Astrophysicists are increasingly taking into account the effects of orbiting companions on stellar evolution. New discoveries have underlined the role of binary star interactions in a range of astrophysical events, including some that were previously interpreted as being due uniquely to single stellar evolution. We review classical binary phenomena, such as type Ia supernovae, and discuss new phenomena, such as intermediate luminosity transients, gravitational wave-producing double black holes, and the interaction between stars and their planets. Finally, we reassess well-known phenomena, such as luminous blue variables, in light of interpretations that include both single and binary stars. At the same time we contextualise the new discoveries within the framework of binary stellar evolution. The last decade has seen a revival in stellar astrophysics as the complexity of stellar observations is increasingly interpreted with an interplay of single and binary scenarios. The next decade, with the advent of massive projects such as the Square Kilometre Array, the James Webb Space Telescope, and increasingly sophisticated computational methods, will see the birth of an expanded framework of stellar evolution that will have repercussions in many other areas of astrophysics such as galactic evolution and nucleosynthesis.

Tidal Downsizing scenario of planet formation builds on ideas proposed by Gerard Kuiper in 1951. Detailed simulations of self-gravitating discs, gas fragments, dust grain dynamics, and planet evolutionary calculations are summarised here and used to build a predictive population synthesis. A new interpretation of exoplanetary and debris disc data, the Solar System's origins, and the links between planets and brown dwarfs is offered. Tidal Downsizing predicts that presence of debris discs, sub-Neptune mass planets, planets more massive than ~ 5 Jupiter masses and brown dwarfs should not correlate strongly with the metallicity of the host. For gas giants of ~ Saturn to a few Jupiter mass, a strong host star metallicity correlation is predicted only inwards of a few AU from the host. Composition of massive cores is predicted to be dominated by rock rather than ices. Debris discs made by Tidal Downsizing have an innermost edge larger than about 1 au, have smaller total masses and are usually in a dynamically excited state. Planet formation in surprisingly young or very dynamic systems such as HL Tau and Kepler-444 may be a signature of Tidal Downsizing. Open questions and potential weaknesses of the hypothesis are pointed out.

We present new software to cross-match low-frequency radio catalogues: the Positional Update and Matching Algorithm. The Positional Update and Matching Algorithm combines a positional Bayesian probabilistic approach with spectral matching criteria, allowing for confusing sources in the matching process. We go on to create a radio sky model using Positional Update and Matching Algorithm based on the Murchison Widefield Array Commissioning Survey, and are able to automatically cross-match ~ 98.5% of sources. Using the characteristics of this sky model, we create simple simulated mock catalogues on which to test the Positional Update and Matching Algorithm, and find that Positional Update and Matching Algorithm can reliably find the correct spectral indices of sources, along with being able to recover ionospheric offsets. Finally, we use this sky model to calibrate and remove foreground sources from simulated interferometric data, generated using OSKAR (the Oxford University visibility generator). We demonstrate that there is a substantial improvement in foreground source removal when using higher frequency and higher resolution source positions, even when correcting positions by an average of 0.3 arcmin given a synthesised beam-width of ~ 2.3 arcmin.

HD 106515 AB (STF1619 AB) is a high common proper motion and common radial velocity binary star system composed of two G-type bright stars located at 35 pc and separated by about 7 arcsec. This system was observed by the Hipparcos satellite with a precision in distance and proper motion of 3 and 2%, respectively. The system includes a circumprimary planet of nearly 10 Jupiter masses and a semimajor axis of 4.59 AU, discovered using the radial velocity method. The observational arc of 21° shows a small curvature that evidences HD 106515 AB is a gravitationally bound system. This work determines the dynamical parameters for this system which reinforce the bound status of both stellar components. We determine orbital solutions from instantaneous position and velocity vectors. In addition, we provide a very preliminary orbital solution and a distribution of the orbital parameters, obtained from the line of sight (z). Our results show that HD 106515 AB presents an orbital period of about 4 800 years, a semimajor axis of 345 AU and an eccentricity of about 0.42. Finally, we use an N-body numerical code to perform simulations and reproduce the longer term octupole perturbations on the inner orbit.

