We searched the first Gaia data release for Galactic central stars of planetary nebulae (CSPNe) for parallaxes in order to determine the distances of the hosting PNe. For the small sample of PNe for which a comparison is available, we show that distances derived from Gaia parallaxes agree, within the uncertainties, with the individual PN distances derived by other reliable methods. While Gaia parallaxes available for Galactic CSPNe are still few, and with high uncertainties, we studied the possibility of building a PN distance scale by using the Gaia distances as calibrators. We found that a scale built on the relation between the linear nebular radius and its surface brightness has promising future applications.

The Wide Field Infrared Survey Telescope (WFIRST) is a 2.4 m telescope with a large field of view ( ~ 0.3 deg2) and fine angular resolution (0.11”). WFIRST’s Wide Field Instrument (WFI) will obtain images in the Z, Y, J, H, F184, W149 (wide) filter bands, and grism spectra of the same large field of view. The data volume of the WFIRST Science Archive is expected to reach a few Petabytes. We describe plans to enable users to find the data of interest and, if needed, to analyze the data in situ using sophisticated software tools provided by the archive. As preparation, we are building a mini-archive that will help us to define realistic science requirements and to design the full WFIRST Science Archive.

The density and temperature profiles in the solar corona are complex to describe, the observational diagnostics is not easy. Here we present a physics-based model to reconstruct the evolution of the electron density and temperature in the solar corona based on the configuration of the magnetic field imprinted on the solar surface. The structure of the coronal magnetic field is estimated from Potential Field Source Surface (PFSS) based on magnetic field from both observational synoptic charts and a magnetic flux transport model. We use an emission model based on the ionization equilibrium and coronal abundances from CHIANTI atomic database 8.0. The preliminary results are discussed in details.

On evolutionary timescales, the atmospheres of planets evolve due to interactions with the planet's surface and with the planet's host star. Stellar X-ray and EUV (=’XUV’) radiation is absorbed high in the atmosphere, driving photochemistry, heating the gas, and causing atmospheric expansion and mass loss. Atmospheres can interact strongly with the stellar winds, leading to additional mass loss. In this review, I summarise some of the ways in which stellar output can influence the atmospheres of planets. I will discuss the importance of simultaneously understanding the evolution of the star's output and the time dependent properties of the planet's atmosphere.

This paper discusses an autoregressive model for the analysis of irregularly observed time series. The properties of this model are studied and a maximum likelihood estimation procedure is proposed. The finite sample performance of this estimator is assessed by Monte Carlo simulations, showing accurate estimators. We implement this model to the residuals after fitting an harmonic model to light-curves from periodic variable stars from the Optical Gravitational Lensing Experiment (OGLE) and Hipparcos surveys, showing that the model can identify time dependency structure that remains in the residuals when, for example, the period of the light-curves was not properly estimated.

Planetary nebulae retain the signature of the nucleosynthesis and mixing events that occurred during the previous AGB phase. Observational signatures complement observations of AGB and post-AGB stars and their binary companions. The abundances of the elements heavier than iron such as Kr and Xe in planetary nebulae can be used to complement abundances of Sr/Y/Zr and Ba/La/Ce in AGB stars, respectively, to determine the operation of the slow neutron-capture process (the s process) in AGB stars. Additionally, observations of the Rb abundance in Type I planetary nebulae may allow us to infer the initial mass of the central star. Several noble gas components present in meteoritic stardust silicon carbide (SiC) grains are associated with implantation into the dust grains in the high-energy environment connected to the fast winds from the central stars during the planetary nebulae phase.

We observed the Planetary Nebula NGC 6720 with the Gemini Telescope and the Gemini Multi-Object Spectrographs. We obtained spatial maps of 36 emission-lines in the wavelength range between 3600 Å and 9400 Å. We derived maps of c(Hβ), electronic densities, electronic temperatures, ionic and elemental abundances, and Ionization Correction Factors (ICFs) in the source and investigated the mass-loss history of the progenitor. The elemental abundance results indicate the need for ICFs based on three-dimensional photoionization models.

The Total Solar Irradiance (TSI), which is the total radiation arriving at Earth's atmosphere from the Sun, is one of the most important forcing of the Earths climate. Measurements of the TSI have been made employing instruments on board several space-based platforms during the last four solar cycles. However, combining these measurements is still challenging due to the degradation of the sensor elements and the long-term stability of the electronics. Here we describe the preliminary efforts to design an absolute radiometer based on the principle of electrical substitution that is under development at Brazilian's National Institute for Space Research (INPE).

The Hubble Catalog of Variables (HCV) is a 3 year ESA funded project that aims to develop a set of algorithms to identify variables among the sources included in the Hubble Source Catalog (HSC) and produce the HCV. We will process all HSC sources with more than a predefined number of measurements in a single filter/instrument combination and compute a range of lightcurve features to determine the variability status of each source. At the end of the project, the first release of the Hubble Catalog of Variables will be made available at the Mikulski Archive for Space Telescopes (MAST) and the ESA Science Archives. The variability detection pipeline will be implemented at the Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) so that updated versions of the HCV may be created following the future releases of the HSC.

