We show that the power-law slope of the near-IR extinction law is significantly steeper than previously thought. Simulated colour-colour diagrams including a stellar population synthesis, realistic extinction distribution along the line-of-sight and synthesis through the filter profiles are compared to data from the UKIDSS Galactic Plane Survey. The slope of extinction with wavelength is found to be 2.14 ± 0.05 for total visual extinctions up to about 25 magnitudes and for a number of locations.

For over a hundred years, optical spectroscopy has been the main tool to study stellar structure and evolution. Photospheric spectra of the electronic transitions of atoms and ions are used to determine the temperature and elemental abundance. Beyond atomic and ionic lines, only the electronic transitions of a few simple molecules (C2, CN, H2O, TiO, CH, etc.) appear in the optical photospheric spectra. With the recent development of infrared and submm spectroscopy, a wide range of molecules have been observed, specially in cool atmospheres of red giants and brown dwarfs. We also realize that beyond the photosphere, a stellar system consists of chromosphere, corona, and stellar wind. Both young and evolved stars possess extensive circumstellar regions and the atoms, molecules, and solid particles in this environment radiate a wide range of lines and bands observable at infrared and submm wavelengths.

Atomic spectra in the infrared and sub-mm wavelength regions can be divided into two broad categories: electric dipole-allowed transitions, and forbidden lines due to transitions within the ground term or between low-lying levels of the same parity. Both are of potential importance in the interpretation of astrophysical spectra. Allowed transitions can provide diagnostic information for stellar photospheres, particularly for elements that are not accessible in the visible region. Electric-dipole forbidden lines are important diagnostics of low-density plasmas, such as nebulae and the interstellar medium. In order to interpret astrophysical spectra, accurate atomic data are required. This paper summarizes the techniques for measuring atomic data and lists the most important compilations and databases.

We present a summary of results from simultaneous Solar-Terrestrial Environment Laboratory (STELab) Interplanetary Scintillation (IPS), STEREO, ACE, and Wind observations using three-dimensional reconstructions of the Whole Heliosphere Interval – Carrington rotation 2068. This is part of the world-wide IPS community's International Heliosphysical Year (IHY) collaboration. We show the global structure of the inner heliosphere and how our 3-D reconstructions compare with in-ecliptic spacecraft measurements.

Circumstellar disks are mostly made of gas. Constraining the spatial and thermal structure of the gas, and its time evolution, is crucial to understand the star- and planet-formation processes. Models predict that the gas is affected by UV and X-ray radiation from the central young stellar object (YSO), but many uncertainties remain, e.g. whether the EUV emission actually reaches the disk or is absorbed by disk winds. The infrared [Ne II] and [Ne III] fine structure lines at 12.81μm and 15.55μm have been theoretically predicted to trace the circumstellar disk gas subject to X-ray heating and ionization.

Analyses of FUSE spacecraft spectra have provided measurements of D/H in the gas phase of the interstellar medium for many lines of sight extending to several kpc from the Sun. These measurements, together with the earlier Copernicus, HST, and IMAPS data, show a wide range of D/H values that have challenged both observers and chemical evolution modellers. I believe that the best explanation for the diverse D/H measurements is that deuterium can be sequestered on to carbonaceous grains and PAH molecules and thereby removed from the interstellar gas. Grain destruction can raise the gas phase D/H value to approximately the total D/H value. Supernovae and stellar winds, however, can decrease the total D/H value along lines of sight on time scales less than mixing time scales. I will summarize the theoretical and observational arguments for this model and estimate the most likely range for the total D/H in the local Galactic disk. This range in total D/H presents a constraint on realistic Galactic chemical evolution models or the primordial value of D/H or both.

Responsibility for the definition of time scales left the astronomical community some 40 years ago when, in 1967, the second became defined by an atomic transition in the International System of units SI and when International Atomic Time (TAI) was defined as the primary international time scale in 1971.