The Zadko telescope is a 1 m f/4 Cassegrain telescope, situated in the state of Western Australia about 80-km north of Perth. The facility plays a niche role in Australian astronomy, as it is the only meter class facility in Australia dedicated to automated follow-up imaging of alerts or triggers received from different external instruments/detectors spanning the entire electromagnetic spectrum. Furthermore, the location of the facility at a longitude not covered by other meter class facilities provides an important resource for time critical projects. This paper reviews the status of the Zadko facility and science projects since it began robotic operations in March 2010. We report on major upgrades to the infrastructure and equipment (2012–2014) that has resulted in significantly improved robotic operations. Second, we review the core science projects, which include automated rapid follow-up of gamma ray burst (GRB) optical afterglows, imaging of neutrino counterpart candidates from the ANTARES neutrino observatory, photometry of rare (Barbarian) asteroids, supernovae searches in nearby galaxies. Finally, we discuss participation in newly commencing international projects, including the optical follow-up of gravitational wave (GW) candidates from the United States and European GW observatory network and present first tests for very low latency follow-up of fast radio bursts. In the context of these projects, we outline plans for a future upgrade that will optimise the facility for alert triggered imaging from the radio, optical, high-energy, neutrino, and GW bands.

In this brief communication, a new method is outlined for modelling magnification patterns on an observer’s plane using a first-order approximation to the null geodesic path equations for a point mass lens. For each ray emitted from a source, an explicit calculation is made for the change in position on the observer’s plane due to each lens mass. By counting the number of points in each small area of the observer’s plane, the magnification at that point can be determined. This allows for a very simple and transparent algorithm. A short Matlab code sample for creating simple magnification maps due to multiple point lenses is included in an appendix.

Most major discoveries in astronomy are unplanned, and result from surveying the Universe in a new way, rather than by testing a hypothesis or conducting an investigation with planned outcomes. For example, of the ten greatest discoveries made by the Hubble Space Telescope, only one was listed in its key science goals. So a telescope that merely achieves its stated science goals is not achieving its potential scientific productivity.

Several next-generation astronomical survey telescopes are currently being designed and constructed that will significantly expand the volume of observational parameter space, and should in principle discover unexpected new phenomena and new types of object. However, the complexity of the telescopes and the large data volumes mean that these discoveries are unlikely to be found by chance. Therefore, it is necessary to plan explicitly for unexpected discoveries in the design and construction. Two types of discovery are recognised: unexpected objects and unexpected phenomena.

This paper argues that next-generation astronomical surveys require an explicit process for detecting the unexpected, and proposes an implementation of this process. This implementation addresses both types of discovery, and relies heavily on machine-learning techniques, and also on theory-based simulations that encapsulate our current understanding of the Universe.

Imaging bundles provide a convenient way to translate a spatially coherent image, yet conventional imaging bundles made from silica fibre optics typically remain expensive with large losses due to poor filling factors (~40%). We present the characterisation of a novel polymer imaging bundle made from poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) that is considerably cheaper and a better alternative to silica imaging bundles over short distances (~1 m; from the middle to the edge of a telescope’s focal plane). The large increase in filling factor (92% for the polymer imaging bundle) outweighs the large increase in optical attenuation from using PMMA (1 dB/m) instead of silica (10−3 dB/m). We present and discuss current and possible future multi-object applications of the polymer imaging bundle in the context of astronomical instrumentation including: field acquisition, guiding, wavefront sensing, narrow-band imaging, aperture masking, and speckle imaging. The use of PMMA limits its use in low-light applications (e.g., imaging of galaxies); however, it is possible to fabricate polymer imaging bundles from a range of polymers that are better suited to the desired science.

We compare two Type Ia supernova samples that are drawn from a spectroscopically confirmed Type Ia supernova sample: a host-selected sample in which SNe Ia are restricted to those that have a spectroscopic redshift from the host; and a broader, more traditional sample in which the redshift could come from either the SN or the host. The host-selected sample is representative of SN samples that will use the redshift of the host to infer the SN redshift, long after the SN has faded from view. We find that SNe Ia that are selected on the availability of a redshift from the host differ from SNe Ia that are from the broader sample. The former tend to be redder, have narrower light curves, live in more massive hosts, and tend to be at lower redshifts. We find that constraints on the equation of state of dark energy, w, and the matter density, ΩM, remain consistent between these two types of samples. Our results are important for ongoing and future supernova surveys, which unlike previous supernova surveys, will have limited real-time follow-up to spectroscopically classify the SNe they discover. Most of the redshifts in these surveys will come from the hosts.

