The Red MSX Source (RMS) survey (Hoare et al. 2005) is a multi-wavelength programme of follow-up observations designed to distinguish between genuine massive young stellar objects (MYSOs) and other embedded or dusty objects, such as ultra compact (UC) HII regions, evolved stars and planetary nebulae (PNe). We have identified nearly 2000 MYSOs candidates by comparing the colours of MSX and 2MASS point sources to those of known MYSOs. There are several other types of embedded or dust enshrouded objects that have similar colours as MYSOs and contaminate our sample. Two sources of contamination are from UCHII regions and PNe, both of which can be identified from the radio emission emitted by their ionised nebulae. In order to identify UCHII regions and PNe that contaminate our sample we have conducted high resolution radio continuum observations at 3.6 and 6 cm of all southern MYSOs candidates (235° < l < 350°) using the Australia Telescope Compact Array (ATCA).

In the last several years the manually operated fish-eye cameras in the Czech part of the European fireball Network (EN) have been gradually replaced with new generation cameras, the modern and sophisticated completely autonomous fireball observatories (AFO), which were recently developed in the Czech Republic. The main motivation for construction of this new observing system was to continue in regular fireball observations and to make these observations more complex and efficient. In this paper we briefly describe basic design and work of this new instrument and its deployment at the Czech stations of the EN. The current dislocation of the individual stations and their equipment is also discussed. Along with this new modern instrument we developed also new software for measurement of photographic negatives which makes this time consuming work more efficient and easier. The AFOs provide us with data on fireballs far richer and more interesting than those we were able to get in the past. This is illustrated by the cases of two recently observed fireballs which were recorded by the AFOs. We describe the high precision of all the measureded values as well as the very detailed information about light curves in both cases.

We give references to some of our work on the properties and evolution of the neutral gas component of the Universe (see reference list). The bulk of the observed neutral gas has been detected by identifying intervening damped Lyα (DLA) quasar absorption-line systems with N(H) ≥2 × 1020 atoms cm−2. We also present some initial results from a program to identify DLA absorbers near redshift z = 0.5 using Hubble Space Telescope ACS prism spectra (see Figure 1).

The Cosmic Evolution Survey (COSMOS) is an HST/ACS imaging survey of 2 square degrees centered on RA = 10:00:28.6, Dec = + 02:12:21 (J2000). While the primary goal of the survey is to study evolution of galaxy morphology and large scale structure, an extensive multi-wavelength data set allows for a sensitive survey of AGN. Spectroscopy of optical counterparts to faint X-ray and radio sources is being carried out with the Magallen (Baade) Telescope and the ESO VLT. By achieving ∼80 redshift completeness down to I AB = 3, the eventual yield of AGN will be ∼1100 over the whole field.

Early results on supermassive black holes are described. The goals of the survey include a bolometric census of AGN down to moderate luminosities, the cosmic evolution and fueling history of the central engines, and a study of AGN environments on scales ranging from the host galaxy to clusters and superclusters.

We report on a study of interstellar turbulence driven by both correlated and isolated supernova explosions. We use three-dimensional hydrodynamic models of a vertically stratified interstellar medium run with the adaptive mesh refinement code Flash at a maximum resolution of 2 pc, with a grid size of 0.5 × 0.5 × 10 kpc. Cold dense clouds form even in the absence of self-gravity due to the collective action of thermal instability and supersonic turbulence. Studying these clouds, we show that it can be misleading to predict physical properties such as the star formation rate or the stellar initial mass function using numerical simulations that do not include self-gravity of the gas. Even if all the gas in turbulently Jeans unstable regions in our simulation is assumed to collapse and form stars in local freefall times, the resulting total collapse rate is significantly lower than the value consistent with the input supernova rate. The amount of mass available for collapse depends on scale, suggesting a simple translation from the density PDF to the stellar IMF may be questionable. Even though the supernova-driven turbulence does produce compressed clouds, it also opposes global collapse. The net effect of supernova-driven turbulence is to inhibit star formation globally by decreasing the amount of mass unstable to gravitational collapse.

