The Sun's magnetic field is produced throughout the solar interior; it emerges and is dispersed by surface and subsurface flows, and then expands above the surface to dominate the structure of the corona. To resolve the effects of the magnetic field it is necessary to image the interior and measure its rotation and flow systems; track the responses of the magnetic fields to flows in the surface; and to follow the evolution of structures in the corona. Because the Sun is dynamic both high spatial and temporal resolution are essential. Because the Sun's magnetic field effects encompass the entire spherical exterior, the entire surface and outer atmosphere must be mapped. And because the magnetic field is cyclic high-resolution observations must be maintained over multiple cycles.

We derive quantitative star formation histories (SFH) of the two dwarf spheroidal (KK 197 and ESO 269-066) and one dwarf irregular (ESO 381-018) galaxies in the nearby Centaurus A group. The data are part of our sample of about 50 nearby dwarf galaxies observed with the Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS) at the Hubble Space Telescope (prog. 9771 & 10235, PI I.Karachentsev). Deep color-magnitude diagram (CMD) of KK 197 is shown in Fig.1.

We present preliminary analysis of an imaging survey of non-barred ringed galaxies (NBRGs). We have taken broadband, narrow band, and spectroscopic data for a sample of NBRGs selected from the Third Reference Catalogue of Bright Galaxies and the Catalogue of Southern Ringed Galaxies. These galaxies are the subject of a survey in order to (1) better understand the mode of ring formation in the absence of a strong bar and (2) delineate the general photometric and spectroscopic properties of this group as a whole.

We report new constraints on the local escape speed of our Galaxy. Our analysis is based on a sample of high velocity stars from the RAVE survey and two previously published datasets (the Geneva-Copenhagen survey and the Beers et al. catalogue of metal-poor stars). We use cosmological simulations of disk galaxy formation to motivate our assumptions on the shape of the velocity distribution, allowing for a significantly more precise measurement of the escape velocity compared to previous studies. We find that the escape velocity lies within the range 492 km s−1 < vesc <594 kms (90% confidence), with a median likelihood of 536 kms. The fact that v2esc is significantly greater than 2v2circ implies that there must be a significant amount of mass exterior to the Solar circle, i.e. this convincingly demonstrates the presence of a dark halo in the Galaxy. For a simple isothermal halo, one can calculate that the minimum radial extent is ~54 kpc. We use our constraints on vesc to determine the mass of the Milky Way halo for three halo profiles. For example, an adiabatically contracted NFW halo model results in a virial mass of 1.31+0.97−0.49 × 1012M⊙ and virial radius of 297+60−44 kpc (90% confidence). For this model the circular velocity at the virial radius is 141+27−19kms. Although our halo masses are model dependent, we find that they are in good agreement with each other.

We studied ~ 2 deg2 region in the Shapley Supercluster (SSC) core at z~0.05 in two bands (B and R). By studying the galaxy luminosity function (LF) and the colour distribution of galaxies we find that processes directly related to the supercluster environment are responsible for transforming faint galaxies, rather than galaxy merging.

Several (sub)millimeter-wave studies of nearby star-forming regions have revealed self-gravitating prestellar condensations that seem to be the direct progenitors of individual stars and whose mass distribution resembles the IMF. In a number of cases, small internal and relative motions have been measured for these condensations, indicating they are much less turbulent than their parent cloud and do not have time to interact before evolving into protostars and pre-main sequence stars. These findings suggest that the IMF is at least partly determined by pre-collapse cloud fragmentation and that one of the keys to understanding the origin of stellar masses lies in the physical mechanisms responsible for the formation and decoupling of prestellar cores within molecular clouds.