During our optical monitoring of UV Ceti, iconic late-type flaring star, with high temporal resolution using the Russian 6-m telescope in 2008, we detected a giant flare with the amplitude of about 3 magnitudes in U band. Near flare maximum, more than a dozen of spike bursts have been discovered with triangular shapes and durations from 0.6 to 1.2 s and maximal luminosities in the range (1.5–8) × 1027 erg s−1. For the half of these events, the linear polarization exceeds 35% with significance better than 5σ. We argue that these events are synchrotron emission of electron streams with the energies of several hundred MeV moving in the magnetic field of about 1.4 kG. Emission from such ultra-relativistic (with energies far exceeding 10 MeV) particles is being routinely observed in solar flares, but has never been detected from UV Ceti-type stars. This is the first ever detection of linearly polarized optical light from the UV Ceti-type stars which indicates that at least some fraction of the flaring events on these stars is powered by a non-thermal synchrotron emission mechanism.

While galaxies with clockwise and counterclockwise handedness are visually different, they are expected to be symmetric in all of their other characteristics. Previous experiments using both manual analysis and machine vision have shown that the handedness of Sloan Digital Sky Survey galaxies can be predicted with accuracy significantly higher than mere chance using its photometric data alone. However, some of these previous experiments were based on manually classified galaxies, and the results may therefore be subjected to bias originated from the human perception. This paper describes an experiment based on a set of 162,514 galaxies classified automatically to clockwise and counterclockwise spiral galaxies, showing that the source of the asymmetry in Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) database is not the human perception bias. The results are compared to two smaller datasets, and confirm the observation that the handedness of SDSS galaxies can be predicted by their photometry. The experiment also shows statistically significant differences in the measured magnitude of SDSS galaxies, according which galaxies with clockwise patterns are brighter than galaxies with counterclockwise patterns. The magnitude of that difference changes across RA ranges, and exhibits a strong correlation with the cosine of the right ascension.

Superluminous supernovae are beginning to be discovered at redshifts as early as the epoch of reionisation. A number of candidate mechanisms is reviewed, together with the discovery programmes.

The S-band Polarisation All-Sky Survey has observed the entire southern sky using the 64-m Parkes radio telescope at 2.3 GHz with an effective bandwidth of 184 MHz. The surveyed sky area covers all declinations δ ⩽ 0°. To analyse compact sources, the survey data have been re-processed to produce a set of 107 Stokes I maps with 10.75 arcmin resolution and the large scale emission contribution filtered out. In this paper, we use these Stokes I images to create a total intensity southern-sky extragalactic source catalogue at 2.3 GHz. The source catalogue contains 23 389 sources and covers a sky area of 16 600 deg2, excluding the Galactic plane for latitudes |b| < 10°. Approximately, 8% of catalogued sources are resolved. S-band Polarisation All-Sky Survey source positions are typically accurate to within 35 arcsec. At a flux density of 225 mJy, the S-band Polarisation All-Sky Survey source catalogue is more than 95% complete, and ~ 94% of S-band Polarisation All-Sky Survey sources brighter than 500 mJy beam−1 have a counterpart at lower frequencies.

Einstein rings are rare gems of strong lensing phenomena; the ring images can be used to probe the underlying lens gravitational potential at every position angles, tightly constraining the lens mass profile. In addition, the magnified images also enable us to probe high-z galaxies with enhanced resolution and signal-to-noise ratios. However, only a handful of Einstein rings have been reported, either from serendipitous discoveries or or visual inspections of hundred thousands of massive galaxies or galaxy clusters. In the era of large sky surveys, an automated approach to identify ring pattern in the big data to come is in high demand. Here, we present an Einstein ring recognition approach based on computer vision techniques. The workhorse is the circle Hough transform that recognise circular patterns or arcs in the images. We propose a two-tier approach by first pre-selecting massive galaxies associated with multiple blue objects as possible lens, than use Hough transform to identify circular pattern. As a proof-of-concept, we apply our approach to SDSS, with a high completeness, albeit with low purity. We also apply our approach to other lenses in DES, HSC-SSP, and UltraVISTA survey, illustrating the versatility of our approach.

We study a possibility to detect signatures of brown dwarf companions in a circumstellar disc based on spectral energy distributions. We present the results of spectral energy distribution simulations for a system with a 0.8 M⊙ central object and a companion with a mass of 30 MJ embedded in a typical protoplanetary disc. We use a solution to the one-dimensional radiative transfer equation to calculate the protoplanetary disc flux density and assume, that the companion moves along a circular orbit and clears a gap. The width of the gap is assumed to be the diameter of the brown dwarf Hill sphere. Our modelling shows that the presence of such a gap can initiate an additional minimum in the spectral energy distribution profile of a protoplanetary disc at λ = 10–100 μm. We found that it is possible to detect signatures of the companion when it is located within 10 AU, even when it is as small as 3 MJ. The spectral energy distribution of a protostellar disc with a massive fragment (of relatively cold temperature ~400 K) might have a similar double peaked profile to the spectral energy distribution of a more evolved disc that contains a gap.

