We have developed a new mm-submm telescope with a diameter of 1.85 m (hereafter, Osaka 1.85-m telescope) installed at the Nobeyama Radio Observatory. The scientific goal is to precisely reveal physical properties of molecular clouds in the Galaxy by obtaining a large-scale distribution of molecular gas, which also can be compared with large-scale observations in various wavelengths. The target frequency is ~230 GHz; simultaneous observations in J = 2–1 lines of 12CO, 13CO and C18O are achieved with a beam size (HPBW) of 2.7 arcmin. Here we present the progress of observations and the scientific results obtained by Osaka 1.85-m telescope. We note that these J = 2–1 data of the Galactic molecular clouds will be precious for the comparison with those of extra-galactic ones that will be obtained with the ALMA with the comparable spatial resolutions.

Significant minorities of extremely metal-poor (EMP) halo stars exhibit dramatic excesses of neutron capture elements. The standard scenario for their origin is mass transfer and dilution in binary systems, but requires them to be binaries. If not, these excesses must have been implanted in them from birth by processes that are not included in current models of SN II chemical enrichment. The binary population of such EMP subgroups is a test of this scenario.

In this project, we focus on the analysis of infrared observations of the clumps defined with the Galactic Census of High- and Medium-mass Protostars (ChaMP) (Barnes et al.2011). We derive line of sight infrared extinction values, star counts and protostar candidates around the molecular gas emission obtained with the Mopra telescope. Then, we examine the correlation between radio and infrared properties of the clumps. For this stage of the project, we use the Vela-Carina and 2MASS catalogs to obtain a preliminary understanding of the final results. For the later stages, we will extract infrared photometry from our deep AAT near-IR and Spitzer 3.6 and 4.5 μm images. With the final deep photometry results, we will compile the properties of individual clusters.

The spectro-polarimeter in the Hinode Solar Optical Telescope (SOT) is one of the powerful instruments for the most accurate measurements of vector magnetic fields on the solar surface. The magnetic field configuration and possible candidates for flare trigger are briefly discussed with some SOT observations of solar flare events, which include X5.4/X1.3 flares on 7 March 2012, X1.2 flare on 7 January 2014 and two M-class flares on 2 February 2014. Especially, using an unique set of the Hinode and SDO data for the X5.4/X1.3 flares on 7 March 2012, we briefly reviewed remarkable properties observed in the spatial distribution of the photospheric magnetic flux, chromospheric flare ribbons, and the 3D coronal magnetic field structure inferred by non-linear force-free field modeling with the Hinode photospheric magnetic field data.

We propose a low-contrast pre-coronagraph that can provide additional dark-hole contrast to a main coronagraph.

We report on the Siding Spring Southern Seyfert Spectroscopic Snap-shot Survey.

I will review the current status of stellar flare observations and models, highlight similarities and differences with solar flares, and plead for additional data and insight from the “Sun as a Star”.

CARMENES (Calar Alto high-Resolution search for M dwarfs with Exo-earths with Near-infrared and optical Echelle Spectrographs) is a new instrument currently undergoing commissioning at the 3.5 m telescope of the Calar Alto Observatory. It has been constructed by a consortium of eleven Spanish and German institutions. The scientific goal of the project is a 600-night radial-velocity survey targeting 300 M dwarfs with sufficient precision to detect terrestrial planets in their habitable zones. The CARMENES instrument consists of two separate échelle spectrographs covering the wavelength range from 0.55 to 1.7 μm at a spectral resolution of R = 82,000, fed by fibers from the Cassegrain focus of the telescope. Both spectrographs are housed in a temperature-stabilized environment in vacuum tanks, to enable a long-term radial velocity precision of 1 m s−1. The wavelength calibration will be done with Th-Ne and U-Ne emission line lamps, and with Fabry-Pérot etalons.

A next main step in understanding star formation is to link the sharp but narrow view of Galactic molecular cloud studies to the wider context accessed by less detail by extragalactic work. In this proceeding, we discuss how new technology and large programs at millimeter wavelengths are improving our ability to access physical conditions in the interstellar medium (ISM) of other galaxies. We highlight results from the multi-line survey of Usero et al. (2015), which measured density sensitive lines across nearby galaxy disks, and two new mapping studies of M51: the high resolution Plateau de Bure Arcsecond Whirlpool Survey (PAWS) and the EMPIRE multi-line mapping survey. These results argue for a context-dependent role for gas density in star formation; that is, gas at a particular density does not appear to form stars in a universal way. They also demonstrate the influence of cloud-scale conditions, especially surface density and the velocity dispersion, in setting the small-scale density distribution and highlight gravitational boundedness as a main driver of the ability of gas to form stars. Beyond these specific results, we argue that ability to gauge detailed physical conditions in the star-forming gas of other galaxies promises major advances that will help unify the fields of Galactic and extragalactic star formation in the next few years.

