We obtained HST COS Lyα spectroscopy for 20 galaxies that were Hα-selected from the Kitt Peak International Spectroscopic Survey data release. We cover redshifts of z=0.02–0.06 and a broad range in metallicity, reddening, and luminosity. We investigate correlations between the properties of the Lyα-lines and fundamental properties of the galaxies. Our seven emitters have: equivalent widths in the range EW(Lyα)=1–12 Å, i.e., below the completeness limits of higher redshift studies; extinction corrected Lyα/Hα ratios of at most 12–15% of the case B recombination theory value; and O I λ1302 ISM absorptions blueshifted to 〈v(O I)〉= − 117±40 km/s, which are consistent with H I gas outflows. Six emitters have P-Cygni-like Lyα profiles with peaks redshifted to 〈v〉=172±25 km/s, and one of our face-on spiral galaxies has two Lyα peaks separated by 370 km/s. The latter peaks are such that the blueshifted peak is twice as strong as the redshifted peak. The rest of the galaxies show Lyα absorption troughs centered at 〈v〉=19 km/s and O I λ1302 absorptions centered at 〈v(O I)〉= − 34±25 km/s, which is consistent with static or low velocity H I gas. Our two most metal poor and least reddened galaxies, which have large Hα equivalent widths are absorbers. The spiral galaxies in our sample have Lyα in single emission, double emission, or absorption. There appears to be a correlation between the Hα derived SFR and the strength of the Lyα emission but our sample is small. Our observations cover regions of at most 3 kpc in diameter and may miss a significant fraction of the resonantly scattered Lyα emission. This work is supported by NASA grant N1317.

In 2008 January the 24th Chinese expedition team successfully deployed the Chinese Small Telescope ARray (CSTAR) to Dome A, the highest point on the Antarctic plateau. CSTAR consists of four 14.5cm optical telescopes, each with a different filter (g, r, i and open) and has a 4.5°×4.5° field of view (FOV). Based on the CSTAR data, initial statistics of astronomical observational site quality and light curves of variable objects were obtained. To reach higher photometric quality, we are continuing to work to overcome the effects of uneven cirrus cloud cirrus, optical “ghosts” and intra-pixel sensitivity. The snow surface stability is also tested for further astronomical observational instrument and for glaciology studies.

We present our effort to detect and characterize transiting systems with small exoplanets. First we present our on-going project to detect transiting exoplanets around late-type stars. As many authors point out, late-type stars can host potentially habitable rocky planets, whose transits are detectable with 2-meter class telescopes. We aim at detecting (small-sized) transiting exoplanets around M-type stars and are conducting a survey using the Okayama 1.88m telescope. We introduce our campaign at Okayama. Next we discuss the characterization of small-sized exoplanets. We focus on the measurement of the spin-orbit angle, the angle between the stellar spin axis and planetary orbital axis. The spin-orbit relations are of great importance in discussing planetary formations, evolutions, and migrations. To this point, the Rossiter-McLaughlin (RM) effect, an apparent radial velocity anomaly during a planetary transit, has been mainly investigated to measure the projected spin-orbit angles. However, as the size of the transiting planet becomes smaller, the detection of the RM effect becomes challenging because of the small RM signal. We have newly developed a technique to investigate spin-orbit relations for smaller planets by combining Kepler's ultra-precise photometry and spectroscopic measurements. We show that, contrary to planetary systems with close-in giant planets, most of the systems with small-sized planets (including Earth-sized ones) have smaller spin-orbit angles, which implies a different evolutional history of the planetary systems. We also discuss future prospects on the detection and characterization of smaller transiting exoplanets.

Distant stellar encouters can substantially affect the dynamical evolution of existing stellar and planetary systems (e.g., Malmberg et al. 2007; Spurzem et al. 2009). Although planets with small orbital periods are not directly affected by encountering stars, the secular evolution of a perturbed system may result in the ejection of the innermost planets, or physical collisions between the innermost planets and the host star, hundreds of thousands of years after a weak encounter with a neighboring star occurs. Here we present the results of our study on the cumulative effect of distant stellar encounters on multi-planet systems in star clusters, and how these results depend on the properties of the star cluster in which a planetary system is born (for details we refer to Hao & Kouwenhoven, in prep.). With our simulations we explain the scarcity of exoplanets in star clusters, not only for those in wide orbits (affected by stellar encounters), but also in close orbits (affected by the secular evolution of the system following an encounter).

Gravitational wave bursts produced by supermassive binary black hole mergers will leave a persistent imprint on the space-time metric. Such gravitational wave memory signals are detectable by pulsar timing arrays as a glitch event that would seem to occur simultaneously for all pulsars. In this paper, we describe an initial algorithm which can be used to search for gravitational wave memory signals. We apply this algorithm to the Parkes Pulsar Timing Array data set. No significant gravitational wave memory signal is founded in the data set.

