We present z > 9 candidates identified in Hubble Frontier Fields imaging of the first four clusters and blank parallel fields (two-thirds of the complete program). Based on the deeper Hubble imaging, we revise the redshift estimate of the CLASH z ~ 9.6 candidate MACS1149-JD to z = 9.2+0.2 -0.5 (95% C.L.). We identify a new possible fainter z ~ 9 companion 3” away (~1 kpc in the source plane). And we discover a new z ~ 9.2 candidate in the MACS1149 parallel field. Combined with previously published candidates at z ~ 9.8 and 9.1 (in A2744 and its parallel field, respectively), these five z > 9 candidates fall below our published expectation of 8 – 47 at this stage in the program. We attribute some of this shortfall to incompleteness, which we have yet to quantify. At z ~ 8 (7.5 – 8.5), we detect 26 candidates down to F160W H < 28.7 AB, roughly one-third the ~82 we expect. If our z > 9 incompleteness is similar (~68%), our results would support the sharp drop in z > 9 number counts claimed by some (but not all) previous works and supported by several (but not all) theoretical models. Properly quantifying our incompleteness will require adding simulated high-redshift galaxies into the images and testing our recovery rate. Additionally, incorporating the deep Spitzer imaging into our analysis could potentially significantly improve our identification of z > 9 candidates by rejecting low-redshift (z ~ 2) interlopers. Data from the full Frontier Fields program will provide strong evidence for or against accelerated evolution and a sharp drop in the cosmic star formation rate density at z > 9.

Observatories offer a good possibility for serial transnational applications. For example one can choose groups like baroque or neoclassical observatories, solar physics observatories or a group of observatories equipped with the same kind of instruments or made by famous firms. I will discuss what has been achieved and show examples, like the route of astronomical observatories, the transition from classical astronomy to modern astrophysics. I will also discuss why the implementation of the World Heritage & Astronomy initiative is difficult and why there are problems to nominate observatories for election in the national tentative lists.

The IAU Division C Commission 55, Communicating Astronomy with the Public, played an active role in Union affairs within Division C, Education, Outreach and Heritage. The International Astronomical Union (IAU) vested considerable responsibility for its public outreach efforts in Commission 55 (C55), Communicating Astronomy with the Public. This article briefly recounts the origin and history of C55 over the past decade, and describes the work of C55 until it became Division C Commission C.C2 in 2015. As stated on our website, http://www.communicatingastronomy.org, C55 was founded on the principle that “it is the responsibility of every practising astronomer to play some role in explaining the interest and value of science to our real employers, the taxpayers of the world.” While this was true a decade ago, when the Working Group that eventually became C55 first took shape, it is even more true today, when funding for the astronomical sciences (and science more generally) is under threat on nearly every continent.

Interplanetary dust particles (IDPs) and larger micrometeorites (MMs) impinge on the upper atmosphere where they decelerate at 90 km altitude and settle to the Earths surface. Comets and asteroids are the major sources and the flux, 30,000-40,000 tons/yr, is comparable to the mass of larger meteorites impacting the Earths surface. The sedimentary record suggests that the flux was much higher on the early Earth. The chondritic porous (CP) subset of IDPs together with their larger counterparts, ultracarbonaceous micrometeorites (UCMMs), appear to be unique among known meteoritic materials in that they are composed almost exclusively of anhydrous minerals, some of them contain >> 50% organic carbon by volume as well as the highest abundances of presolar silicate grains including GEMS. D/H and 15N abundances implicate the Oort Cloud or presolar molecular cloud as likely sources of the organic carbon. Prior to atmospheric entry, IDPs and MMs spend 104-105 year lifetimes in solar orbit where their surfaces develop amorphous space weathered rims from exposure to the solar wind (SW). Similar rims are observed on lunar soil grains and on asteroid Itokawa regolith grains. Using valence electron energy-loss spectroscopy (VEELS) we have detected radiolytic water in the rims on IDPs formed by the interaction of solar wind protons with oxygen in silicate minerals. Therefore, IDPs and MMs continuously deliver both water and organics to the earth and other terrestrial planets. The interaction of protons with oxygen-rich minerals to form water is a universal process.

This report summarizes laboratory measurements of atomic wavelengths, energy levels, hyperfine and isotope structure, energy level lifetimes, and oscillator strengths. Theoretical calculations of lifetimes and oscillator strengths are also included. The bibliography is limited to species of astrophysical interest. Compilations of atomic data and internet databases are also included. Papers are listed in the bibliography in alphabetical order, with a reference number in the text.

