We present a detailed investigation of the MIR continuum emission of type 1 QSOs and define the main emission components. Our model requires three components: a clumpy torus, dusty narrow-line region (NLR) clouds and a blackbody-like hot dust.

We consider the influence of the periodic magnetic field of the Sun on the protoplanetary disk. Solar magnetic cycle may create a special orbit, which were formed main planets of the solar system. In orbits on which magnetic field accumulation occurs most effectively, there is a substance replacement. The Keplerian orbit with the period close to the period of solar magnetic cycle T ~ TM is most unstable for material accumulation. Two most close orbits where there is an accumulation of substance have periods T = 1/2TM and T=5/4TM. These orbits on are close to orbits of Jupiter and Saturn. Other planets were probably formed under influence of gravitation of Jupiter, Saturn and solar magnetic cycle. Perhaps, the effect of periodic magnetic field can explain the Titius-Bode rule.

The distribution of chemical abundances and their variation in space and time are important tools to understand the chemical evolution of disks in spiral galaxies. In this work we present an one infall chemical evolution model for the Galactic disk based on an updated version of the Trieste group model. We adopted a pre enriched gas (to take into account the effect of the halo evolution), an inside-out scenario for the formation of the disk and a threshold in the surface gas density to regulate the star formation rate. The observational constraints for the solar neighbourhood were well reproduced and the spatial and time evolution of the radial abundance gradient were studied. We also used this model to reproduce the chemical evolution of some nearby spiral galaxies. The model was scaled to the disk properties of each galaxy and its dependence with the star formation efficiency and the time scale for the infalling gas into the disk were explored. Using this modified model we were able to reproduce the observed constraints available in the literature for this galaxies. The similarities and the differences between the chemical evolution of these objects and teh Milky Way are discussed to provide a basis to the understanding of the chemical evolution of disks.

We present two-dimensional stellar and gaseous kinematics of the inner 119 × 255 pc2 of the LINER/Seyfert 1 galaxy M 81 on the basis of observations obtained with the Integral Field Unit of the Gemini Multi-Object Spectrograph (GMOS-IFU) on the Gemini North telescope at a spatial resolution of ~10 pc, over the wavelength range 5600–7000 Å. Our goal is to map the gas-streaming motions toward the nucleus suggested by the presence of a dusty nuclear spiral previously observed in HST images (Simões Lopes et al. 2007). Such structures have been shown to be associated with inward gas motions in previous studies by our group (Fathi et al. 2006; Storchi-Bergmann et al. 2007).

We performed a self-consistent N-body simulation of star clusters in the Galactic center (GC), taking into account the collisions of stars and formation of an intermediate-mass black hole (IMBH). We find that if an IMBH forms in the cluster, it carries young stars to the GC by a 1:1 resonance.

We have explored late-type spiral galaxies with truncated radial surface brightness profiles. Based on the study of optical color profiles, Bakos et al. (2008) suggested that truncated (TYPE II) galaxies have a generally older stellar population in their outer regions: one observable consequence of this would be a strong dependence of the structural parameters of the outer disk on the observing wavelength. To corroborate this result, we obtained surface brightness profiles using data from GALEX(UV), SDSS(optical), UKIDSS(NIR) and SPITZER-IRAC(IR). We have characterized the behaviour of the outer disk by obtaining the ratio of the inner and outer scale-lengths. Here we show the example of NGC0450. Our results suggest that there is an existing general trend of the scale-length ratio: from bluer to redder bands the scale-length ratio decreases, which is in accordance with the idea of the old smooth stellar disk in the outer disk.

Extremely metal-poor (EMP) stars in the Galactic halo are stars formed in the very early stage of the chemical evolution of the Galaxy. In previous study, we proposed that typical mass of EMP stars are massive, based on observations of carbon-enhanced EMP stars. In this study, we build a merger tree of the Galaxy semi-analytically and follow the chemical evolution along the merger tree. We also consider the effect of binary and high-mass initial mass function(IMF). Resultant theoretical metallicity distribution function (MDF) and abundance distribution are compared with observed metal-poor halo stars.

Radial gradients of metallicity are supported by observations of different young objects in the Galactic thin disk. The shape of the abundance distributions, however, is not completely constrained. Some works describe the abundance distributions as a function of the Galactocentric distance RG by linear fits with a single slope. On the other hand some analyses of open clusters, cepheids and OB stars suggest a discontinuity in the abundance distributions around RG=10 kpc. In this work we analyse a sample of 13 B stars members of four open clusters located within RG=9-11 kpc in order to better constrain the chemical distribution in this region of the disk.

