Korea Microlensing Telescope Network (KMTNet) which consists of three identical 1.6 m wide-field telescopes with 18k × 18k CCDs, is the first optical survey system of its kind. The combination of fast optics and the mosaic CCD delivers seeing limited images over a 4 square degrees field of view. The main science goal of KMTNet is the discovery and characterization of exoplanets, yet it also offers various other science applications including DEep Ecliptic Patrol of SOUTHern sky (DEEP-South). The aim of DEEP-South is to discover and characterize asteroids and comets, including Near Earth Objects (NEOs). We started test runs last February after commissioning, and will return to normal operations in October 2015. A summary of early results from the test runs will be presented.

The diffuse extended outer regions of galaxies are hard to study because they are faint, with typical surface brightness of 1% of the dark night sky. We can tackle this problem by using resolved star tracers which remain visible at large distances from the galaxy centers. This article describes the use of Planetary Nebulae as tracers and the calibration of their properties as indicators of the star formation history, mean age and metallicity of the parent stars in the Milky Way and Local Group galaxies. We then report on the results from a deep, extended, planetary nebulae survey in a 0.5 deg2 region centered on the brightest cluster galaxy NGC 4486 (M87) in the Virgo cluster core, carried out with SuprimeCam@Subaru and FLAMES-GIRAFFE@VLT. Two planetary nebulae populations are identified out to 150 kpc distance from the center of M87. One population is associated with the M87 halo and the second one with the intracluster light in the Virgo cluster core. They have different line-of-sight velocity and spatial distributions, as well as different planetary nebulae specific frequencies and luminosity functions. The intracluster planetary nebulae in the surveyed region correspond to a luminosity of four times the luminosity of the Large Magellanic Cloud. The M87 halo planetary nebulae trace an older, more metal-rich, parent stellar population. A substructure detected in the projected phase-space of the line-of-sight velocity vs. major axis distance for the M87 halo planetary nebulae provides evidence for the recent accretion event of a satellite galaxy with luminosity twice that of M33. The satellite stars were tidally stripped about 1 Gyr ago, and reached apocenter at a major axis distance of 60–90 kpc from the center of M87. The M87 halo is still growing significantly at the distances where the substructure is detected.

While one of the IAU's missions is to “serve as the internationally recognized authority for assigning designations to celestial bodies and surface features on them” (†), the participation of the public in the naming of celestial objects has been a little-known, but decade-long tradition of the IAU.

The Planck satellite (Planck 2015 results. I) has provided the first FIR/submm all-sky survey with a sensitivity allowing us to identify the rarest, most luminous hig-z dusty star-forming sources on the sky. The Planck list of high-z source candidates (PHZ, PIP XXXIX subm) has been built and charcaterized over 25% of the sky by selecting the 2151 brightest red submm sources at a 5' resolution (Montier et al. 2010). Follow-up observations with Herschel/SPIRE over 228 Planck candidates have already shown that 93% of these candidates are actually overdensities of red sources (PIP XXVII 2015), while 12 Planck high-z candidates are identified as strongly lensed star-forming galaxies at redshift between 2.2 and 3.6 (Canameras et al. 2015). The first confirmed Planck proto-cluster candidate has been revealed to be a double structure at z = 1.7 and zz = 2.03 (Flores-Cacho et al. 2015). The PHZ opens a new window on these extreme star-forming systems at high-z, providing a powerful laboratory to study the mechanisms of galaxy evolution and enrichment in the frame of the large scale structure growth.

The Planck Collaboration has produced catalogues of radio and sub-millimeter compact sources at the nine Planck frequencies in total intensity and polarization. In particular, the 2015 Second Planck Catalogue of Compact Sources (PCCS2) contains over 45.000 sources detected in the Planck full mission maps. Since the Planck instruments have polarization capabilities in seven of its nine detectors, we were able to measure the polarized flux density of over 600 sources between 30 and 353 GHz. But we are searching not only for compact sources in single frequency maps, and we take advantage of the large frequency coverage of Planck to search for objects with specific emission laws. This is the case of the SZ catalogue of cluster of galaxies (PSZ2), that lists 1653 clusters, 1203 of which are confirmed clusters with clear associations in external data-sets, and the Galactic cold clump catalogue (PGCC) with 13188 objects. The Planck Collaboration has also published a list of high-redshift source candidates (see the report by Ludovic Montier here). These objects are rare bright sub-millimeter sources with an spectral energy distribution peaking between 353 and 857 GHz, and have been detected combining Planck and IRAS data. The colours of most of these objects are consistent with redshifts z>2, a fraction of which could be lensed objects with redshifts between 2 and 4.