Interstellar dust is still the dominant uncertainty in Astronomy, limiting precision in e.g., cosmological distance estimates and models of how light is re-processed within a galaxy. When a foreground galaxy serendipitously overlaps a more distant one, the latter backlights the dusty structures in the nearer foreground galaxy. Such an overlapping or occulting galaxy pair can be used to measure the distribution of dust in the closest galaxy with great accuracy. The STARSMOG program uses HST observation of occulting galaxy pairs to accurately map the distribution of dust in foreground galaxies in fine (<100 pc) detail. Furthermore, Integral Field Unit observations of such pairs will map the effective extinction curve in these occulting galaxies, disentangling the role of fine-scale geometry and grain composition on the path of light through a galaxy.

The overlapping galaxy technique promises to deliver a clear understanding of the dust in galaxies: the dust geometry, a probability function of the amount of dimming as a function of galaxy type, its dependence on wavelength, and evolution of all these properties with cosmic time using distant, high-redshift pairs.

Comets are probably the best archives of the nascent solar system, 4.5 Gyr ago, and their compositions reveal crucial clues on the structure and dynamics of the early protoplanetary disk. Anhydrous minerals (olivine and pyroxene) have been identified in cometary dust for a few decades. Surprisingly, samples from comet Wild2 returned by the Stardust mission in 2006 also contain high temperature mineral assemblages like chondrules and refractory inclusions, which are typical components of primitive meteorites (carbonaceous chondrites - CCs). A few Stardust samples have also preserved some organic matter of comet Wild 2 that share some similarities with CCs. Interplanetary dust falling on Earth originate from comets and asteroids in proportions to be further constrained. These cosmic dust particles mostly show similarities with CCs, which in turn only represent a few percent of meteorites recovered on Earth. At least two (rare) families of cosmic dust particles have shown strong evidences for a cometary origin: the chondritic porous interplanetary dust particles (CP-IDPs) collected in the terrestrial stratosphere by NASA, and the ultracarbonaceous Antarctic Micrometeorites (UCAMMs) collected from polar snow and ice by French and Japanese teams. Analyses of dust particles from the Jupiter family comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko by the dust analyzers on Rosetta orbiter (COSIMA, GIADA, MIDAS) suggest a relationship to interplanetary dust/micrometeorites. A growing number of evidences highlights the existence of a continuum between asteroids and comets, already in the early history of the solar system.

The Large Sky Area Multi-Object Fiber Spectroscopic Telescope (LAMOST) at the Xinglong observatory in China is a 4-m telescope equipped with 4,000 optical fibres. In 2010, we initiated the LAMOST-Kepler project which aimed at collecting low-resolution spectra of stars from the Kepler Input Catalog covering uniformly the Kepler field of view. The first round of the LAMOST-Kepler project has been completed in September 2014 resulting in more than 100,000 low-resolution spectra. We used those data to derive the effective temperature, the surface gravity, and the mean metallicity of our targets, as well as to detect fast rotators, and to identify emission-line stars. Our results are consistent with those reported in the literature and derived from high-resolution spectroscopy. The second round of the LAMOST-Kepler project will allow to improve the coverage of the Kepler field and to repeat observations of selected targets.

A feed-forward neural network which can account for nonlinear relationship was used to model total solar irradiance (TSI). A single layer feed-forward neural network with Levenberg-marquardt back-propagation algorithm have been implemented for modeling daily total solar irradiance from daily photometric sunspot index, and core-to-wing ratio of Mg II index data. In order to obtain the optimum neural network for TSI modeling, the root mean square error (RMSE) and mean absolute error (MAE) have been taken into account. The modeled and measured TSI have the correlation coefficient of about R=0.97. The neural networks (NNs) model output indicates that reconstructed TSI from solar proxies (photometric sunspot index and Mg II) can explain 94% of the variance of TSI. This modeled TSI using NNs further strengthens the view that surface magnetism indeed plays a dominant role in modulating solar irradiance.

All 119 OH maser galaxies (110 out of them are megamasers, i.e., L OH > 10 L ⊙, OHMs) published so far were compiled and were cross-identified with the Wide-Field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) catalog. Our aim is to investigate intrinsic middle-infrared properties of OH maser galaxies and try to find some hints on sample selections on OHM surveys through the coming Five hundred aperture spherical telescope (FAST). In addition, enormous potentials for OHM surveys by future FAST are investigated, based on its innovative designs and its expected best sensitivity among single dish telescopes.

