 as a function of radial velocity, lhe observations were carried out in May-June 1979 as part of a larger program of HCO+ observations (Batchelor et al. 1980, 1981) using the Epping 4-m millimetre-wave radio telescope.

This paper is a preliminary report on the sky mapping being undertaken at the University of Tasmania using the Llanherne low frequency array. (Ellis 1972).

The observations are facilitated by the use of an on-line PDP-8 computer and the beam steering system described by Whitham (1975). In summary, a scanning system is used in which the computer is programmed to steer the telescope beam to a number of declinations with a time interval between settings such that a scan takes 5 minutes. Usually a scan of 12 declinations is chosen. Calibration levels obtained each hour and recorded on magnetic tape permit gain changes to be accounted for when the data is analysed from the tape.

During 1971/72 the radioheliograph at Culgoora, N.S.W. was used to observe 30 bright galaxies at 80 MHz.

The purpose of this paper is to advance an alternative hypothesis for the underlying distinction between solar radio bursts of spectral type V and ‘inverted U’ bursts, and to explore its implications.

EX Hya was one of the earliest detected eclipsing cataclysmic variables. The 98 min orbital period was first documented as a result of the spectroscopy of Kraft and Krzeminski (1962) and the photometry of Mumford (1964, 1967). However, new properties of this system continue to be discovered and these have required a more complex model than was previously envisaged.

One of the most difficult tasks facing theoretical astrophysics today is to find a satisfactory model for the convective transport of energy in regions where the temperature gradient is superadiabatic. A number of such models have been proposed, such as the mixing-length theory and its extensions (Vitense 1953, Böhm-Vitense 1958, Spiegel 1963, Travis and Matsushima 1973 a, b, Parson 1969), to take into account the combined effects of convection and turbulence but it is generally agreed that, to-date, no satisfactory theory has been put forward.

Many cold molecular clouds have been detected as a result of their association with dense optical obscuration. The HII region RCW 36 is contained within a prominent dust lane extending several degrees along a line of almost constant right ascension (see e.g. Rodgers et al. 1960). By means of H2CO and OH observations we have found that this lane is associated with a dense elongated molecular cloud.

In the wide complex profiles of OH, H2CO and CO spectra observed in directions towards the galactic centre, only the features at radial velocities near + 40 km s-1 are generally believed to originate in the molecular clouds nearest the galactic nucleus. The features at other velocities are associated with clouds or spiral features that can be traced over larger ranges of galactic longitude, implying locations which are more distant from the nucleus. In particular, the features near zero velocity have been traditionally associated with molecular clouds within 1-2 kpc of the Sun. However, H2CO observations with high velocity resolution provide evidence that one cloud with velocity near zero is probably near the galactic nucleus.