The Sc galaxy M 99 in the Virgo Cluster has been strongly affected by recent tidal interactions, responsible for an asymmetric spiral pattern and a high star formation rate (∼ 10 M⊙ yr−1). We studied the galaxy with XMM-Newton, Keck and the Very Large Array (VLA). The inner disk is dominated by hot plasma with a total X-ray luminosity ≈ 1041 erg s−1. At the outskirts of the galaxy, away from the main star-forming regions, there is an ultraluminous X-ray source (ULX) with an X-ray luminosity ≈ 2 × 1040 erg s−1 and a hard spectrum (power-law photon index Γ ≈ 1.7). This source is close to the location where a massive H I cloud appears to be falling onto the M 99 disk at a relative speed > 100 km s−1. The infalling gas may have been stripped from the nearby “dark galaxy” candidate VIRGOHI 21. We speculate there may be a relation between collisional events, infall of metal-poor gas clouds, and ULX formation.

Emission-line observations made with the Spitzer Space Telescope are used to test the predicted ionizing spectral energy distributions of various stellar atmosphere models.

Three basic modeling approaches have been used to numerically simulate fluid turbulence and the banded zonal winds in the interiors and atmospheres of giant planets: shallow-water models, deep-shell Boussinesq models and deep-shell anelastic models. We review these models and discuss the approximations and assumptions upon which they are based. All three can produce banded zonal wind patterns at the surface. However, shallow-water models produce a retrograde (i.e., westward) zonal jet in the equatorial region, whereas strong prograde (i.e., eastward) equatorial jets exist on Jupiter and Saturn. Deep-shell Boussinesq models maintain prograde equatorial jets by the classic method of vortex stretching of convective columnar flows; however, they neglect the effects of the large density stratification in these giant planets. Deep-shell anelastic models account for density stratification and maintain prograde equatorial jets by generating vorticity as rising fluid expands and sinking fluid contracts, without the constraint of long thin convective columns.

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.

We investigate the environmental dependence of galaxy populations properties in the SDSS-DR4. Our aim is to search for systematic variations in the properties of galaxies with the local galaxy density in order to find hints that can be related to the presence of a void galaxy population. We find that galaxies in underdense regions (voids) are fainte and bluer than cluster galaxies. Moreover, the transition from underdense to overdense regions is smooth, as well as the percentage of late-type galaxies decreases while the percentage of early-type galaxies increases smoothly from underdense to dense environments.

In the daily RATAN-600 monitoring of the radio variability of the microquasar GRS1915+105 we detected a clear correlation of the flaring radio emission and X-rays “spikes” at 2–12 keV emission (1–2 Crab) detected with RXTE (ASM data) during nine bright (200–600 mJy) radio flares in October 2005. The spectra of these flares in maximum were optically thick at ν<2.3 GHz and optically thin at ν≥2.3 GHz. During radio flares the spectra of the X-ray spikes became definitely softer than those of a quiescent radio state. Thus these data indicated transitions from very high/hard states to high/soft ones during which massive ejections are probably happened, and the ejections are detected as the radio flares.

The degree to which outer dark matter halos of spiral galaxies rotate with the disk is sensitive to their accretion history and may be probed with associated satellite galaxies. We use the Steward Observatory Bok telescope to measure the sense of rotation of nearby isolated spirals and combine these data with those of their associated satellites (drawn from SDSS) to directly test predictions from numerical simulations. We aim to constrain models of galaxy formation by measuring the projected component of the halo angular momentum that is aligned with that of spiral galaxy disks, Jz. We find the mean bulk rotation of the ensemble satellite system to be co-rotating with the disk with a velocity of 22 ± 13 km/s, in general agreement with previous observational studies and suggesting that galaxy disks could be formed by halo baryons collapsing by a factor of ≈10. We also find a prograde satellite fraction of 51% and Jz, of the satellite system to be positively correlated with the disk, albeit at low significance (2655 ± 2232 kpc km/s).

Virtual Observatory (VO) is an emerging astronomical infrastructure for sharing the astronomical data set in the world. National Astronomical Observatory of Japan (NAOJ) started its VO project (Japanese Virtual Observatory – JVO) in 2002, and developed JVO portal prototypes. We have carried out several science use cases, such as cosmic string searches and QSO environment studies, by using the prototype system to examine the functionality of the system. This paper describes a preliminary result of the latter science use case.