RR Lyrae stars being distance indicators and tracers of old population serve as excellent probes of the structure, formation, and evolution of our Galaxy. Thousands of them are being discovered in ongoing wide-field surveys. The OGLE project conducts the Galaxy Variability Survey with the aim to detect and analyze variable stars, in particular of RRab type, toward the Galactic bulge and disk, covering a total area of 3000 deg2. Observations in these directions also allow detecting background halo variables and unique studies of their properties and distribution at distances from the Galactic Center to even 40 kpc. In this contribution, we present the first results on the spatial distribution of the observed RRab stars, their metallicity distribution, the presence of multiple populations, and relations with the old bulge. We also show the most recent results from the analysis of RR Lyrae stars of the Sgr dwarf spheroidal galaxy, including its center, the globular cluster M54.

In 2012, the International Astronomical Union (IAU), through its Office of Astronomy for Development (OAD), established the three Task Forces which drive global activities using astronomy as a tool to stimulate development. These Task Forces are: (i) Astronomy for Universities and Research; (ii) Astronomy for Children and Schools; and (iii) Astronomy for the Public.

We study the assembly history of the stellar halo of Milky Way-like galaxies using the six high-resolution Aquarius dark matter simulations combined with the Munich-Groningen semi-analytic galaxy formation model. Our goal is to understand the stellar population contents of the building blocks of the Milky Way halo, including their star formation histories and chemical evolution, as well as their internal dynamical properties. We are also interested in how they relate or are different from the surviving satellite population. Finally, we will use our models to compare to observations of halo stars in an attempt to reconstruct the assembly history of the Milky Way's stellar halo itself.

With the large improvement in effective area of Astro-H's micro-calorimeter soft X-ray spectrometer (SXS) over grating spectrometers, high-resolution X-ray spectroscopy with good signal to noise will become more commonly available, also for faint and extended sources. This will result in a range of spectral lines being resolved for the first time in celestial sources, especially in the Fe region. However, a large number of X-ray line energies in the atomic databases are known to a lesser accuracy than that expected for Astro-H/SXS, or have no known uncertainty at all. To benchmark the available calculations, we have therefore started to measure reference energies of K-shell transition in L-shell ions for astrophysically relevant elements in the range 11≤ Z ≤ 28 (Na to Ni), using the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory's EBIT-I electron beam ion trap coupled with the NASA/GSFC EBIT calorimeter spectrometer (ECS). The ECS has a resolution of ~5 e V, i.e., similar to Astro-H/SXS and Chandra/HETG. A comparison to crystal spectra of lower charge states of sulfur with ~0.6 e V resolution shows that the analysis of spectra taken at ECS resolution allows to determine the transition energies of the strongest components.

Transit timing variations (TTV) in multi-transiting systems enables precise characterizations of low-mass planets and their orbits. The range of orbital periods and incident fluxes with detailed TTV constraints complements the radial velocity sample for low-mass planets, pushing exoplanet characterization to the regime sub-Earth size planets and out to Mercury-like distances. This has revealed an astonishing diversity in the density of super-Earth mass planets. We summarize these and other contributions to exoplanet science from TTVs.

This communication proposes a methodical approach trying to link the concept of “Windows to the Universe” to the uses of the Criteria defined by the World Heritage Convention (UNESCO 1972). The first issue is well advanced today after more than 10 years of active studies and preservation projects such as “Starlight Reserves” by specialists of astronomy, archaeoastronomy and environmental sciences. The second issue is related to a UNESCO Convention ruled by the WH Committee that has led to the recognition of around 1000 World Heritage sites over 40 years. The official booklet Operational Guidelines for the Implementation of the World Heritage Convention (latest edition 2015) (UNESCO 2015) summarizes conceptual ideas and methodological recommendations for WH nominations. In practice the WH Committee's decisions rely on the scientific and professional evaluation of each site by UNESCO's advisory bodies: ICOMOS for cultural heritage and IUCN for natural heritage.