Massive galaxy clusters (GC) are filled with a hot, turbulent and magnetised intra-cluster medium (ICM). They are still forming under the action of gravitational instability, which drives supersonic mass accretion flows. These partially dissipate into heat through a complex network of large scale shocks, and partly excite giant turbulent eddies and cascade. Turbulence dissipation not only contributes to heating of the ICM but also amplifies magnetic energy by way of dynamo action. The pattern of gravitational energy turning into kinetic, thermal, turbulent and magnetic is a fundamental feature of GC hydrodynamics but quantitative modelling has remained a challenge. In this contribution we present results from a recent high resolution, fully cosmological numerical simulation of a massive Coma-like galaxy cluster in which the time dependent turbulent motions of the ICM are resolved (Miniati 2014) and their statistical properties are quantified for the first time (Miniati 2015, Beresnyak & Miniati 2015). We combine these results with independent state-of-the art numerical simulations of MHD turbulence (Beresnyak 2012), which shows that in the nonlinear regime of turbulent dynamo (for magnetic Prandtl numbers≳ 1) the growth rate of the magnetic energy corresponds to a fraction CE ≃ 4 − 5 × 10−2 of the turbulent dissipation rate. We thus determine without adjustable parameters the thermal, turbulent and magnetic history of giant GC (Miniati & Beresnyak 2015). We find that the energy components of the ICM are ordered according to a permanent hierarchy, in which the sonic Mach number at the turbulent injection scale is of order unity, the beta of the plasma of order forty and the ratio of turbulent injection scale to Alfvén scale is of order one hundred. These dimensionless numbers remain virtually unaltered throughout the cluster's history, despite evolution of each individual component and the drive towards equipartition of the turbulent dynamo, thus revealing a new type of self-similarity in cosmology. Their specific values, while consistent with current data, indicate that thermal energy dominates the ICM energetics and the turbulent dynamo is always far from saturation, unlike the condition in other familiar astrophysical fluids (stars, interstellar medium of galaxies, compact objects, etc.). In addition, they have important physical meaning as their specific values encodes information about the efficiency of turbulent heating (the fraction of ICM thermal energy produced by turbulent dissipation) and the efficiency of dynamo action in the ICM (CE ).

Super star clusters (SSCs) represent the youngest and most massive form of known gravitationally bound star clusters in the Universe. They are born abundantly in environments that trigger strong and violent star formation. We investigate the properties of these massive SSCs in a sample of 42 nearby starbursts and luminous infrared galaxies. The targets form the sample of the SUperNovae and starBursts in the InfraReD (SUNBIRD) survey that were imaged using near-infrared (NIR) K-band adaptive optics mounted on the Gemini/NIRI and the VLT/NaCo instruments. Results from i) the fitted power-laws to the SSC K-band luminosity functions, ii) the NIR brightest star cluster magnitude − star formation rate (SFR) relation and iii) the star cluster age and mass distributions have shown the importance of studying SSC host galaxies with high SFR levels to determine the role of the galactic environments in the star cluster formation, evolution and disruption mechanisms.

IAU Commission 28 (IAU C28: Galaxies) was founded in the late 1930s at which time it had only a small membership (see the historical notes by Sadler et al. 2007). When C28 ended its existence in 2015 there were well over 1000 members on its books. The membership had grown to the point where the effort to keep track of active participants had become a major task. During the C28s tenure 27 IAU Symposia have been devoted to galaxies, the third highest number (Mickaelian 2014)

Astronomy is part of our culture. Astronomy cannot be isolated in a classroom, it has to be integrated in the normal life of teachers and students. “Astronomy in the city” is an important part of NASE (Network for Astronomy School Education) (Ros & Hemenway 2012). In each NASE course we introduce a “working group session” chaired by a local expert in cultural astronomy. The chair introduces several examples of astronomy in their city and after that, the participants have the opportunity to discuss and mention several similar examples. After this session all participants visit one or two sites proposed and introduced by the chair.

After more than 5 years using this method we visited and discovered several examples of astronomy in the city:

•Astronomy in ancient typical clothes.

•Archaeological temples oriented according to the sunrise or set.

•Petroglyphs with astronomical meaning.

•Astronomy in monuments.

•Sundials.

•Oriented Colonial churches.

•Astronomy in Souvenirs.

In any case, teachers and students discover that Astronomy is part of their everyday life. They can take into account the Sun's path when they park their car or when they take a bus “what is the best part in order to be seat in the shadow during the journey?” The result is motivation to go with “open eyes” when they are in the street and they try to get more and more information about their surroundings.

In summary, one of the main activities is to introduce local cultural aspects in NASE astronomy courses. The participants can discover a new approach to local culture from an astronomical point of view.

We investigate how varying the number of multiple image constraints and the available redshift information can influence the systematic errors of strong lens models, specifically, the image predictability, mass distribution, and magnifications of background sources. This work will not only inform upon Frontier Field science, but also for work on the growing collection of strong lensing galaxy clusters, most of which are less massive and are capable of lensing a handful of galaxies.