In a synthesis article (see ref. below), the double star expert Paul COUTEAU put the work of French pioneers of double stars observation in the perspective of the double star work carried in the world. After Antoine Yvon VILLARCEAU and Camille FLAMMARION, one prominent pioneer of double stars was Robert JONCKHEERE (1888–1974), an amateur before circumstances prompted him to become a professional astronomer, who devoted his life to double stars. Kenneth Glyn Jones wrote a biography and Charles Fehrenbach his obituary. Jean-Claude Thorel studied his life and career in double star observations (see Section 10 below). In the 1930s, another precursor of the Commission des Étoiles Doubles, Maurice DURUY (1894–1984) invented the micrometer with a comparison star, and applied the diffraction micrometer invented by Ejnar Hertzsprung to the measure of double stars, which he regularly observed at Nancy with a 275-mm telescope, at Lyon with a 162-mm telescope and in his observatory of Beaume-Mêle with a 40-cm and later a 60-cm telescope at Le Rouret (Alpes–Maritimes). He measured standard pairs of the list of Paul Muller and published his measures in the Journal des Observateurs; these measures requested by Paul Muller aimed at comparisons of between observers. He also collaborated with the Webb Society of Great Britain; Glyn Jones published his astronomical biography. Already in 1924, the pediatrician Paul BAIZE (1901–1995) had started the measurement of double stars as an amateur. He was granted permission to measure them with the 38-cm of the Paris Observatory and made an impressive number of measures during his long “career" (24044). He also made orbit calculations and established a formula for the calculation of dynamic parallaxes in 1946. He wrote articles explaining new observation techniques devoted to double stars in the magazine L'Astronomie and continued his astronomical activity until the beginning of the 1990s. Glyn Jones published an astronomical biography of Paul Baize. In the 1960s, Bernard CLOUET and the late Robert SAGOT (1910–2006) made double star observations for the book which was then in preparation under the title La revue des constellations. Their measures remained unpublished; but publication of the measures made by Robert SAGOT is in preparation. At about the same time, the neurology professor Jacques LE BEAU (1908–1998) made the acquaintance of renowned professional astronomer Paul COUTEAU and learned from him how to measure double stars. Each year, he stayed for two weeks at Nice and conducted his observations with the 50-cm refractor of the Nice Observatory. In 1978, Paul COUTEAU published the first book in French devoted to double stars: L'observation des étoiles doubles visuelles. That book triggered the interest of more amateur astronomers for double stars and indirectly influenced the creation of a group of double star observers which was transformed into the Commission des Étoiles Doubles

Planetary nebulae (PN) are favourite objects in the study of stellar populations both in the Galaxy and in other objects as well, due to their high brightness and the considerable range in their kinematic properties and chemical composition. In this work, we take into account available data samples of PN in Local Group galaxies and compare the derived information from different objects, particularly regarding their chemical composition, space distribution, kinematics, and the PN luminosity function.

Results of the Stardust mission to sample dust from comet Wild 2 are summarized.

We present two-dimensional (2D) gas kinematics and excitation of the inner 300 pc of the Seyfert galaxy ESO428-G14 at a sampling of 14 pc2, from near-infrared spectroscopic observations at R=5900 obtained with the Integral Field Unit of the Gemini Near-Infrared Spectrograph. Blue-shifts of up to 400 km s−1 and velocity dispersions of up to 150 km s−1, are observed in association with the radio jet running from SE to NW along position angle 129°. Both X-rays emitted by the active galactic nucleus and shocks produced by the radio jet can excite the H2 and [Fe ii] emission lines. We use the 2D velocity dispersion maps we estimate upper limits of 90% to the contribution of the radio jet to the excitation of [Fe ii]λ1.257μm, and of 80% to the excitation of H2λ2.121μm in the jet region.

We review the problem of particle acceleration in relativistic shocks or shear flows. We propose a converter mechanism, which operates via continuous conversion of accelerated particles from charged into neutral state and back, and show that it is capable of producing the highest energy cosmic rays.

Both the X-shaped radio galaxies and double-double radio galaxies (DDRGs) are suggested in the literature to be due to the binary-accretion disk interaction or to the coalescence of SMBBHs. These models suggest some relationship between the two types of radio sources. In this paper, we collected data from literatures for two samples of X-shaped and double-double radio galaxies together with a control sample of FRII radio galaxies and statistically investigate their properties.

We find that the wings of X-shaped radio galaxies and the outer and inner lobes of DDRGs tend to be perpendicular to the major axis of the host galaxy (or dust structures), while the active lobes orient randomly. Both X-shaped and double-double radio galaxies are low luminous FRII or FRI/FRII transitional radio sources with the similar dimensionless accretion rate ṁ ∼ 0.01, which is about the transitional accretion rate given in the literature.

All the statistic results can be reconciled if there is an evolutionary relationship between X-shaped and double-double radio galaxies, in the sense that X-shaped radio galaxies may be due to the interaction of active SMBBHs and accretion disk and DDRGs due to the removal of inner disk region and the coalescence of SMBBHs.

We numerically model winds driven by super star clusters (SSC) using the hydrodynamic code ZEUS with the new radiative cooling procedure. The importance of cooling on the wind dynamics depends on the properties of the central cluster: the energy and mass deposition rates Lsc and Ṁsc, and the cluster radius Rsc. Low mass clusters behave adiabatically, and their winds are well described by the solution of Chevalier & Clegg (1985). However, for larger Lsc and Ṁsc and/or smaller Rsc, cooling becomes important, and the wind enters the radiative regime in which the wind temperature quickly drops to 104 K at a small distance away from the cluster (Silich et al., 2004). There is no stationary wind solution for very energetic and compact clusters. This is expressed by the line of the critical luminosity Lcrit shown by the left panel as a function of Rsc.

