The purpose of this paper is to determine the origin of the photometric variations of 48 Lib using the data from the STEREO and to investigate their relations with the disk structure. The photometric data comprise a period of five years from 2007 to 2011. The spectroscopic data covering the same time interval are provided from the BeSS database. The Hα lines are examined by measuring their equivalent widths and line intensities. Hα variations are then compared with those displayed by the photometric data. From the photometry, high-precision results (10−5 c d−1 in frequency and 10−4 mag in amplitude) are obtained. It is detected that the star has shown 24 frequencies, mainly clustered around the peaks at 2.48896(1) and 5.08150(2) c d−1. The analysis reveals that the photometric frequencies are not due to pulsation, but caused by the rotation, and that the remaining frequencies arise from transient activities on or just above the photosphere. Also, it is shown that the spectroscopic data exhibit a significant Hα variability, and that the Hα line variation depends on the variation of frequency and amplitude, something which has been often proposed in the literature but has never before been demonstrated observationally. This proves that the disk structure and photometric variations are related.

We describe the motivation and design details of the ‘Phase II’ upgrade of the Murchison Widefield Array radio telescope. The expansion doubles to 256 the number of antenna tiles deployed in the array. The new antenna tiles enhance the capabilities of the Murchison Widefield Array in several key science areas. Seventy-two of the new tiles are deployed in a regular configuration near the existing array core. These new tiles enhance the surface brightness sensitivity of the array and will improve the ability of the Murchison Widefield Array to estimate the slope of the Epoch of Reionisation power spectrum by a factor of ∼3.5. The remaining 56 tiles are deployed on long baselines, doubling the maximum baseline of the array and improving the array u, v coverage. The improved imaging capabilities will provide an order of magnitude improvement in the noise floor of Murchison Widefield Array continuum images. The upgrade retains all of the features that have underpinned the Murchison Widefield Array’s success (large field of view, snapshot image quality, and pointing agility) and boosts the scientific potential with enhanced imaging capabilities and by enabling new calibration strategies.

Type Ic supernovae can be classified as normal supernovae Ic, type Ic super-luminous supernovae, X-ray flash-connected supernovae, broad-line supernovae Ic, and gamma-ray burst-connected supernovae. Here we suggest an inner connection for all kinds of supernovae Ic which is based on whether a pair of jets are successfully launched: a normal supernovae Ic is a normal core collapsar without jets launched; a gamma-ray burst-associated supernovae Ic is a core collapsar with relativistic jets launched and successfully breaking out the envelope of the progenitor; an X-ray flash-associated supernovae Ic is a core collapsar with jets launched but can only develop a relativistic shock breakout; a broad-line supernovae Ic is an off-axis gamma-ray burst or an X-ray flash-associated supernova; and a type Ic super-luminous supernovae is close to the X-ray flash-connected supernovae Ic, but the shock breakout is not relativistic and most of the jet energy is deposited into the supernova component. Based on the luminosity-distance diagram, we derived the luminosity function of all different types of supernovae Ic as a whole. We also show that the normal supernovae Ic and gamma-ray burst-connected supernovae Ic have similar accumulative distributions.

We present Phantom, a fast, parallel, modular, and low-memory smoothed particle hydrodynamics and magnetohydrodynamics code developed over the last decade for astrophysical applications in three dimensions. The code has been developed with a focus on stellar, galactic, planetary, and high energy astrophysics, and has already been used widely for studies of accretion discs and turbulence, from the birth of planets to how black holes accrete. Here we describe and test the core algorithms as well as modules for magnetohydrodynamics, self-gravity, sink particles, dust–gas mixtures, H2 chemistry, physical viscosity, external forces including numerous galactic potentials, Lense–Thirring precession, Poynting–Robertson drag, and stochastic turbulent driving. Phantom is hereby made publicly available.

Measurements in the infrared wavelength domain allow direct assessment of the physical state and energy balance of cool matter in space, enabling the detailed study of the processes that govern the formation and evolution of stars and planetary systems in galaxies over cosmic time. Previous infrared missions revealed a great deal about the obscured Universe, but were hampered by limited sensitivity.

SPICA takes the next step in infrared observational capability by combining a large 2.5-meter diameter telescope, cooled to below 8 K, with instruments employing ultra-sensitive detectors. A combination of passive cooling and mechanical coolers will be used to cool both the telescope and the instruments. With mechanical coolers the mission lifetime is not limited by the supply of cryogen. With the combination of low telescope background and instruments with state-of-the-art detectors SPICA provides a huge advance on the capabilities of previous missions.

SPICA instruments offer spectral resolving power ranging from R ~50 through 11 000 in the 17–230 μm domain and R ~28.000 spectroscopy between 12 and 18 μm. SPICA will provide efficient 30–37 μm broad band mapping, and small field spectroscopic and polarimetric imaging at 100, 200 and 350 μm. SPICA will provide infrared spectroscopy with an unprecedented sensitivity of ~5 × 10−20 W m−2 (5σ/1 h)—over two orders of magnitude improvement over what earlier missions. This exceptional performance leap, will open entirely new domains in infrared astronomy; galaxy evolution and metal production over cosmic time, dust formation and evolution from very early epochs onwards, the formation history of planetary systems.

We present observations of 50 deg2 of the Mopra carbon monoxide (CO) survey of the Southern Galactic Plane, covering Galactic longitudes l = 300–350° and latitudes |b| ⩽ 0.5°. These data have been taken at 0.6 arcmin spatial resolution and 0.1 km s−1spectral resolution, providing an unprecedented view of the molecular clouds and gas of the Southern Galactic Plane in the 109–115 GHz J = 1–0 transitions of 12CO, 13CO, C18O, and C17O.

We present a series of velocity-integrated maps, spectra, and position-velocity plots that illustrate Galactic arm structures and trace masses on the order of ~106 M⊙ deg−2, and include a preliminary catalogue of C18O clumps located between l = 330–340°. Together with the information about the noise statistics of the survey, these data can be retrieved from the Mopra CO website and the PASA data store.

Quasars with flat radio spectra and one-sided, arc-second scale, ≈ 100 mJy GHz radio jets are found to have similar scale X-ray jets in about 60% of such objects, even in short 5 to 10 ks Chandra observations. Jets emit in the GHz band via synchrotron radiation, as known from polarization measurements. The X-ray emission is explained most simply, i.e. with the fewest additional parameters, as inverse Compton (iC) scattering of cosmic microwave background (cmb) photons by the relativistic electrons in the jet. With physics based assumptions, one can estimate enthalpy fluxes upwards of 1046 erg s−1, sufficient to reverse cooling flows in clusters of galaxies, and play a significant role in the feedback process which correlates the masses of black holes and their host galaxy bulges. On a quasar-by-quasar basis, we can show that the total energy to power these jets can be supplied by the rotational energy of black holes with spin parameters as low as a = 0.3. For a few bright jets at redshifts less than 1, the Fermi gamma ray observatory shows upper limits at 10 Gev which fall below the fluxes predicted by the iC/cmb mechanism, proving the existence of multiple relativistic particle populations. At large redshifts, the cmb energy density is enhanced by a factor (1+z)4, so that iC/cmb must be the dominant mechanism for relativistic jets unless their rest frame magnetic field strength is hundreds of micro-Gauss.