We have collected the parameter of 38 neutron stars (NSs) in binary systems with spin periods and measured masses. By adopting the Boot-strap method, we reproduced the procedure of mass calculated for each system separately, to determine the truly mass distribution of the NS that obtained from observation. We also applied the Monte-Carlo simulation and introduce the characteristic spin period 20 ms, in order to distinguish between millisecond pulsars (MSPs) and less recycled pulsars. The mass distributions of MSPs and the less recycled pulsars could be fitted by a Gaussian function as 1.45±0.42 M⊙ and 1.31±0.17 M⊙ (with 1σ) respectively. As such, the MSP masses are heavier than those in less recycled systems by factor of ~ 0.13M⊙, since the accretion effect during the recycling process.

We consider rotating flows of an electrically conducting, viscous and resistive fluid in an external magnetic field with arbitrary combinations of axial and azimuthal components. Within the short-wavelength approximation, the local stability of the flow is studied with respect to perturbations of arbitrary azimuthal wavenumbers. In the limit of vanishing magnetic Prandtl number (Pm) we find that the maximum critical Rossby number (Ro) for the occurrence of the magnetorotational instability (MRI) is universally governed by the Liu limit ${\rm Ro}_{Liu}=2-2\sqrt{2}\approx -0.828$ which is below the value for Keplerian rotation RoKepler = −0.75.

The Hubble constant can be determined from the time delay of gravitationally lensed systems. We adopt Te Ve S as the relativistic version of Modified Newtonian Dynamics to study gravitational lensing phenomena and evaluate the Hubble constant from the derived time-delay formula. We test our method on observed quasar lensing published in the literature. Three candidates are suitable for our study, HE 2149-2745, FBQ J0951+2635, and SBS 0909+532.

With AKARI, we have performed a systematic study of interstellar dust grains in various environments of galaxies. In many cases, the IR emission of dust is an important tool to trace star-forming activities in galaxies. However it is much more than just star-formation tracers. AKARI has revealed the detailed properties of dust grains in regions not relevant to star formation as well, some of which are found not to follow our old empirical knowledge. Because of its unique capabilities, such as near- and far-IR spectroscopy, and all-sky coverage, AKARI has provided new knowledge on the processing of carbonaceous grains including polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons. We present the latest results obtained from our AKARI observations of the ISM in our Galaxy and nearby galaxies.

An overview is given about recent developments and results of comprehensive simulations of magneto-convective processes in the near-surface layers and photosphere of the Sun. Simulations now cover a wide range of phenomena, from whole active regions, over individual sunspots and pores, magnetic flux concentrations and vortices in intergranular lanes, down to the intricate mixed-polarity structure of the magnetic field generated by small-scale dynamo action. The simulations in concert with high-resolution observations have provided breakthroughs in our understanding of the structure and dynamics of the magnetic fields in the solar photosphere.

We study the magnetic field structure and evolution for 26 X-ray brightening events in coronal holes and quiet Sun regions, including bright points and jets. We found that all brightening events are associated with bipolar regions and caused by magnetic flux emergence followed by cancellation. The emission fluctuations seen in the X-ray bright points are associated with reoccurring magnetic cancellation in the footpoints. An X-ray jet presents similar magnetic behaviour in the footpoints but its magnetic flux cancellation rate is much higher than in the bright point. Comparing coronal holes and the quiet Sun, we do not find differences in their corresponding magnetic field behavior.

I will provide an overview of recent improvements in our models for vibrating neutron stars, discussing the role of composition, heat, crust elasticity and superfluidity. I will explain how the results may impact on observations, in particular related to magnetar QPOs and future gravitational-wave searches.

Effects of galaxy environment on its cold gas content are studied in detail using different date sets and statistics. These include measuring the clustering of galaxies as a function of their Hi mass fraction, quantifying the depletion of Hi gas content of cluster galaxies as a function of cluster-centric radius, and comparing the dependence of environmental density on galaxy star formation rate with the dependence on Hi gas mass fraction. Results from these studies are all consistent with a picture in which ram-pressure stripping may play an important role in removing atomic gas from the outer disks of low mass satellite galaxies.

SCAR, the Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research, is, like the IAU, a committee of ICSU, the International Council for Science. For over 30 years, SCAR has provided scientific advice to the Antarctic Treaty System and made numerous recommendations on a variety of matters. In 2010, Astronomy and Astrophysics from Antarctica was recognized as one of SCAR's five Scientific Research Programs. Broadly stated, the objectives of Astronomy & Astrophysics from Antarctica are to coordinate astronomical activities in Antarctica in a way that ensures the best possible outcomes from international investment in Antarctic astronomy, and maximizes the opportunities for productive interaction with other disciplines. There are four Working Groups, dealing with site testing, Arctic astronomy, science goals, and major new facilities. Membership of the Working Groups is open to any professional working in astronomy or a related field.

