NGC 1068 is a well-studied Seyfert type 2 AGN. Because of its proximity, it is one of the brightest Seyferts observed. Its nuclear region harbors a variety of astrophysical phenomena connected to physical conditions in the NLR and its emission lines. The relative importance of photoionization from the nucleus and shocks produced by jets has been long debated. To help resolve this controversy, we have carried out long-slit spectroscopy in the near-IR and present here for the first time spectroscopy of the whole range from 0.8 to 2.4 μm for this galaxy over 15″ in the nuclear region.

The interplay between active galactic nuclei (AGNs) and their host galaxies' star-formation activities is one of the central topics in pursuing an understanding of galaxy evolution. With the advent of the Galaxy Evolution Explorer (GALEX), we have much more accurate information than ever about the recent star formation (RSF) histories of early-type galaxies within ~ 1.5 Gyr in the local universe. Using a subset of ~ 1000 GALEX/SDSS type 2 AGN-host early-type galaxies (E/S0) based on the emission-line ratio diagnosis, we explore how AGNs affect the RSF histories of the early-type hosts and vice versa. In this contribution, we present a preliminary yet interesting result on the intimate connection between AGN activity and the RSF histories of early-type galaxies.

We have analyzed the record of Earth's global temperature variations between 1850 and 2007 looking for signals of periodic variations and compared our results with solar activity variations in the same time period. Significant periods are found at 9.4, 10.6 and 20.9 years. These periodic variations may be caused by solar activity. However, and amazingly enough, we also find at least 17 other significant periodic variations in addition to expected variations with periods of 1 year and of half a year. The result is considered in terms of solar related forcing mechanisms. These may be variable solar heating associated with the small changes in solar irradiance over the solar cycle, or direct effects of interactions between variable magnetic fields carried by the solar wind and particles and fields in interplanetary space or in the Earth's ionosphere.

DEEP, AEGIS, and CATS are examples of spectroscopic, multiwavelength, and adaptive optics surveys, respectively, that are pushing the frontiers of stellar population studies of distant galaxies. Together, these surveys affirm the unprecedented richness of high quality information that can already be gathered using today's generation of ground and space telescopes. We highlight several results in extracting the stellar and dynamical masses, chemical abundances, ages, and frequency of galactic winds for galaxies at redshifts up to z ~ 1.4.

A comparison is carried out among the star formation histories of early-type galaxies in fossil groups, clusters and low density environments. Although they show similar evolutionary histories, a significant fraction of the fossils are younger than their counterparts, suggesting that they can be precursors of the isolated ETG galaxies.

Supermassive black holes (SMBHs) in the centers of massive galaxies are thought to predominantly grow in brief Eddington-rate quasar phases accompanied by starbursts, but on-going starbursts in luminous quasars are difficult to observe. Buried under the natural coronagraph, obscured quasars offer a unique window for direct, robust host-galaxy spectroscopy otherwise virtually inaccessible for luminous quasars. Our pilot study at z ~ 0.5 (Liu et al. 2009) revealed a substantial contribution from very young stellar populations with ages less than ~ 100 Myr in all of the observed host galaxy spectra. More dramatically, in three out of the nine SDSS quasars observed, we have witnessed strong infant starbursts with ages of ~ 5 Myr, clocked by the telltale Wolf–Rayet emission features.

The results of the analysis of the spectra of comets 9P/Tempel 1, 37P/Forbes and C/2004 Q2 (Machholz) observed in 2004-2005 at Observatório do Pico dos Dias (Brazil), and at Mount Pastukhov (SAO, Russia) are presented.

A soft (E≲2 keV) excess over the power-law component dominant at higher energies has been found in the X-ray spectra of many Seyfert galaxies. The origin of the soft excess is still an open issue. In the past it was often associated with the high-energy tail of the thermal emission of the accretion disk, but it has been shown recently that the temperature of the disk should be constant (0.1–0.2 keV), regardless of the mass and luminosity of the AGN (Gierlinski & Done 2004). This result implies that some other mechanism is at work, as the temperature of the disk should depend on both the mass of the black hole and the accretion rate.

Quasar feedback has been invoked as a major mechanism for influencing large-scale cosmological structure. To quantify to what extent they affect the real universe, one needs to measure the mechanical energy output of quasars and assess the ability of this energy to produce the feedback. We have developed an observational/modeling program that has yielded the first reliable kinetic luminosity determinations of quasar broad absorption line (BAL) outflows, and have demonstrated that energetically they are indeed a major contributor to AGN feedback.