We discuss using high solar cycle atmospheric conditions as sensors for observing meteors and their properties. High altitude meteor trails (HAMTs) have sometimes been observed with HPLA (High Power Large Aperture) radars. At other times they are not seen. In the absence of systematic studies on this topic, we surmise that the reason might be differing atmospheric conditions during the observations. At EISCAT HAMTs were observed in 1990 and 1991. Very high meteor trails were observed with Israeli L-band radars in 1998, 1999 and 2001. Through the Leonid activity, around the latest perihelion passage of comet Tempel-Tuttle, optical meteors as high as 200 km were reported. This was partly due to new and better observing methods. However, all the reported periods of high altitude meteors seem to correlate with solar cycle maximum. The enhanced atmospheric and ionospheric densities extend the meteoroid interaction range with the atmosphere along its path, offering a better possibility to distinguish differential ablation of the various meteoric constituents. This should be studied during the next solar maximum, due within a few years.

I report recent results on the kinematics of the inner few hundred parsecs (pc) around nearby active galactic nuclei (AGN) at a sampling of a few pc to a few tens of pc, using optical and near-infrared (near-IR) integral field spectroscopy obtained with the Gemini telescopes. The stellar kinematics of the hosts — comprised mostly of spiral galaxies — are dominated by circular rotation in the plane of the galaxy. Inflows with velocities of ~50 km s−1 have been observed along nuclear spiral arms in (optical) ionized gas emission for low-luminosity AGN and in (near-IR) molecular gas emission for higher-luminosity AGN. We have also observed gas rotating in the galaxy plane, sometimes in compact (few tens of pc) disks which may be fuelling the AGN. Outflows have been observed mostly in ionized gas emission from the narrow-line region, whose flux distributions and kinematics frequently correlate with radio flux distributions. Channel maps along the emission-line profiles reveal velocities as high as ~ 600 km s−1. Mass outflow rates in ionized gas range from 10−2 to 10−3M⊙ yr−1 and are 10–100 times larger than the mass accretion rates on to the AGN, supporting an origin for the bulk of the outflow in gas from the galaxy plane entrained by a nuclear jet or accretion disk wind.

We introduce a new inverse population synthesis algorithm (DINBAS3D) which aims to recover the star formation and metallicity histories from galactic spectra. We investigate the use of a dynamical basis of three simple stellar population spectra that is specific for each galaxy. Our goal is to recover a robust star formation history that minimizes degeneracy effects which are very common in high resolution histories methods. In this work, we detail the method and present our findings when we apply DINBAS3D to synthetic spectra with known parameters, we compare our results with similar methods and find good agreement between them.

The 22-year oscillations of the Earth rotation due to several geophysical processes in the core-mantle system, oceans, atmosphere and geomagnetic field are excited mainly by 22-year cycles of the solar activity. These geophysical processes produce their own oscillations of the Earth rotation with different periods around 22 years. The direct and indirect influence of the solar activity on 22-year cycles of the Earth rotation are separated from the core effects and corresponding amplitudes are estimated by means of two approaches. The first, direct approach uses extended time series of Wolf's numbers with 22-year cycles, determined by sign alternation of even sunspot cycles. A linear regression between 22-year cycles of UT1 and solar activity is determined and this regression model is used to calculate the UT1 response to the 22-year cycles of the solar activity. The second, indirect approach uses 22-year oscillation of the mean sea level, caused by water evaporation due to variations of the total solar irradiance. The influence of the mean sea level variations on the Earth rotation is calculated by means of an empirical model of global water redistribution. The core-mantle effects on the 22-year UT1 variations are determined by excluding the UT1 response to the solar activity and core angular momentum due to the geomagnetic field variations, according to the solutions from the Special Bureau of the Core (SBC).

We present preliminary results from a study of the SEDs of a complete sample of 65 LIRGs from GOALS. The spectral shapes at λ > 10μm are similar, while the largest variations occur in the NIR (L1μm5μm/L⊙ ~ 1.0–0.01) and UV (L1μm0.12μm/L⊙ ~ 2.0–0.005). Using stellar population synthesis models to fit the UV–NIR continuum data, we derive stellar masses for the host galaxies of log (M*/M⊙) ~ 10.2–11.4 with a mean of ~ 10.8.

Real 3-D coronal magnetic field reconstruction is expected to be made based on the technologies of IR spectrometry and tomography, in which the data from other wavelengths can be used as critical reference. Our recent studies focused on this issue are briefly reviewed in this paper. Liu & Lin (2008) first evaluated the validity of potential field source surface model applied to one of five limb regions in the corona by comparing the theoretical polarization maps with SOLARC observations in the IR Fe XIII 10747 Å forbidden coronal emission line (CEL). The five limb coronal regions were then studied together in order to study the spatial relation between the bright EUV features on the solar disk and the inferred IR emission sources, which were obtained from the inversion of the SOLARC linear polarization (LP) measurements (Liu 2009). The inversion for each fiber data in the field of view was made by finding the best location where the difference between the synthesized and the observed polarizations reaches the minimum in the integration path along the line of sight. We found a close relationship between the inferred IR emission source locations and the EUV strong emission positions.