We have analyzed the velocity fields in the halos of thirty-three early-type galaxies (ETGs) with planetary nebulae (PNs) as tracers, reaching radii of up to ~8R e . The sample comprises twenty-five galaxies from the Planetary Nebulae Spectrograph (PN.S) ETG survey and eight further galaxies with extended PN velocity data from the literature and new Counter-Dispersed imaging observations. The catalogues from these thirty-three ETGs provide astrometric positions and heliocentric line-of-sight velocities for a total of 8354 extragalactic PNs. All these catalogues are treated homogeneously for the identification of kinematic outliers and the separation between main galaxy/satellites in each galaxy field-of-view. We discuss the rotation velocities, velocity dispersion profiles and radial trends of the specific angular momentum, separating between slow rotators and fast rotators. We compare the properties of the V/σ(R) and σ(R) profiles with predictions of 2D velocity fields from hydro-dynamical cosmological simulations. We briefly mention the possible origin of the quasi-Keplerian steeply decreasing profile galaxies which encompasses about one fourth of the current sample.

Recently, the study of the influence of solar activity on the Earth's climate received strong attention, mainly due to the possibility, proposed by several authors, that global warming is not anthropogenic, but is due to an increase in solar activity. Although this possibility has been ruled out, there are strong evidences that solar variability has an influence on Earth's climate, in regional scales.

Here we review some of these evidences, focusing in a particular aspect of climate: atmospheric moisture and related quantities like precipitation. In particular, we studied the influence of activity on South American precipitations during centuries. First, we analyzed the stream flow of the Paraná and other rivers of the region, and found a very strong correlation with Sunspot Number in decadal time scales. We found a similar correlation between Sunspot Number and tree-ring chronologies, which allows us to extend our study to cover the last two centuries.

Infrared spectra from the Spitzer Space Telescope trace the evolution of carbon-rich dust from the asymptotic giant branch (AGB) to young planetary nebulae (PNe). On the AGB, amorphous carbon dominates the dust, but SiC and MgS also appear. In more evolved systems with warmer central stars, the spectra reveal the unidentified 21 μm feature, features from aliphatic hydrocarbons, and spectra from polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), often with shifted feature positions indicative of the presence of aliphatics. More evolved systems with hot central stars show more typical PAH spectra, along with fullerenes and/or an emission feature known as the big-11 feature at ~11 μm. This features arises from a combination of SiC and PAHs, and it is usually accompanied by a shoulder at 18 μm, which while unidentified might be from cool silicate grains. The strong emission from MgS and SiC in young PNe probably arises from coatings on carbonaceous grains.

We present LAMOST observations and radial velocity measurements of about 1500 planetary nebulae (PNe) in M31 and M33. Most of the PNe are previously known, but 36 of them are newly discovered in the outskirts of M31, and the furthest one has a projected distance larger than 50 kpc away from the galaxy center. Eighteen objects in the area of M33 are probably newly discovered PNe, and quite a few of them are associated with previously known clusters. For all the 1500 PNe, homogeneous radial velocities are measured from the LAMOST spectra, with a typical uncertainty of a few km s−1.

The decomposition of the 21 cm rotation curve of galaxies into contribution from the disk and dark halo depends on the adopted mass to light ratio (M/L) of the disk. Given the vertical velocity dispersion (σz ) of stars in the disk and its scale height (h z ), the disk surface density and hence the M/L can be estimated. Earlier works have used this technique to conclude that galaxy disks are submaximal. Here we address an important conceptual problem: star-forming spirals have an old (kinematically hot) disk population and a young cold disk population. Both of these populations contribute to the integrated light spectra from which σz is measured. The measured scale height h z is for the old disk population. In the Jeans equation, σz and h z must pertain to the same population. We have developed techniques to extract the velocity dispersion of the old disk from integrated light spectra and from samples of planetary nebulae. We present the analysis of the disk kinematics of the galaxy NGC 628 using IFU data in the inner regions and planetary nebulae as tracers in the outer regions of the disk. We demonstrate that using the scale height of the old thin disk with the vertical velocity dispersion of the same population, traced by PNe, results in a maximal disk for NGC 628. Our analysis concludes that previous studies underestimate the disk surface mass density by ~ 2, sufficient to make a maximal disk for NGC 628 appear like a submaximal disk.

The FP-7 (Framework Programme 7 of the European Union) PERICLES project addresses the life-cycle of large and complex data sets to cater for the evolution of context of data sets and user communities, including groups unanticipated when the data was created. Semantics of data sets are thus also expected to evolve and the project includes elements which could address the reuse of data sets at periods where the data providers and even their institutions are not available any more. This paper presents the PERICLES science case with the example of the SOLAR (SOLAR monitoring observatory) payload on International Space Station-Columbus.

After its first implementation in 2003 the Astro-WISE technology has been rolled out in several European countries and is used for the production of the KiDS survey data. In the multi-disciplinary Target initiative this technology, nicknamed WISE technology, has been further applied to a large number of projects. Here, we highlight the data handling of other astronomical applications, such as VLT-MUSE and LOFAR, together with some non-astronomical applications such as the medical projects Lifelines and GLIMPS; the MONK handwritten text recognition system; and business applications, by amongst others, the Target Holding.

We describe some of the most important lessons learned and describe the application of the data-centric WISE type of approach to the Science Ground Segment of the Euclid satellite.

In order to understand how galaxies form and evolve, the measurement of the parameters related to their morphologies and also to the way they interact is one of the most relevant requirements. Due to the huge amount of data that is generated by surveys, the morphological and interaction analysis of galaxies can no longer rely on visual inspection. For dealing with such issue, new approaches based on machine learning techniques have been proposed in the last years with the aim of automating the classification process. We tested Deep Learning using images of galaxies obtained from CANDELS to study the accuracy achieved by this tool considering two different frameworks. In the first, galaxies were classified in terms of their shapes considering five morphological categories, while in the second, the way in which galaxies interact was employed for defining other five categories. The results achieved in both cases are compared and discussed.