We present results for 13 spiral galaxies from a sample of 31, where we have used the method developed by González & Graham 1996, to search for and analyze azimuthal color gradients across spiral arms (see figure 1 in Martínez-García et al. 2009). A total of 23 regions were analyzed in the spiral disks. Ten of the galaxies present regions that match theoretical predictions.

It is shown, that the explosion of the bolide above the Mediterranean sea on July, 6th 2002 with a high probability was a fragment of an icy cometary nucleus which initial weight was equal approximately to 7 ⋅ 108 grams. This follows from the determined energy of the outburst equal to 26kT of TNT (Brown et al. 2002). We think that this energy refers to the height of the maximal braking of the body in the Earth's atmosphere. At the speed of 20.3 km/s accepted by authors, the weight of a body at this height is equal 5 ⋅ 108 gr, and at the entrance in the atmosphere it was approximately of 7 ⋅ 108 gr.

The integrated Balmer lines of unresolved stellar systems have been widely used as age indicators, since they are sensitive to the temperature of the main sequence turn-off. However, the existence of “non-canonical” stellar stages such as hot horizontal branch stars and blue straggler stars (BSSs) can lead to underestimations of the true stellar population ages. Using an optimized Hβ index in conjunction with HST/WFPC2 color-magnitude diagrams (CMDs), we find that Galactic globular clusters of similar metallicity exhibit a large scatter in their Hβ strengths, which does not correlate with their CMD-derived ages. Instead, we demonstrate that the specific frequency of BSSs is responsible for the observed Hβ scatter at intermediate-to-high metallicity, in the sense that, at fixed metallicity, higher BSS ratios lead to larger integrated Hβ strengths. Therefore, the specific frequency of BSSs sets a fundamental limit on the accuracy for which integrated spectroscopic ages can be determined for globular clusters and, probably, other stellar systems like galaxies. The observational implications of this result are discussed.

In this work, we use the low-redshift, narrow-line Seyfert 1 (NLS1) galaxies Ark 564 and I Zw 1 as laboratories for modeling the Fe ii emission features in the wavelength range 1200–6700 Å. We utilize data acquired with the Hubble Space Telescope and the 2.7-m telescope at McDonald Observatory.

We have identified ~500 relatively relaxed galaxy clusters at low redshift (z < 0.3) from the maxBCG catalog with double radio lobes at the center; about 200 radio counterparts of brightest cluster galaxies (BCGs) of these clusters appear to be wide-angle tailed (WAT) radio sources, indicating ongoing interaction between its host galaxy and the surrounding ICM. Our analysis suggests that the radio power of WAT is positively correlated with the optical luminosities of host BCGs, and increases with redshift; whereas the cluster ellipticity-radio galaxy fraction relation shows no obvious difference between WAT and non-WAT clusters.

Several AGNs have been reported to have ultra-high velocity (UHV) outflows (of order 0.3 ≳ ν/c ≳ 0.05) that are detected in their X-ray spectrum. Re-visiting these outflow observations reveal that the spectrum has changed along with the claimed outflows. The luminous quasar PDS 456 is the brightest AGN in which a UHV outflow has been claimed to be present in its grating spectrum. We report on an XMM–Newton observation of this source, as well as analysis of past observations, which reveal its variable nature and the variable nature of UHV outflows. In this object, as well as in a few others, repeated observations failed to reproduce the previous absorption spectra. This indicates that variability is common among the UHV winds. A discussion of the reality, significance, and the interpretation of the UHV outflow phenomenon is presented. If UHV outflows exist, they might be a transiting phenomenon, as indicated from repeated observations, and this has to be taken into account when studying the influence of these outflows on the surrounding galaxy.

Due to its unique long-term coverage and high photometric precision, observations from the Kepler asteroseismic investigation will provide us with the possibility to sound stellar cycles in a number of solar-type stars with asteroseismology. By comparing these measurements with conventional ground-based chromospheric activity measurements we might be able to increase our understanding of the relation between the chromospheric changes and the changes in the eigenmodes.

In parallel with the Kepler observations we have therefore started a programme at the Nordic Optical Telescope to observe and monitor chromospheric activity in the stars that are most likely to be selected for observations for the whole satellite mission. The ground-based observations presented here can be used both to guide the selection of the special Kepler targets and as the first step in a monitoring programme for stellar cycles. Also, the chromospheric activity measurements obtained from the ground-based observations can be compared with stellar parameters such as ages and rotation in order to improve stellar evolution models.