The first goal of this presentation is to establish appropriate understanding of a very specific conceptual approach (Windows to the Universe) in the context of a very large UN Convention (the World Heritage List) related both to cultural and natural heritage in general. The second goal is to give a readable understanding of the WH requirements coming from the strict evaluation of the “Outstanding Universal Value” (OUV) of a given place, including the choice of WH Criteria expressing OUV with respect to the format of the Guidelines. Furthermore, and due to concepts coming from two very different fields, the communication aims to present a practical methodology in the case of a possible WH nomination: how to understand relationships between different classes of value and how to demonstrate OUV and justify the choice of Criteria for the place. Beyond potential WH projects, obviously limited in number, the communication tries to propose an efficient and general methodology for assessing the value and creating understanding of places having a “Windows to the Universe” facet.

Water and organics are commonly believed to be the essential ingredients for life on Earth. The development of infrared and submillimeter observational techniques has resulted in the detection of water in circumstellar envelopes, interstellar clouds, comets, asteroids, planetary satellites and the Sun. Complex organics have also been found in stellar ejecta, diffuse and molecular clouds, meteorites, interplanetary dust particles, comets and planetary satellites. In this Focus Meeting, we will discuss the origin, distribution, and detection of water and other life's building blocks both inside and outside of the Solar System. The possibility of extraterrestrial organics and water on the origin of life on Earth will also be discussed.

The cosmic star formation rate density first increases with time towards a pronounced peak 10 Gyrs ago (or z=1-2) and then slows down, dropping by more than a factor 10 since z=1. The processes at the origin of the star formation quenching are not yet well identified: either the gas is expelled by supernovae and AGN feedback, or prevented to inflow. Morphological transformation or environment effects are also invoked. Recent IRAM/NOEMA and ALMA results are reviewed about the molecular content of galaxies and its dynamics, as a function of redshift. Along the main sequence of massive star forming galaxies, the gas fraction was higher in the past (up to 80%), and galaxy disks were more unstable and more turbulent. The star formation efficiency increases with redshift, or equivalently the depletion time decreases, whatever the position of galaxies, either on the main sequence or above. Attempts have been made to determine the cosmic evolution of the H2 density, but deeper ALMA observations are needed to effectively compare with models.

Current star-forming galaxies (SFGs) with CO measurements at z ~ 2 suffer from a bias toward high star formation rates (SFR) and high stellar masses (M *). It is yet essential to extend the CO measurements to the more numerous z ~ 2 SFGs with L IR < L ⋆ = 4× 1011 L⊙ and M * < 2.5× 1010 M⊙. We have achieved CO, stars, and dust measurements in 8 such sub-L ⋆ SFGs with the help of gravitational lensing. Combined with CO-detected galaxies from the literature, we find that the L IR, L′CO(1−0) data are best-fitted with a single relation that favours a universal star formation. This picture emerges because of the enlarged star formation efficiency spread of the current z>1 SFGs sample. We show that this spread is mostly triggered by the combination of redshift, specific SFR, and M *. Finally, we find evidence for a non-universal dust-to-gas ratio (DGR) with a clear trend for a lower DGR mean in z>1 SFGs by a factor of 2 with respect to local galaxies and high-redshift sub-mm galaxies at fixed about solar metallicity.

The spectral and temporal behavior of exoplanet host stars is a critical input to models of the chemistry and evolution of planetary atmospheres. High-energy photons (X-ray to NUV) from these stars regulate the atmospheric temperature profiles and photochemistry on orbiting planets, influencing the production of potential “biomarker” gases. We report first results from the MUSCLES Treasury Survey, a study of time-resolved UV and X-ray spectroscopy of nearby M and K dwarf exoplanet host stars. This program uses contemporaneous Hubble Space Telescope and Chandra (or XMM) observations to characterize the time variability of the energetic radiation field incident on the habitable zones planetary systems at d ≲ 20 pc. We find that all exoplanet host stars observed to date exhibit significant levels of chromospheric and transition region UV emission. M dwarf exoplanet host stars display 30–7000% UV emission line amplitude variations on timescales of minutes-to-hours. The relative flare/quiescent UV flux amplitudes on weakly active planet-hosting M dwarfs are comparable to active flare stars (e.g., AD Leo), despite their weak optical activity indices (e.g., Ca II H and K equivalent widths). We also detect similar UV flare behavior on a subset of our K dwarf exoplanet host stars. We conclude that strong flares and stochastic variability are common, even on “optically inactive” M dwarfs hosting planetary systems. These results argue that the traditional assumption of weak UV fields and low flare rates on older low-mass stars needs to be revised.