The luminosity function of planetary nebula populations in galaxies at distances within 10–15 Mpc exhibits a cut-off at bright magnitudes and a functional form that is observed to be invariant among different galactic morphological types. Therefore, it is used as a secondary distance indicator applicable to both early- and late-type galaxies. Recent deep surveys of planetary nebula populations in brightest cluster galaxies (BCGs) seem to indicate that their luminosity functions deviate from those observed in the nearby galaxies. We discuss the evidence for such deviations in the Virgo Cluster, and indicate which physical mechanisms may alter the evolution of a planetary nebula envelope and its central star in the halo of BCGs. We then discuss preliminary results for distances to the Virgo, Hydra i, and Coma Clusters based on the observed planetary nebulae luminosity functions.

The concept of a “magnetar” was proposed mainly because of two factors. First, the X-ray luminosity of Anomalous X-ray Pulsars (AXPs) and Soft Gamma-Ray Repeaters (SGRs) is larger than the rotational energy loss rate (Lx > Ėrot), and second, the magnetic field strength calculated from “normal method” is super strong. It is proposed that the radiation energy of magnetar comes from its magnetic fields. Here it is argued that the magnetic field strength calculated through the normal method is incorrect at the situation Lx > Ėrot, because the wind braking is not taken into account. Besides, the “anti-magnetar” and some other X-ray and radio observations are difficult to understand with a magnetar model.

Instead of the magnetar, we propose a “quarctar”, which is a crusted quark star in an accretion disk, to explain the observations. In this model, the persistent X-ray emission, burst luminosity, spectrum of AXPs and SGRs can be understood naturally. The radio-emitting AXPs, which are challenging the magnetar, can also be explained by the quarctar model.

Recent observations have revealed the existence of a ‘main sequence’ of star-forming galaxies out to high redshift. While the majority of star-forming galaxies are observed to be close to this relation between star formation rate (SFR) and stellar mass, a smaller subset of the population – so-called ‘starbursts’ – displays specific star-formation rates and star-formation efficiencies that exceed those of normal (main-sequence) galaxies by up to an order of magnitude. A large degree of homogeneity and similarity has been observed for the properties of the population of normal galaxies across a broad redshift range, including a narrow correlation between their CO luminosity (hence gas content) and IR luminosity and an almost invariable IR SED getting warmer with redshift, while starburst galaxies display systematically different properties. This can be used to devise a simple description of the evolution of the star-forming galaxy population since z ~ 2 and, with a higher degree of uncertainty, even further back in time, in a scheme that we dub two star formation mode framework (2-SFM). We show how this can successfully reproduce the shape of the IR luminosity function of galaxies as a function of redshifts, and the IR number counts. Furthermore, we can link the cosmic evolution of the sSFR of main-sequence galaxies to the evolution of the molecular fuel reservoir and to derive estimates of the molecular gas mass functions of star-forming galaxies that are based on their empirically measured gas properties rather than simulations or semi-analytical modelling. We also infer the evolution of the cosmic abundance of molecular gas and briefly discuss its expected observational signature by molecular line emission, the CO luminosity function.

Magnetic helicity (volume integral of the product of the magnetic field vector B and the vector potential A ), or its proxy, the current helicity at the surface (surface integral of B ·J or B z J z ), is an important quantity which characterizes the helical nature of solar magnetic fields. The current helicity on the Sun shows a tendency, though with large dispersion, that it is positive in the southern hemisphere and negative in the northern hemisphere (the helicity sign rule). However, there are indications that the helicity sign rule may be reversed at activity minimum periods. We will discuss the significance of this property by focusing on the statistical distributions of helicity whether its dispersion follows Gaussian distribution or not.

We collected 27 outflows from the literature and found 8 new ones in the FCRAO CO maps of the Taurus molecular cloud. The total kinetic energy of the 35 outflows is found to be about 3% of the gravitational potential energy from the whole cloud. The feedback effect due to the outflows is minor in Taurus.

Astronomy has a unique ability to excite and stimulate the curiosity of children. Because of this, society can use astronomy as a gateway to lead children on a path towards future learning of science and technology, and potentially to careers in these areas.

Supernovae (SNe) produce, fragment and destroy dust, molecules and nucleosynthetic elements, and reshape and modify the ISM. I will review recent infrared observations of supernova remnants (SNRs) and SNe which show that SNe are important sites of dust and molecule formation and are major dust creators in the Universe. Detection of carbon monoxide (CO) fundamental band from the young SNR Cas A indicates that astrochemical processes in SNRs interacting with molecular clouds provide astrophysical laboratories to study evolution of the ISM returning material from dense clouds into the more diffuse medium and galactic halo. Two dozen SNRs are known to be interacting with molecular clouds using H2 and millimeter observations. Recent Spitzer, Herschel and SOFIA observations along with ground-based observations have greatly advanced our understanding shock processing and astrochemistry of dust, H2, high J CO, and other neutral and ionized molecules and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH). Ionized molecules and warm layer of molecules that are excited by UV radiation, X-rays, or cosmic rays will be described. Finally I will discuss how astrochemical processes of dust and molecules in SNRs impact the large scale structures in the ISM.