The luminosity of the tip of the red giant branch (TRGB) provides an excellent measure of galaxy distances and is easily determined in the resolved images of nearby galaxies observed with the Hubble Space Telescope (HST). We use a maximum-likelihood algorithm to locate the TRGB in galaxy colour–magnitude diagrams. The algorithm is optimized by introducing reliable photometric errors and a completeness characterization determined based on artificial-star experiments. The program has been tested extensively using Monte Carlo simulations, artificial galaxies, and a sample of nearby dwarf galaxies observed with the HST's WFPC2 and ACS cameras. Our procedure is shown to be reliable, yield good accuracy, and does not introduce any systematic errors. The methodology is especially useful in cases in which the TRGB approaches the photometric limit and/or the RGB is poorly populated.

There is data abundant to show a positive correlation between a nation's investment in science, engineering and technology and the economic prosperity of that nation. Yet, there remain many countries in the world, particularly in developing countries, where little, if any, serious investment in science, engineering and technology is evident. Even in these countries, policy documents speak positively about the positive correlation between investment in science, engineering and technology and national development and prosperity. Unfortunately these positive policy statements rarely get converted into real investment. When the National Research Foundation was founded in Post-Apartheid South Africa it set out to “. . .contribute to the improvement of the quality of life of all people. . .” and its inspiring vision was to achieve “A prosperous South Africa and African continent steeped in a knowledge culture, free of widespread diseases and poverty, and proud contributors to the well-being of humanity." This organisation, with its altruistic vision, succeeded in convincing the emerging government to invest in and support the construction of the Southern African Large Telescope as one of its flagship projects. This decision was subsequently followed by a high level national decision to leverage South Africa's geographical advantage to host major global astronomy facilities such as the Square Kilometer Array. This presentation highlighted the reasons for such decisions and how we went about motivating government organs that investing in astronomy would contribute to addressing societal challenges by stimulating the science and technology landscape.

The lithium abundance of KIC 11395018 and KIC 10920273 are not compatible with their age, which is deduced by asteroseismology. To explain this phenomenon, we investigate the possible evolutionary status and perform seismological analysis of the three stars KIC 11395018, KIC 10273246 and KIC 10920273. Using the Yale Rotating Stellar Evolution Code (YREC), we constructed a grid of evolutionary tracks with different input physics and rotation rates. In addition to the conventional observed properties, we added two observed constraints: lithium abundance and rotational period. As a result, the lithium abundance of our rotation models agrees well with the observation. Meanwhile, we obtained a set of more accurate stellar fundamental parameters than previous studies.

In this work, we propose the use of Kernel Principal Component Analysis (KPCA) combined with k = 1 nearest neighbor algorithm (1NN) as a framework for supernovae (SNe) photometric classification. It is specially recommended for analysis where the user is interested in high purity in the final SNe Ia sample. Our method provide good purity results in all data sample analyzed, when SNR⩾5. As a consequence, we can state that if a sample as the Supernova Photometric Classification Challenge were available today, we would be able to classify ≈ 15% of the initial data set with purity higher than 90%. This makes our algorithm ideal for a first approach to an unlabeled data set or to be used as a complement in increasing the training sample for other algorithms. Results are sensitive to the information contained in each light curve, as a consequence, higher quality data (low noise) leads to higher successful classification rates.

We review the possible formation and orbital stability of Earth-mass or super Earth-mass planets around either of the stars Alpha Centauri A or B and describe a program at Mt John University Observatory using the Doppler method that aims to detect such planets. From New Zealand, we are able to observe the Alpha Centauri system year-round. This is critical in order to acquire data of sufficient quantity and phase coverage to detect the orbit of a terrestrial-mass planet in the habitable zone. Our observations are being made at high resolution (R = 70,000) and high signal-to-noise with the Hercules vacuum echelle spectrograph attached to the 1-m McLellan telescope by a 25-m long optical fibre and using an iodine cell. We discuss the velocity precision and instrumental stability required for success and outline the progress of the observations so far. At present we are collecting about 10,000 observations of each star, A and B, per year with a typical precision of 2.5 m/s per observation.

We obtained stellar ages and metallicities via spectrum fitting for a sample of 575 bulges with spectra available from the SDSS. Using the whole sample, where galaxy stellar mass distributions for barred and unbarred galaxies are similar, we find that the distribution of bulge ages in barred galaxies shows an excess of populations younger than 4 Gyr, when compared to bulges in unbarred galaxies. KS statistics confirm that the age distributions are different with a significance of 99.94%. If we select sub-samples for which the bulge stellar mass distributions are similar for barred and unbarred galaxies, this excess vanishes for galaxies with low-mass bulges, while for more massive bulges we find a bimodal stellar age distribution for barred galaxies only, corresponding to two normal distributions with mean ages of 10.4 and 4.7 Gyr (see Fig. 1). These results lend strong support to models in which bars trigger star formation activity in the centers of galaxies. We also find twice as much AGN among barred galaxies, as compared to unbarred galaxies, for low-mass bulges. Full results are in Coelho & Gadotti (2011).