The single stable isotope of beryllium is a pure product of cosmic-ray spallation in the ISM. Assuming that the cosmic-rays are globally transported across the Galaxy, the beryllium production should be a widespread process and its abundance should be roughly homogeneous in the early-Galaxy at a given time. Thus, it could be useful as a tracer of time. In an investigation of the use of Be as a cosmochronometer and of its evolution in the Galaxy, we found evidence that in a log(Be/H) vs. [α/Fe] diagram the halo stars separate into two components. One is consistent with predictions of evolutionary models while the other is chemically indistinguishable from the thick-disk stars. This is interpreted as a difference in the star formation history of the two components and suggests that the local halo is not a single uniform population where a clear age-metallicity relation can be defined. We also found evidence that the star formation rate was lower in the outer regions of the thick disk, pointing towards an inside-out formation.

Much progress has been made in recent years towards a better understanding of the physical and chemical processes in Photo-dissociation/Photon-dominated Regions (PDRs), both observationally and in terms of detailed physical and chemical modelling. This article highlights some of the problems and new opportunities observers and modellers are facing.

Brown dwarfs (hereafter BDs) are of particular interest because of their extremely low-temperature atmospheres for comparison with atmospheres of giant planets. Aiming to obtain clues to understand the formation and disappearance of dust clouds and molecular abundances in BD photospheres, we conducted an observation programme of space-borne near-infrared spectroscopy of bright BDs with the Infrared Camera (IRC) on-board AKARI.

In the recent years, more and more sophisticated models have been proposed for the gas distribution and kinematics in the Milky Way, taking into account the main bar, but also the possible nuclear bar, with the same or different pattern-speed. I review the success and problems encountered by the models, in particular in view of the new discovery of a symmetrical far-side counterpart of the 3 kpc arm. The inner part, dominated by the bar, and the outer parts, dominated by the spiral arms, can be observed from a virtual solar position, and the errors coming from kinematical distances are evaluated. The appearance of four arms could be due to a deprojection bias.

To prepare future observations of terrestrial planets and the detection of life, we search for life on the planet Earth seen as a point source. Observations of Earthshine is a convenient way to see Earth as a remote planet. The vegetation reflectance spectrum presents a sharp edge in the near infrared: the Vegetation Red Edge. Observational programs in progress are described, particularly our observations at the Concordia station in Antarctica.

Brown dwarfs (hereafter BDs) are formed, like stars, by interstellar cloud collapse, but attaining masses of less then 0.075 M⊙ (Baraffe et al. 1998), i.e. too low core temperatures (< 3.5 × 106 K) to stabilize the nuclear burning of the hydrogen PP chain. Therefore, even the most massive BDs begin cooling after some 109 yrs. However, for masses above 0.06 M⊙, core temperatures become hotter than the lithium burning temperature (2.4 x 106 K). All BDs above 0.013 M⊙ (13 MJup) reach core temperatures above the 1.0 x 106 K necessary to burn deuterium from about 107 yrs. The IAU has adopted the definition of the planetary regime as objects having masses below the deuterium burning conditions. But BDs are likely to form well below this limit into the planetary mass regime down to some 5 MJup. It is therefore convenient, in the absence of indices on their formation mechanisms, to call them planetary mass objects or planemos.

In metal-rich stars as cool as the Sun, beryllium abundance determinations are difficult due to heavy line blanketing in the near-UV 3130 Å region where the accessible Be II lines reside. We can now attempt such determinations based on improved lists of atomic line identifications and gf-values in the near-UV. Here we report Be determinations for three metal-rich A, F, and G stars plus three solar-metallicity standards. All six stars have beryllium-to-hydrogen ratios at or below solar. More such determinations would provide stronger constraints on trends in Be abundance with temperature, metallicity, and age.