We studied the star cluster population properties in the nearby collisional ring galaxy NGC 922 using HST/WFPC2 photometry and population synthesis modeling. We found that 69% of the detected clusters are younger than 7 Myr, and that most of them are located in the ring or along the bar, consistent with the strong Hα emission. The images also show a tidal plume pointing toward the companion. Its stellar age is consistent with pre-existing stars that were probably stripped off during the passage of the companion. We compared the star-forming complexes observed in NGC 922 with those of a distant ring galaxy from the GOODS eld. It indicates very similar masses and sizes, suggesting similar origins. Finally, we found clusters that are excellent progenitor candidates for faint fuzzy clusters.

The Oort cloud, which corresponds to the furthest boundary of our Solar System, is considered as the main reservoir of long period comets. This cloud is likely a residual of the Solar System formation due to the gravitational effects of the young planets on the remaining planetesimals. Given that the cloud extends to large distances from the Sun (several times 10 000 AU), the bodies in this region have their trajectories affected by the Galactic environment of the Solar System. This environment is responsible for the re-injection of the Oort cloud comets into the planetary region of the Solar System. Such comets, also called “new comets”, are the best candidates to become Halley type or “old” long period comets under the influence of the planetary gravitational attractions. Consequently, the flux of new comets represents the first stage of the long trip from the Oort cloud to the observable populations of comets. This is why so many studies are still devoted to this flux.

The different perturbers related to the Galactic environment of the Solar System, which have to be taken into account to explain the flux are reviewed. Special attention will be paid to the gravitational effects of stars passing close to the Sun and to the Galactic tides resulting from the difference of the gravitational attraction of the Galaxy on the Sun and on a comet. The synergy which takes place between these two perturbers is also described.

In this work, we study the impactor flux on Pluto and Charon due to the collisional evolution of Plutinos.To do this, we develop a statistical code that includes catastrophic collisions and cratering events, and takes into account the stability and instability zones of the 3:2 mean motion resonance with Neptune. Our results suggest that if 1 Pluto-sized object is in this resonance, the flux of D = 2 km Plutinos on Pluto is ~4–24 percent of the flux of D = 2 km Kuiper Belt projectiles on Pluto. However, with 5 Pluto-sized objects in the resonance, the contribution of the Plutino population to the impactor flux on Pluto may be comparable to that of the Kuiper Belt. As for Charon, if 1 Pluto-sized object is in the 3:2 resonance, the flux of D = 2 km Plutinos is ~10–63 percent of the flux of D = 2 km impactors coming from the Kuiper Belt. However, with 5 Pluto-sized objects, the Plutino population may be a primary source of the impactor flux on Charon. We conclude that it is necessary to specify the Plutino size distribution and the number of Pluto-sized objects in the 3:2 Neptune resonance in order to determine if the Plutino population is a primary source of impactors on the Pluto-Charon system.

Recently, high-resolution observations made with the help of the near-infrared adaptive optics integral field spectrograph SINFONI at the VLT proved the existence of massive and young nuclear star clusters in the centers of a sample of Seyfert galaxies. With the help of high-resolution hydrodynamical simulations with the pluto code, we follow the evolution of such clusters, especially focusing on mass and energy feedback from young stars. This leads to a filamentary inflow of gas on large scales (tens of parsecs), whereas a turbulent and very dense disk builds up on the parsec scale. Here we concentrate on the long-term evolution of the nuclear disk in NGC 1068 with the help of an effective viscous disk model, using the mass input from the large-scale simulations and accounting for star formation in the disk. This two-stage modeling enables us to connect the tens-of-parsecs scale region (observable with SINFONI) with the parsec-scale environment (MIDI observations). At the current age of the nuclear star cluster, our simulations predict disk sizes of the order 0.8 to 0.9 pc, gas masses of order 106M⊙, and mass transfer rates through the inner boundary of order 0.025 M⊙yr−1, in good agreement with values derived from observations.

The presence of water has been considered for a long time as a key condition for life in planetary environments. The Cassini mission discovered water vapour in the Kronian system by detecting absorption of UV emission from a background star (Hansen et al. 2006). Prompted by this discovery, we started an observational campaign for search of another manifestation of the water vapour in the Kronian system, its maser emission at the frequency of 22 GHz (1.35 cm wavelength). Observations with the 32 m Medicina radio telescope (INAF-IRA, Italy) started in 2006 using Mk5A data recording and the JIVE-Huygens software correlator. Later on, an on-line spectrometer was used at Medicina. The 14 m Metsähovi radio telescope (TKK-MRO, Finland) joined the observational campaign in 2008 using a locally developed data capture unit and software spectrometer. More than 300 hours of observations were collected in 2006-2008 campaign with the two radio telescopes. The data were analysed at JIVE using the Doppler tracking technique to compensate the observed spectra for the radial Doppler shift for various bodies in the Kronian system (Pogrebenko et al. 2009). Here we report the observational results for Hyperion, Titan, Enceladus and Atlas, and their physical interpretation. Encouraged by these results we started a campaign of follow up observations including other radio telescopes.