But new catalogues are foreseen. A multi-frequency compact source catalogue is being produced selecting sources at radio frequencies and studying them across all Planck bands. Multi-frequency catalogues can be difficult to produce in experiments like Planck that have a large frequency coverage and very different resolutions across bands. In some cases, a source can be very bright across the whole Planck frequency range and it is easy to do the associations across channels. However, it frequent to find unrelated sub-millimeter sources within the half-degree beam of the 30 GHz low frequency detector, and the association work must be done with great care. For this purpose, we are combining a multi-frequency detection procedure with a principal component analysis to produce the catalogue. In addition, for those sources where a clear identification can be made, we will attempt to include flux density information from Herschel and other experiments, in particular for those blazars that are bright in radio, sub-mm and even in gamma-ray frequencies, as seen by Fermi. Moreover, Planck has made available to the community the single survey frequency maps that allow astronomers to study the long-term variability of their favourite sources. New functionalities will be also added to the Planck Legacy Archive†, for example a timeline-cutting tool that will allow one to produce full-sky maps from the Planck timelines for specific periods of time allowing for short-term variability studies of compact sources (e.g., flares). The unique frequency coverage of Planck make these catalogues very valuable for other experiments using the Planck compact source catalogues. For example, experiments like QUIJOTE use Planck selected sources to study the impact of polarized radio source emission on their cosmological fields and other CMB experiments will use Planck polarized compact source information for calibration.

We present an overview of the advances made during the past 15 years by the Atomic Physics and Astrophysics Group of Mons University regarding the analysis of the spectra, the transition probabilities, and the radiative lifetimes in heavy elements. More precisely, this review is focused on neutral and lowly ionized atoms belonging to the lanthanide group, the fifth row, and the sixth row of the periodic table (Z = 37–86), for which a very large amount of new data has been obtained.

A simple model for M51a is constructed to explore its evolutionary history by assuming its disk grows from continuous gas infall, which is shaped by a free parameter-the infall-peak time t p. By adopting a constant infall-peak time t p = 7.0Gyr, our model predictions can reproduce most of the observed constraints and still show that the disk of M51a forms inside-out. Our results also show that the current molecular gas surface density, the star-formation rate and the UV-band surface brightness are important quantities to trace the effect of recent interactions on galactic star-formation process.

The possibility that magnetic torques may participate in close-in planet migration has recently been postulated. We develop three dimensional global models of magnetic star-planet interaction under the ideal magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) approximation to explore the impact of magnetic topology on the development of magnetic torques. We conduct twin numerical experiments in which only the magnetic topology of the interaction is altered. We find that magnetic torques can vary by roughly an order of magnitude when varying the magnetic topology from an aligned case to an anti-aligned case. Provided that the stellar magnetic field is strong enough, we find that magnetic migration time scales can be as fast as ~100 Myr. Hence, our model supports the idea that magnetic torques may participate in planet migration for some close-in star-planet systems.

The evolution of massive stars after the main sequence is not very well known from a theoretical point of view. Recent studies have shown that the way internal mixing processes, such as rotation and convection, are implemented in stellar evolution codes lead to significant discrepancies between the predictions of these codes. Particularly, the end-points of stellar evolution can be considerably different, making hard to understand the evolutionary path the lead to the observed supernovae progenitors.

Comets, asteroids, meteorites, micrometeorites, interplanetary dust particles (IDPs), and ultra-carbonaceous Antarctic micrometeorites (UCAMMs) may contain carbonaceous material, which was exogenously delivered to the early Earth. Carbonaceous chondrites have an enormous variety of extra-terrestrial compounds, including all the key compounds important in terrestrial biochemistry. Comets contain several carbon-rich species and, in addition, the hypervelocity impact-shock of a comet can produce several α-amino acids. The analysis of the carbonaceous content of extra-terrestrial matter provides a window into the resources delivered to the early Earth, which may have been used by the first living organisms.

We report on the composition of turn-off stars in the intriguing open cluster, NGC 6791, which is old, but super-metal-rich using Keck/HIRES spectra. We find [Fe/H] = +0.30 ±0.02[O/Fe]n −0.06 ±0.02,[Mg/Fe], [Si/Fe], [Ca/Fe], and [Ti/Fe] near solar and the two Fe-peak elements, Cr and Ni, are consistent with Fe.