We review the history of X-ray sky surveys from the early experiments to the catalogues of 105 sources produced by ROSAT, Chandra and XMM-Newton. At bright fluxes the X-ray sky is shared between stars, accreting binaries and extragalactic sources while deeper surveys are dominated by AGN and clusters of galaxies. The X-ray background, found by the earliest missions, has been largely resolved into discrete sources at soft (0.3-2 keV) energies but at higher energies an important fraction still escapes detection. The possible identification of the missing flux with Compton-thick AGN has been probed in recent years by Swift and Integral.

Variability seen in objects observed at different epochs has proved to be an excellent discriminator for rare classes of objects. The comparison of ROSAT All Sky Survey (RASS) and ROSAT pointed observations identified several Novae and high variability AGN as well as initiating the observational study of Tidal Disruption events. More recently the XMM-Newton slew survey, in conjunction with archival RASS data, has detected further examples of flaring objects which have been followed-up in near-real time at other wavelengths.

The nebular remnant of RS Ophiuchi was modelled using combined HST/ACS imaging and ground-based spectroscopy on day 155 after outburst as a two component bipolar expansion with a low velocity innermost hour-glass over density and a more extended high velocity dumbbell structure. The model was evolved to a much later date, day 455 after outburst, when second epoch HST images were secured. However, due to the lack of simultaneous ground-based spectroscopy the evolved model was much harder to constrain. One suggestion put forward was that the dumbbell structure expanded linearly while the inner hour-glass showed signs of deceleration. Archival data in the form of ground-based spectroscopy on day 415 were subsequently obtained. These new data suggest indeed that a non-linear expansion of the system occurred.

The spiral structure of our Milky Way has not yet been well outlined. HII regions, giant molecular clouds (GMCs) and 6.7-GHz methanol masers are primary tracers for spiral arms. We collect and update the database of these tracers which has been used in Hou et al. (2009) for the spiral arms.

The new database consists of ∼ 2000 HII regions, ∼ 1300 GMCs and ∼ 800 methanol masers (6.7 GHz). If the photometric or trigonometric distance for any tracer is available from the literature, we will adopt it. Otherwise, we have to use the kinematic distance. We modify the VLSR according to the newly determined solar motions (U0 = 10.27 km s−1, V0 = 15.32 km s−1 and W0 = 7.74 km s−1, Schönrich et al. 2010), then calculate the kinematic distances with a flat rotation curve (R0 = 8.3 kpc, θ0 = 239 km s−1, Brunthaler et al. 2011). Very important step is that we weight tracers according to the excitation parameters of HII regions or the masses of GMCs, and a constant weight for masers. All three kinds of tracers are used together to outline the spiral structure (Fig. 1). A contour and gray map is constructed after we made a Gaussian extension for the tracers with the amplitude of weighting parameter.

Meteorites are some of the most important and valuable rocks available for scientific study. Approximately 43,000 meteorites are known on Earth and are egeologicalf samples of extraterrestrial bodies - meteorites are known to originate from asteroids, the Moon, Mars and possibly comets. With expanding exploration of our Solar System, meteorites provide the eground truthf to compare data collected by robotic missions with results gained from a variety of more accurate and precise techniques using laboratories on Earth. This talk will give an introduction to the history of meteorite science and the importance of meteorite collections to the field of meteoritics, planetary and solar system science. Curation of extraterrestrial samples is a particularly pertinent issue, especially with regards to particularly rare samples such as those from Mars like the recent Tissint meteorite. Future sample return missions to asteroids and Mars also pose siginificant challenges around the curation of these precious materials. Issues surrounding the curation of samples and how curation and curatorial actions can influence scientific studies will also be discussed.

The tip of the red giant branch (TRGB) is one of the most accurate distance indicators to galaxies in the Local Universe (for distances up to 8–10 Mpc). A distance accuracy as high as 5% can be achieved with the recently developed maximum-likelihood implementation of the TRGB method and modern calibrations. In this paper, we consider in detail TRGB distance determinations to nearby groups of galaxies (within 8 Mpc). We discuss the photometric accuracy and describe colour–magnitude-diagram features of nearby dwarf galaxies and their influence on the accuracy of distance determination. We have determined accurate structures of the two nearest galaxy groups, M81 and Cen A, using observations of galaxies in these groups with the Hubble Space Telescope's WFPC2 and ACS instruments. The new technique allows us to see new details in the distribution of galaxies in the Canes Venatici i Cloud.