The photometric data returned by WISE, the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer, can be used to search the sky for young stellar objects (YSOs) away from the molecular clouds studied in detail by Spitzer and Herschel. We present updated results for a 100 deg2 region centered on Canis Major, including a look at the clustering properties of YSOs in the region.

Abell 2744 was the first HFF cluster completed. It displays a fascinating complexity in its distribution of dark and luminous matter, which led to its nickname of the Pandora cluster. In late 2014 we obtained a deep (110 ks) observation of this cluster with XMM-Newton, with the aim of making a detailed comparison between the optical, X-ray and lensing properties of this system. The new X-ray observation unveiled the presence of three hot gas filaments extending on scales of several Mpc and connected to the cluster core. The X-ray structures coincide spatially with the distribution of galaxies and dark matter and provide strong evidence for the existence of the elusive warm-hot intergalactic medium (WHIM). The new observation also reveals the complexity of the thermodynamic structure of the cluster core and a probable shock front associated with the radio relic located 1 Mpc NW of the cluster core.

The properties of globular cluster systems (GCSs) in the core of the nearby galaxy clusters Fornax and Hydra I are presented. In the Fornax cluster we have gathered the largest radial velocity sample of a GCS system so far, which enables us to identify photometric and kinematic sub-populations around the central galaxy NGC 1399. Moreover, ages, metallicities and [α/Fe] abundances of a sub-sample of 60 bright globular clusters (GCs) with high S/N spectroscopy show a multi-modal distribution in the correlation space of these three parameters, confirming heterogeneous stellar populations in the halo of NGC 1399. In the Hydra I cluster very blue GCs were identified. They are not uniformly distributed around the central galaxies. 3-color photometry including the U-band reveals that some of them are of intermediate age. Their location coincides with a group of dwarf galaxies under disruption. This is evidence of a structurally young stellar halo “still in formation”, which is also supported by kinematic measurements of the halo light that point to a kinematically disturbed system. The most massive GCs divide into generally more extended ultra-compact dwarf galaxies (UCDs) and genuine compact GCs. In both clusters, the spatial distribution and kinematics of UCDs are different from those of genuine GCs. Assuming that some UCDs represent nuclei of stripped galaxies, the properties of those UCDs can be used to trace the assembly of nucleated dwarf galaxies into the halos of central cluster galaxies. We show via semi-analytical approaches within a cosmological simulation that only the most massive UCDs in Fornax-like clusters can be explained by stripped nuclei, whereas the majority of lower mass UCDs belong to the star cluster family.

In this work, we have developed a new approach to form stars from clusters first, where massive stars are formed from fractions of mass of small stellar clusters. This new approximation is based on the empirical power law found in recent years and the maximum stellar mass that can be formed in a cluster. To produce the new models we have used the most recent version of Starburst99 that incorporates the most recent stellar evolution models with rotation. At the verge of solving nearby stellar populations and observing small stellar populations across the universe, this new approach brings a new scope on trying to disentangle the nature of hyper and supermassive stars in small stellar populations. Models for NGC 3603 and NGC 604 are presented. Our most important result is a strong ionizing power from small clusters by forming enough supermassive stars in a cluster of ~ 104 M⊙.

Supermassive black hole accretion and feedback play central role in the evolution of galaxies, groups, and clusters. I review how AGN feedback is tightly coupled with the formation of multiphase gas and the newly probed chaotic cold accretion (CCA). In a turbulent and heated atmosphere, cold clouds and kpc-scale filaments condense out of the plasma via thermal instability and rain toward the black hole. In the nucleus, the recurrent chaotic collisions between the cold clouds, filaments, and central torus promote angular momentum cancellation or mixing, boosting the accretion rate up to 100 times the Bondi rate. The rapid variability triggers powerful AGN outflows, which quench the cooling flow and star formation without destroying the cool core. The AGN heating stifles the formation of multiphase gas and accretion, the feedback subsides and the hot halo is allowed to cool again, restarting a new cycle. Ultimately, CCA creates a symbiotic link between the black hole and the whole host via a tight self-regulated feedback which preserves the gaseous halo in global thermal equilibrium throughout cosmic time.

RCW 38 is the youngest super star cluster in the Galaxy and is located at a distance of 1.7 kpc. Molecular observations revealed that the cluster is associated with two molecular clouds having velocity difference of 12 km s−1. We interpret that the two clouds are colliding with each other and the collision triggered the cluster formation. The natal molecular gas still survives within ~ 0.5 pc of the central O stars which have an age of 0.1 Myrs as inferred from the collision morphology. We suggest that the high column density of one of the clouds 1023 cm−2 enabled formation of ~ 20 O stars in the cluster center and discuss the implications on massive cluster formation.