Recent work (Corradi et al. 2015; Jones et al. 2016) has shown that the phenomenon of extreme abundance discrepancies, where recombination line abundances exceed collisionally excited line abundances by factors of 10 or more, seem to be strongly associated with planetary nebulae with close binary central stars. To further investigate, we have obtained spectra of a sample of nebulae with known close binary central stars, using FORS2 on the VLT, and we have discovered several new extreme abundance discrepancy objects. We did not find any non-extreme discrepancies, suggesting that a very high fraction of nebulae with close binary central stars also have an extreme abundance discrepancy.

Star formation rate (SFR) is one of the most important diagnostics in understanding the evolution of galaxies across cosmic times. In order to explore the possibility of using the optical u-band luminosities to estimate SFRs of galaxies, we show the correlations between u band, Hα and infrared luminosities by combing the data from the South Galactic Cap u band Sky Survey (SCUSS) with the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) and the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE). We derive the u versus Hα relation and the u and 12 μm relations to calibrate the u-band luminosity as an SFR indicator.

Recent observations of solar flares at high-frequencies have provided evidence of a new spectral component with fluxes increasing with frequency in the sub-THz to THz range. This new component occurs simultaneously but is separated from the well-known microwave spectral component that maximizes at frequencies of a few to tens of GHz. The aim of this work is to study in detail a mechanism recently suggested to describe the double-spectrum feature observed in solar flares based on the physical process known as microbunching instability, which occurs with high-energy electron beams in laboratory accelerators.

This article presents an overview of the published results for planetary nebulae based on images and spectroscopy from the PACS, SPIRE, and HIFI instruments on board the Herschel satellite.

As we enter the era of gravitational wave astronomy, we are beginning to collect observations which will enable us to explore aspects of astrophysics of massive stellar binaries which were previously beyond reach. In this paper we describe COMPAS (Compact Object Mergers: Population Astrophysics and Statistics), a new platform to allow us to deepen our understanding of isolated binary evolution and the formation of gravitational-wave sources. We describe the computational challenges associated with their exploration, and present preliminary results on overcoming them using Gaussian process regression as a simulation emulation technique.

Magnetic fields are likely to be an efficient mechanism which can affect evolved intermediate mass stars (i.e. post-AGB stars and planetary nebulae) in different ways such as via the shaping of their envelope. However, observational probes for the presence of those fields are still scarce. I will present a summary of the works, including those from our group, on the detection and measurement of magnetic fields in various evolved objects.

Each CCD of LAMOST accommodates 250 spectra, while about 40 are used to observe sky background during real observations. How to estimate the unknown sky background information hidden in the observed 210 celestial spectra by using the known 40 sky spectra is the problem we solve. In order to model the sky background, usually a pre-observation is performed with all fibers observing sky background. We use the observed 250 skylight spectra as training data, where those observed by the 40 fibers are considered as a base vector set. The Locality-constrained Linear Coding (LLC) technique is utilized to represent the skylight spectra observed by the 210 fibers with the base vector set. We also segment each spectrum into small parts, and establish the local sky background model for each part. Experimental results validate the proposed method, and show the local model is better than the global model.

CARMENES is a pair of high-resolution (R ≳ 80, 000) spectrographs covering the wavelength range from 0.52 to 1.71 μm with only small gaps. The instrument has been optimized for precise radial velocity measurements. It was installed and commissioned at the 3.5 m telescope of the Calar Alto observatory in Southern Spain in 2015. The first large science program of CARMENES is a survey of ~300 M dwarfs, which started on Jan 1, 2016. We present an overview of the instrument, and provide a few examples of early science results.