Using images from the SDSS DR13 library, we examine the structural properties of 374 bright (classed E0 to E6) and dwarf ellipticals [classed dE(nN) to dE(N)]. The sample combines a multicolour sample of bright ellipticals (252 galaxies with $M_{\text{g}} < -20$) with a new sample of faint ellipticals (60 galaxies with $M_{\text{g}} > -20$) which overlaps the dwarf elliptical sample (62 galaxies) in luminosity and size. The faint ellipticals extend the linear structural correlations found for bright ellipticals into parameter space not occupied by dwarf ellipticals indicating a dichotomy exists between the two types. In particular, many faint ellipticals have significantly higher effective surface brightnesses compared to dwarf ellipticals which eliminates any connection at a set stellar mass. Template analysis of the three subsets of ellipticals demonstrates that the bright and faint ellipticals follow the same trends of profile shape (weak homology), but that dwarf ellipticals form a separate and distinct structural class with lower central surface brightnesses and extended isophotal radii.

We present spectroscopic and photometric analysis of the eclipsing binary KIC 7385478. We find that the system is formed by F1V + K4III–IV components. Combining results from analysis of spectroscopic data and Kepler photometry, we calculate masses and radii of the primary and the secondary components as M1 = 1.71 ± 0.08 M⊙, M2 = 0.37 ± 0.04 M⊙ and R1 = 1.59 ± 0.03 R⊙, R2 = 1.90 ± 0.03 R⊙, respectively. Position of the primary component in HR diagram is in the region of γ Doradus type pulsators and residuals from light curve modelling exhibit additional light variation with a dominant period of ~ 0.5 d. These are clear evidences of the γ Doradus type pulsations on the primary component. We also observe occasional increase in amplitude of the residuals, where the orbital period becomes the most dominant period. These may be attributed to the cool star activity originating from the secondary component.

Analysis of solar magnetic fields using observations as well as theoretical interpretations of the scattering polarisation is commonly designated as a high priority area of the solar research. The interpretation of the observed polarisation raises a serious theoretical challenge to the researchers involved in this field. In fact, realistic interpretations need detailed investigations of the depolarising collisions.

The goal of this paper is to determine new relationships which allow the calculation of any collisional rates of the d-levels of ions by simply determining the value of n* and Ep without the need of determining treating the collisional problem.

In this work, we applied our collisional code to a large number of cases involving complex and simple ions. After that, the results are injected in a genetic programming code in order to infer original relationships which will be of great help to solar applications. We discussed the accuracy of our collisional rates in the cases of complex atoms and atoms with hyperfine structure.

We compared the results obtained through the new relationships with the results obtained directly by running our code of collisions. The percentage of error is about 10% in the average value.

We present observations of thermonuclear (type-I) X-ray bursts, selected for comparison with numerical models. We provide examples of four distinct cases of ignition: He-ignition in mixed H/He fuel (case 1); He-ignition in pure He fuel, following exhaustion of accreted H by steady burning (case 2); ignition in (almost) pure He accumulated from an evolved donor in an ultracompact system; and a superburst, thought to arise from ignition of carbon fuel produced as a by-product of H/He bursts. For regular bursts, we measured the recurrence time and calculated averaged burst profiles from RXTE observations. We also estimated the recurrence time for pairs of bursts, including those observed during a transient outburst, modelled using a numerical ignition code. For each example we list the burst properties including recurrence time, fluence, peak flux, the persistent flux level (and inferred accretion rate), and the ratio of persistent flux to fluence. In the accompanying material, we provide a bolometric lightcurve for each burst, determined from time-resolved spectral analysis. Along with the inferred or adopted parameters for each burst system, including distance, surface gravity, and redshift, these data are suggested as suitable test cases for ignition models.

We present low-frequency spectral energy distributions of 60 known radio pulsars observed with the Murchison Widefield Array telescope. We searched the GaLactic and Extragalactic All-sky Murchison Widefield Array survey images for 200-MHz continuum radio emission at the position of all pulsars in the Australia Telescope National Facility (ATNF) pulsar catalogue. For the 60 confirmed detections, we have measured flux densities in 20 × 8 MHz bands between 72 and 231 MHz. We compare our results to existing measurements and show that the Murchison Widefield Array flux densities are in good agreement.