In the case of SSC above the threshold line, the stagnation point Rst appears inside the cluster. It splits the cluster volume into two parts: the outer one with r > Rst where the wind velocity is always positive, and the inner one r < Rst where it has a complicated time-dependent profile. The mass inserted into the outer region leaves the cluster in a form of quasi-stationary wind, while most of the mass from the inner region either accumulates there or passes the inner boundary and eventually feeds further star formation. The middle figure shows that the stagnation point Rst asymptotically approaches the cluster radius Rsc with the increasing Lsc.

The right figure summarises several of our calculations for a cluster with an Rsc = 10 pc. It shows the amount of the mass Ṁout outflowing from the cluster depending on Lsc. It can be seen that Ṁout grows with Lsc following the power-law fit of the simulations Ṁout ≈ Lsc0.54. However, the fraction of the outflowing mass to the total mass deposited by the cluster Ṁsc decreases with Lsc from 100% for Lsc = Lcrit to several percent for Lsc = 5 × 1044 erg s−1.

The spatial power spectrum of the HI 21 cm intensity in the Small Magellanic Cloud (Stanimirovic et al. 1999) is a power law over scales as large as those of the SMC itself. It was interpreted as due to turbulence by Goldman (2000) and by Stanimirovic & Lazarian (2001). The question is whether the power spectrum is indeed the result of a dynamical turbulence or is merely the result of a structured static density. In the turbulence interpretation of Goldman (2000) the turbulence was generated by the tidal effects of the last close passage of the LMC about 0.2 Gyr ago. The turbulence time-scale was estimated by Goldman to be 0.4 Gyr, so the turbulence has not decayed yet. Staveley-Smith et al. (1997) observed in the SMC about five hundreds of HI super shells. Their age is more than an order of magnitude smaller than the turbulence age. Therefore, if the turbulence explanation holds, their observed radial velocities should reflect the turbulence in the gas in which they formed. In the present work we analyze the observed radial velocities of the super shells. We find that the velocities indeed manifest the statistical spatial correlations expected from turbulence. The turbulence spectrum is consistent with that obtained by Goldman (2000).

We investigate the possibility of a mass transfer enhancement during outburst in dwarf novae. We present here the first two-dimensional hydrodynamic simulations of the surface flows in the secondary, driven by the strong inhomogenous heating of the atmosphere during an outburst. We also discuss the possibility that the direct heating of the L 1 point by the disc rim contributes to the mass transfer enhancement.

Detailed modelling of individual protostellar condensations is important to test the various theories. Here we present comparisons between strongly induced collapse models with one young class-0 object, IRAS4A, in the Perseus cloud and one prestellar cloud observed in the Coalsack molecular cloud.

Observations of the most distant (z≃6) QSOs in the centimetre and millimetre regime currently serve as the only direct probe of the host galaxies of these extreme systems in the Epoch of Re-ionization. Such observations reveal that about 1'3 of the hosts contain massive reservoirs of dust (>108M⊙) and molecular gas (>1010M⊙) – the fuel for galaxy formation, and also indicate coeval starbursts at a rate >103M⊙yr−1 adequate to form a large elliptical galaxy in a dynamical timescale. These data imply that a highly metal enriched, molecular ISM, can be generated in galaxies within 870 Myr of the Big Bang. High-resolution imaging of the gas also provide an estimate of the host galaxy dynamical mass. However, current observations are restricted to rare, hyper-luminous IR galaxies. I will close by considering the prospects of observing the gas, dust, and star formation in the first ‘normal’ galaxies (e.g., the Ly-α galaxies) into cosmic reionization (z>6), using ALMA and the EVLA.

We discuss education in astrometry.

We discuss some benefits and pitfalls when combining conceptually different types of closure approximations into complete Reynolds stress models of stellar convection.

Welcome to Prague. Welcome to this Congress Centre built in a close neighbourhood of the ancient seat of the first Czech dukes (Fig. 1). Its name Vyšehrad means the Upper Town. According to the oldest Czech chronicles, it was here where the legendary princess Libuše ordered her people to found the city of Prague and where she envisaged its glory touching the stars (Fig. 2). It was also here where the canon of Vyšehrad recorded in the first half of the 12th century into his chronicle some observed astronomical and meteorological phenomena.