Low mass, main sequence stars like our Sun exhibit a wide variety of rotational and magnetic states. Observational and theoretical advances have led to a renewed emphasis on understanding the rotational and magnetic evolution of sun-like stars has become a pressing problem in stellar physics. We use global 3D convection and convective dynamo simulations in rotating spherical shells and with realistic stellar stratification to explore the behavior of “middle-aged” stars. We show that for stars with slightly less rotational influence than our Sun a transition occurs from solar-like (fast equator, slow poles) to anti-solar (slow equator, fast poles) differential rotation. We investigate this transition using two different treatments for the upper boundary of our simulations and we hypothesize that this transition from solar-like to anti-solar differential rotation may be responsible for observations of anomalously rapid rotation for stars older than our Sun.

There are specific problems of databases in meteor science such as making meteor databases into the modern research tools. Special institutes and virtual observatories exist for the meteor data storage where the data is online and in open access. However, there are also numerous databases without the open access, such as for example, three radar databases: Kharkiv database with 250,000 meteor orbits in Ukraine, New Zealand database with 500,000 meteor orbits, and Canadian database with more than 3 million meteor orbits. One of the reasons the open access is absent for these databases could be the complexity in the copyright compliance. In the framework of the creation of the modern effective research tool in the meteor science, we discuss here the case of the Kharkiv meteor database.

The development of an absolute radiometer instrument is currently a effort at INPE for TSI measurements. In this work, we describe the development of black Ni-P coatings for TSI radiometers absorptive cavities. We present a study of the surface blackening process and the relationships between morphological structure, chemical composition and coating absorption. Ni-P deposits with different phosphorous content were obtained by electroless techniques on aluminum substrates with a thin zincate layer. Appropriate phosphorus composition and etching parameters process produce low reflectance black coatings.

The behavior of Active Regions (ARs) is directly related to the occurrence of some remarkable phenomena in the Sun such as solar flares or coronal mass ejections (CME). In this sense, changes in the magnetic field of the region can be used to uncover other relevant features like the evolution of the ARs magnetic structure and the plasma flow related to it. In this work we describe the evolution of the magnetic structure of the active region AR NOAA12443 observed from 2015/10/30 to 2015/11/10, which may be associated with several X-ray flares of classes C and M. The analysis is based on observations of the solar surface and atmosphere provided by HMI and AIA instruments on board of the SDO spacecraft. In order to investigate the magnetic energy buildup and release of the ARs, we shall employ potential and linear force free extrapolations based on the solar surface magnetic field distribution and the photospheric velocity fields.

We explored the photoionisation effects on both the proper motion and emission of planetary nebulae NGC 6302, by means of hydrodynamical simulations. We used the GUACHO code, which includes the photoionisation due to central source (Esquivel et al. 2009, Esquivel & Raga 2013). We model these PNe considering an interacting stellar fast wind with and ejected toroidally shaped slow wind (Uscanga et al. 2014). Synthetic Hα emission maps were obtained from our numerical results in order to do a comparison between the cases with and without photoionisation. Using a wavelets fittering method on our results for the ionisation case, we do not find an increase in the proper motion velocities, however we can see an accelerated expansion in both cases. For the ionisation case the Hα emission presents an increase.

We developed a model for wind-blown bubbles with temperature and density profiles based on self-similar solutions including thermal conduction. We constructed also heat-conduction bubbles with chemical discontinuities. The X-ray emission is computed using the well-documented CHIANTI code (v6.0.1). These bubble models are used to (re)analyse the high-resolution X-ray spectrum of the hot bubble of BD+30°3639, and they appeared to be much superior to constant temperature approaches.

We found for the X-ray emission of BD+30°3639 that temperature-sensitive and abundance-sensitive line ratios computed on the basis of heat-conducting wind-blown bubbles and with abundances as found in the stellar photosphere/wind can only be reconciled with the observations if the hot bubble of BD+30°3639 is chemically stratified, i.e. if it contains also a small mass fraction (≃ 3 %) of hydrogen-rich matter immediately behind the conduction front. Neon appears to be strongly enriched, with a mass fraction of at least about 0.06.