With the combination of deep Hubble Space Telescope imaging and magnification due to gravitational lensing, the Hubble Frontier Fields program offers an unprecedented opportunity to study the faint end of the luminosity function at the highest redshifts. Unfortunately, the region of the field that benefits most from this magnification (the immediate vicinity of the critical line) suffers from a high abundance of bright foreground galaxies and high background due to intracluster light. To overcome these difficulties, some method of modelling and subtracting the foreground light is required. Here, I present results using wavelet decomposition to subtract large-scale structures in the clusters, which significantly increases the effective depth of the images, and crucially opens up the most magnified regions of the clusters.

The selection of young stellar objects (YSOs) based on excess emission in the infrared is easily contaminated by post-main-sequence stars and various types of emission line stars with similar properties. We define in this paper stringent criteria for an efficient selection and classification of stellar sources with infrared excess emission based on combined Two Micron All Sky Survey (2MASS) and AKARI colors.

Asteroseismology has been proven to be a successful tool to unravel details of the internal structure for different types of stars in various stages of evolution well after birth. We can now show that it has similar power for pre-main sequence (pre-MS) objects. Pre-MS stars with masses between ~1 and 6 solar masses that have recently been formed and gain their energy mainly from gravitational contraction can become vibrationally unstable during their evolution to the main sequence. Within the past ~15 years, several dozens of pulsating pre-MS stars were discovered using data obtained from ground and from space. Depending on their masses, pre-MS stars can show three different types of pulsations: (i) δ Scuti type p-mode pulsations, (ii) γ Doradus like g-mode oscillations and (iii) g-mode Slowly Pulsating B star pulsations.

Our asteroseismic investigations yielded new insights into the connection between the pulsations and early stellar evolution: We revealed a relation between the stars' oscillatory behavior and their relative evolutionary stages that might lead us to a model-independent determination of the stars' fundamental parameters. With this we will be able to put constraints on theoretical models and help to answer some of the yet open questions in early stellar evolution.

A country-wide awareness campaign was conducted in India on the trail of Comet ISON, which built upon the networks created during IYA2009, thus maximising its reach.

The joint variability of chromospheric emission with the integrated flux in the Kepler visible band for the Sun as a star is examined. No correlation between our Ca II K line parameter and the Kepler passband is seen, suggesting that visible-band variability in solar-like stars is mostly independent of solar-like chromospheric activity. However, the K-line parameter time series and the total solar flux in the infrared K band appear weakly correlated, reflecting the wavelength dependence of the relationship between magnetic activity and broadband variability. We then apply a schematic, three-component model as a framework for the discussion of stellar photometric variability as observed by Kepler. The model confirms that spots tend to dominate stellar photometric variability in the visible though interesting cases do emerge where the facular disk coverage may become important in determining the amplitude of broadband variability.

It is well known that not all solar flares are connected with eruptions followed by coronal mass ejection (CME). Even strongest X-class flares may not be accompanied by eruptions or are accompanied by failed eruptions. One of important factor that prevent eruption from developing into CME is strength of the magnetic field overlying flare site. Few observations show that active regions with specific magnetic configuration may produce many CME-less solar flares. Therefore, forecasts of geoeffective events based on active region properties have to take into account probability of confining solar eruptions. Present observations of SDO/AIA give a chance for deep statistical analysis of properties of an active region which may lead to confining an eruption. We developed automated method which can recognize eruptions in AIA images. With this tool we will be able to analyze statistical properties of failed eruptions observed by AIA telescope.

The Arles-Fontvieille monuments, or hypogées, have long had a special place in megalithic studies. Their unique architecture, blending “Atlantic” megalithic construction with subterranean rock-cut architecture more commonly found in the Mediterranean, and their size, especially that of the Grotte de Cordes, place them among the most important monuments in France and Europe (Daniel 1960, Guilaine 1998, Sauzade 1999, Hoskin 2001, Saletta 2014). My discovery and interpretation of seasonal light and shadow hierophanies (Saletta 2011, 2014)) within the Arles-Fontvieille monuments has important implications for identifying astronomically related Outstanding Universal Value for late prehistoric European monuments.

A new apodized Keplerian model is proposed for the analysis of precision radial velocity (RV) data to model both planetary and stellar activity (SA) induced RV signals. A symmetrical Gaussian apodization function with unknown width and center can distinguish planetary signals from SA signals on the basis of the width of the apodization function. The general model for m apodized Keplerian signals also includes a linear regression term between RV and the stellar activity diagnostic In (R'hk), as well as an extra Gaussian noise term with unknown standard deviation. The model parameters are explored using a Bayesian fusion MCMC code. A differential version of the Generalized Lomb-Scargle periodogram provides an additional way of distinguishing SA signals and helps guide the choice of new periods. Sample results are reported for a recent international RV blind challenge which included multiple state of the art simulated data sets supported by a variety of stellar activity diagnostics.