MarcoPolo-R is a sample return mission to a primitive Near-Earth Asteroid (NEA) selected in 2011 for the Assessment Study Phase of M3-class missions in the framework of ESAs Cosmic Vision (CV) 2015-2025 programme. The phase A study started at the end of 2012 and will proceed throughout 2013. The final selection by ESA will occur in February 2014. MarcoPolo-R is a European-led mission with a possible contribution from other agencies. MarcoPolo-R will rendez-vous with the primitive NEA 2008 EV5. Before returning a unique sample to Earth, the asteroid will be scientifically characterized at multiple scales. MarcoPolo-R will provide detailed knowledge of the physical and compositional properties of a member of the population of Potentially Hazardous Asteroids (PHA), which is an important contribution to mitigation studies.

We study the redshift evolution of neutral and molecular gas in the interstellar medium with the results from semi-analytic models of galaxy formation and evolution, which track the cold gas related physical processes in radially resolved galaxy disks. Two kinds of prescriptions are adopted to describe the conversion between molecular and neutral gas in the ISM: one is related to the gas surface density and gas metallicity based on the model results by Krumholz, Mckee & Tumlinson; the other is related the pressure of ISM. We try four types of star formation laws in the models to study the effect of the molecular gas component and the star formation time scale on the model results, and find that the H2 dependent star formation rate with constant star formation efficiency is the preferred star formation law. We run the models based on both Millennium and Millennium II Simulation haloes, and the model parameters are adjusted to fit the observations at z = 0 from THINGS/HERACLES and ALFALFA/COLD GASS. We give predictions for the redshift evolution of cosmic star formation density, H2 to HI cosmic ratios, gas to star mass ratios and gas metallicity vs stellar mass relation. Based on the model results, we find that: (i) the difference in the H2 to HI ratio at z > 3 between the two H2 fraction prescriptions can help future observations to test which prescription is better; (ii) a constant redshift independent star formation time scale will postpone the star formation processes at high redshift and cause obvious redshift evolution for the relation between gas metallicity and stellar mass in galaxies at z < 3.

The tachocline is important in the solar dynamo for the generation and the storage of the magnetic fields. A most plausible explanation for the confinement of the tachocline is given by the fast tachocline model in which the tachocline is confined by the anisotropic momentum transfer by the Maxwell stress of the dynamo generated magnetic fields. We employ a flux transport dynamo model coupled with the simple feedback formula of this fast tachocline model which basically relates the thickness of the tachocline to the Maxwell stress. We find that this nonlinear coupling not only produces a stable solar-like dynamo solution but also a significant latitudinal variation in the tachocline thickness which is in agreement with the observations.

Black hole binaries form after major galaxy mergers, but their fate is unclear as hardening due to stars gets inefficient at sub-parsec distances. We model an alternative scenario in which the merger is driven by the interaction of the binary with the surrounding gas.†

Preferred frame effects (PFEs) are predicted by a number of alternative gravity theories which include vector or additional tensor fields, besides the canonical metric tensor. In the framework of parametrized post-Newtonian (PPN) formalism, we investigate PFEs in the orbital dynamics of binary pulsars, characterized by the two strong-field PPN parameters, and . In the limit of a small orbital eccentricity, and contributions decouple. By utilizing recent radio timing results and optical observations of PSRs J1012+5307 and J1738+0333, we obtained the best limits of and in the strong-field regime. The constraint on also surpasses its counterpart in the weak-field regime.

We present the Milky Way Star Clusters (MWSC) survey based on 470 million stars extracted from the all-sky catalogues PPMXL and 2mass. The target list comprises 3784 entries and includes all open and globular clusters, as well as all cluster candidates, known at present. By means of a combined photometric/astrometric pipeline process, we determine individual membership probabilities for cluster stars and provide fundamental cluster parameters such as cluster centre coordinates, mean proper motions, radial velocity, distance, reddening, age and tidal radius. This sample includes ~ 700 clusters with fundamental parameters based on optical data and offers a good opportunity for a comparison of the near-infrared (NIR) and optical cluster distance scales. We find that distances and reddening values obtained from the colour–magnitude diagrams (CMDs) in the NIR agree well with earlier distance estimates based on optical CMDs. These newly obtained homogeneous distances, together with the other cluster parameters, allow us to study the properties of the open cluster population in the Galactic disk.

We discuss predictions for cycle 24 and the way forward if progress is to be made for cycle 25 and beyond.

The Large Area Telescope (LAT) on the Fermi satellite is the first γ-ray instrument to discover pulsars directly via their γ-ray emission. Roughly one third of the 117 γ-ray pulsars detected by the LAT in its first three years were discovered in blind searches of γ-ray data and most of these are undetectable with current radio telescopes. I review some of the key LAT results and highlight the specific challenges faced in γ-ray (compared to radio) searches, most of which stem from the long, sparse data sets and the broad, energy-dependent point-spread function (PSF) of the LAT. I discuss some ongoing LAT searches for γ-ray millisecond pulsars (MSPs) and γ-ray pulsars around the Galactic Center. Finally, I outline the prospects for future γ-ray pulsar discoveries as the LAT enters its extended mission phase, including advantages of a possible modification of the LAT observing profile.