Our Sun, a magnetically mild star, exhibits space weather in the form of magnetically driven solar explosive events (SEE) including solar flares, coronal mass ejections and energetic particle events. We use Kepler data and reconstruction of X-ray and UV emission from young solar-like stars to recover the frequency and energy fluxes from extreme events from active stars including the young Sun. Extreme SEEs from a magnetically active young Sun could significantly perturb the young Earth's magnetosphere, cause strong geomagnetic storms, initiate escape and introduce chemical changes in its lower atmosphere. I present our recent simulations results based on multi-dimensional multi-fluid hydrodynamic and magnetohydrodynamic models of interactions of extreme CME and SEP events with magnetospheres and lower atmospheres of early Earth and exoplanets around active stars. We also discuss the implications of the impact of these effects on evolving habitability conditions of the early Earth and prebiotic chemistry introduced by space weather events at the early phase of evolution of our Sun.

Statistical studies of active galaxies (both AGN and Starburst) using large multi-wavelength data are presented, including new studies of Markarian galaxies, large sample of IR galaxies, variable radio sources, and large homogeneous sample of X-ray selected AGN. Markarian survey (the First Byurakan Survey) was digitized and the DFBS database was created, as the biggest spectroscopic database by the number of objects involved ( ~ 20 million). This database provides both 2D images and 1D spectra. We have carried out a number of projects aimed at revealing and multi-wavelength studies of active galaxies among optical, X-ray, IR and radio sources. Thousands of X-ray sources were identified from ROSAT, including many AGN (52% among all identified sources). IRAS PSC/FSC sources were studied having accurate positions from WISE and a large extragalactic sample was created for further search for AGNs. The fraction of active galaxies among IR-selected galaxies was estimated as 24%. Variable radio sources at 1.4 GHz were revealed by cross-correlation of NVSS and FIRST catalogues using the method introduced by us for optical variability. Radio-X-ray sources were revealed from NVSS and ROSAT for detection of new active galaxies. Big Data in astronomy is described that provide new possibilities for statistical research of active galaxies and other objects.

Magnetic activity of stars manifests itself in the form of dark spots on the stellar surface. This in turn will cause variations of a few percent in the star light curve as it rotates. When an orbiting planet eclipses its host a star, it may cross in front of one of these spots. In this case, a “bump” will be detected in the transit lightcurve. By fitting these spot signatures with a model, it is possible to determine the spots physical properties such as size, temperature, location, magnetic field, and lifetime. Moreover, the monitoring of the spots longitude provides estimates of the stellar rotation and differential rotation. For long time series of transits during multiple years, magnetic cycles can also be determined. This model has been applied successfully to CoRoT-2, CoRoT-4, CoRot-5, CoRoT-6, CoRoT-8, CoRoT-18, Kepler-17, and Kepler-63.

We have investigated the case of a coronal mass ejection that was eroded by the fast wind of a coronal hole in the interplanetary medium. When a solar ejection takes place close to a coronal hole, the flux rope magnetic topology of the coronal mass ejection (CME) may become misshapen at 1 AU as a result of the interaction. Detailed analysis of this event reveals erosion of the interplanetary coronal mass ejection (ICME) magnetic field. In this communication, we study the photospheric magnetic roots of the coronal hole and the coronal mass ejection area with HMI/SDO magnetograms to define their magnetic characteristics.

Coronal mass ejections (CMEs) are explosive events that occur basically daily on the Sun. It is thought that these events play a crucial role in the angular momentum and mass loss of late-type stars, and also shape the environment in which planets form and live. Stellar CMEs can be detected in optical spectra in the Balmer lines, especially in Hα, as blue-shifted extra emission/absorption. To increase the detection probability one can monitor young open clusters, in which the stars are due to their youth still rapid rotators, and thus magnetically active and likely to exhibit a large number of CMEs. Using ESO facilities and the Nordic Optical Telescope we have obtained time series of multi-object spectroscopic observations of late-type stars in six open clusters with ages ranging from 15 Myrs to 300 Myrs. Additionally, we have studied archival data of numerous active stars. These observations will allow us to obtain information on the occurrence rate of CMEs in late-type stars with different ages and spectral types. Here we report on the preliminary outcome of our studies.