We perform Monte Carlo calculation to determine the radiation spectra from magnetized, low angular momentum accretion flow. Magneto-hydrodynamical simulation (with angular momentum parameter lambda of about 2 Rg c) was performed by Proga & Begelman 2003. Because simulation neglect radiative cooling, we compute electron temperature separately, including ohmic heating, parametrized with small δ coefficient, ion-electron coupling, radiative cooling and advection. Radiation spectra are obtained taking into account, thermal synchrotron and bremsstrahlung radiation, self absorption and Comptonization processes.

We show which parts of the flow are responsible for characteristic spectral features and how the spectrum changes in different accretion states. We compare our results with Galactic Center black hole radiation spectra, where low angular momentum accretion is suggested. Accretion state changes seems to be a promising model for the flaring behavior of Galactic Center black hole. We also show the radiation intensity maps in radio and X-rays energy band for viewing angle i = 90°.

We have analyzed the level and type of nuclear activity in 720 galaxies belonging to a large complete sample of Compact Groups (UZC-CGs). We have found that most (67%) galaxies show emission lines and that the most frequent (43%) nuclear activity is AGN. AGNs are mainly hosted in bright early type galaxies and early spirals, at variance with HII which reside in late spirals of lower luminosity. CGs which have a dominant content of AGNs and TOs have larger σv and lower Rp than CGs dominated by HII.

The total masses of binaries are calculated on the basis of their orbital elements from the Sixth Catalog of Orbits of Visual Binary Stars. They are then compared with the values resulted from the mass-luminosity relation for the Main Sequence where as the input data are used: trigonometric parallax, total apparent magnitude of the pair (source Hipparcos Catalogue) and magnitude difference (source Hipparcos Catalogue and Photometric Magnitude Difference Catalog). It seems that for the pairs indicated as having qualitative orbital elements the agreement between the total-mass values obtained in these two ways is satisfactory.

Accretion at rates exceeding the Eddington limit is common in close binaries. I summarize the arguments leading to the conclusion that such stellar–mass systems appear as ultraluminous X-ray sources when viewed close the the inner accretion disc axis, and like SS433 when viewed from other angles.

I show that AGN are unlikely to achieve electron–scattering Eddington ratios as high as ULXs, so there are few ULX analogues among quasars. However hyperaccretion of dusty matter is common among AGN. The resulting outflow naturally has a toroidal geometry, and may well be the origin of the dusty torus invoked in unified AGN schemes.

As young stars form, they interact with their environment in many ways. We study the radiative interaction of a young star with its surrounding cluster environment. The change in gas temperature caused by a forming star can trigger the formation or inhibit the growth of nearby star forming cores. We calculate the gas temperature around a single star by balancing the dust-gas collisional heating, molecular cooling, and cosmic ray heating rates for a grid of models with various luminosities and density distributions. In the future, this work can be used in large-scale simulations of clustered star formation to study the effect of using a gas temperature which depends not only on density, but also on radiative environment.

Studying the chemical compositions and color-magnitude diagrams of globular clusters in the nearby low-mass galaxies is critical to compare properties of these long-living objects situated in galaxies of different type and mass, and to establish the role of dwarf galaxies as building blocks of massive early-type and spiral galaxies. We present measurements of ages, metallicities and [α/Fe] ratios for 16 globular clusters (GC) in NGC147, NGC185, and NGC205 and for the central regions of the diffuse galaxy light in NGC185, and NGC205, based on measurements of absorption line indices as defined by the Lick standard system in spectra obtained with the SCORPIO multi-slit spectrograph at the 6-m telescope of the Russian Academy of Sciences. We include in our analysis high-quality HST/WFPC2 photometry of individual stars in the GGs to investigate the influence of their horizontal branch (HB) morphology on the spectroscopic analysis. The HB morphologies for our sample GCs follow the same behavior with metallicity as younger halo Galactic globular clusters. We show that it is unlikely that they bias our spectroscopic age estimates based on Balmer absorption-line indices. Almost all our sample GCs appear to be old (T > 8 Gyr) and metal-poor ([Z/H]<−1.1). We find that most of the GCs in the studied galaxies are weakly or not α-enhanced, in contrast to the population of GCs in nearby early-type galaxies, and to the halo population of GCs in M31 and Milky Way.

With relatively low funds, the Departamento de Astronomía de la Universidad de Guanajuato, in Mexico, has successfully carried out the modernization of a rustic astronomical observatory. At this site, once it is fully refurbished, it is planned to hold not only public observations, but also to have an ambitious programme of science popularization devoted to scholars.