One of the more popular theories to account for the abundance anomalies in globular cluster stars is the ‘self-pollution scenario,’ where the polluters were a previous generation of intermediate-mass asymptotic giant branch (AGB) stars. This idea has proved attractive because: (i) the hot-bottom burning experienced by these objects qualitatively provides an ideal proton-capture environment to produce helium and convert C and O to N, Ne to Na and Mg to Al, and (ii) the slow winds from these stars allow their retention by the cluster's gravitational potential. New stellar yields from low-metallicity AGB models are presented and compared to abundances derived in globular clusters. We also discuss external pollution and inhomogeneous-pollution models that use AGB stars as polluters. Current models of AGB stars cannot match all observational features of globular cluster stars. However, stellar modelling uncertainties are considerable and suggest AGB stars should not be ruled out just yet.

Many astrophysical problems in the theory of formation and evolution of stars and stellar groups require knowledge of the mass or age of individual stars. Stellar masses and ages are not directly observable parameters, and most of the methods used to determine them are based on the calibrating relations obtained from observations or from theoretical considerations. In most cases, the mass-luminosity relation, based on the masses of approximately two hundred well-studied binaries, is the only way to estimate the mass of single stars. Unfortunately, the statistical nature of the mass-luminosity relation means that the stellar masses determined with it may only be considered as approximate. The establishment of methods for estimating stellar masses and ages of stars with accuracy comparable to direct methods remains a challenging task. This work proposes a way to use the location of a star in the HR diagram to estimate its mass and age based on modern stellar models. The method is based on the geometric similarity of evolutionary tracks for the stars at the same evolutionary stage. To examine the proposed approach and involved assumptions, it has been applied to various test data sets.

Observational data show that the correlation between the masses of supermassive black holes MBH and galaxy bulge masses Mbulge follows a nearly linear trend, and that the correlation is strongest with the bulge rather than the total stellar mass Mgal. With increasing redshift, the ratio Γ=MBH/Mbulge relative to z = 0 also seems to be larger for MBH≳108.5M⊙. This study looks more closely at statistics to see what effect it has on creating, and observing, the MBH–Mbulge correlation. It is possible to show that if galaxy merging statistics can drive the correlation, minor mergers are responsible for causing a convergence to linearity most evident at high masses, whereas major mergers have a central limit convergence that more strongly reduces the scatter. This statistical reasoning is agnostic about galaxy morphology. Therefore, combining statistical prediction (more major mergers ⟹ tighter correlation) with observations (bulges = tightest correlation), would lead one to conclude that more major mergers (throughout an entire merger tree, not just the primary branch) give rise to more prominent bulges. Lastly, with regard to controversial findings that Γ increases with redshift, this study shows why the luminosity function (LF) bias argument, taken correctly at face value, actually strengthens, rather than weakens, the findings. However, correcting for LF bias is unwarranted because the BH mass scale for quasars is bootstrapped to the MBH–σ* correlation in normal galaxies at z = 0, and quasar–quasar comparisons are mostly internally consistent. In Monte-Carlo simulations, high Γ galaxies are indeed present: they are statistical outliers (i.e., “under-merged”) that take longer to converge to linearity via minor mergers. Additional evidence that the galaxies are undermassive at z≳2 for their MBH is that the quasar hosts are very compact for their expected mass.

Icy grain mantles consist of small molecules containing hydrogen, carbon, oxygen and nitrogen atoms (e.g. H2O, CO, CO2, NH3). Such ices, present in different astrophysical environments (giant planets satellites, comets, dense clouds, and protoplanetary disks), are subjected to irradiation of different energetic particles: UV radiation, ion bombardment (solar and stellar wind as well as galactic cosmic rays), and secondary electrons due to cosmic ray ionization of H2. The interaction of these particles with astrophysical ice analogs has been the object of research over the last decades. However, there is a lack of information on the effects induced by the heavy ion component of cosmic rays in the electronic energy loss regime. The aim of the present work is to simulate of the astrophysical environment where ice mantles are exposed to the heavy ion cosmic ray irradiation.

Sample ice films at 13K were irradiated by nickel ions with energies in the 1-10 MeV/u range and analyzed by means of FTIR spectrometry. Nickel ions were used because their energy deposition is similar to that deposited by iron ions, which are particularly abundant cosmic rays amongst the heaviest ones.

In this work the effects caused by nickel ions on condensed gases are studied (destruction and production of molecules as well as associated cross sections, sputtering yields) and compared with respective values for light ions and UV photons.