A wide range of high-quality data is becoming available for protoplanetary disks. From these data sets many issues have already been addressed, such as constraining the large scale geometry of disks, finding evidence of dust grain evolution, as well as constraining the kinematics and physico-chemical conditions of the gas phase. Most of these results are based on models that emphasise fitting observations of either the dust component (SEDs or scattered light images or, more recently, interferometric visibilities), or the gas phase (resolved maps in molecular lines). In this contribution, we present a more global approach which aims at interpreting consistently the increasing amount of observational data in the framework of a single model, in order to to better characterize both the dust population and the gas disk properties, as well as their interactions. We present results of such modeling applied to a few disks (e.g. IM Lup, see Figure) with large observational data-sets available (scattered light images, polarisation maps, IR spectroscopy, X-ray spectrum, CO maps). These kinds of multi-wavelengths studies will become very powerful in the context of forthcoming instruments such as Herschel and ALMA.

We have performed high-resolution three-dimensional simulations of turbulent interstellar gas that for the first time self-consistently follow its coupled thermal, chemical and dynamical evolution. Our simulations have allowed us to quantify the formation timescales for the most important molecules found in giant molecular clouds (H2, CO), as well as their spatial distribution within the clouds. Our results are consistent with models in which molecular clouds form quickly, within 1–2 turbulent crossing times, and emphasize the crucial role of density inhomogeneities in determining the chemical structure of the clouds.

Submillimeter continuum emission traces high molecular column densities and, thus, dense cloud regions in which new stars are forming. Surveys of the Galactic plane in such emission have the potential of delivering an unbiased view of high-mass star formation throughout the Milky Way. Here we present the scope, current status and first results of ATLASGAL, an ongoing survey of the Galactic plane using the Large APEX Bolometer Camera (LABOCA) on the Atacama Pathfinder Experiment (APEX) telescope at the Chajnantor plateau in Chile. Aimed at mapping 360 square degrees at 870 μm, with a uniform sensitivity of 50 mJy/beam, this survey will provide the first unbiased sample of cold dusty clumps in the Galaxy at submillimeter wavelengths. These will be targets for molecular line follow-up observations and high resolution studies with ALMA and the EVLA.

Infrared astronomy has come into its own over the last decade. Based on mature detector technology and sophisticated instrumentation it is contributing exciting science in many fields of astrophysics. Stellar evolution is a field that has long been dominated by ultraviolet and optical work, but one that has benefited from a strongly increasing contribution from the infrared (IR) and sub-millimeter (sub-mm) domains. In particular, spectroscopy in these domains holds the promise to enable important advances through quantitative analysis of individual stars and stellar systems.

Many Zeeman-spitting measurements in the diffuse Galactic Interstellar Medium have been made of the 21-cm line in both absorption and emission. Typical field strength is about 6 μG, with enhancement in shocked regions; the magnetic, turbulent, and cosmic-ray pressures are comparable and considerably larger than the thermal gas pressure. For PhotoDissociation Regions, Carbon recombination lines show intriguing results for single-dish measurements. OH Megamasers in Ultra-Luminous Infrared Galaxies show easily detectable fields whose strength ranges up to at least 20 mG. Upper limits for several damped Ly-α systems range down to a few μG. The z=0.692 system against 3C286 was reported in the literature to have a large field strength, but this result is wrong.

Hot DQ white dwarfs constitute a new class of white dwarf stars, uncovered recently within the framework of SDSS project. There exist nine of them, out of a total of several thousands white dwarfs spectroscopically identified. Recently, three hot DQ white dwarfs have been reported to exhibit photometric variability with periods compatible with pulsation g-modes. In this contribution, we presented the results of a non-adiabatic pulsation analysis of the recently discovered carbon-rich hot DQ white dwarf stars. Our study relies on the full evolutionary models of hot DQ white dwarfs recently developed by Althaus et al. (2009), that consistently cover the whole evolution from the born-again stage to the white dwarf cooling track. Specifically, we performed a stability analysis on white dwarf models from stages before the blue edge of the DBV instability strip (Teff ≈ 30000 K) until the domain of the hot DQ white dwarfs (18000-24000 K), including the transition DB→hot DQ white dwarf. We explore evolutionary models with M*= 0.585M⊙ and M* = 0.87M⊙, and two values of thickness of the He-rich envelope (MHe = 2 × 10−7M* and MHe = 10−8M*).