Here we present the first results from the Siding Spring Southern Seyfert Spectroscopic Snapshot Survey (S7) which aims to investigate the physics of ∼140 radio-detected southern active Galaxies with z<0.02 through Integral Field Spectroscopy using the Wide Field Spectrograph (WiFeS). This instrument provides data cubes of the central 38×25 arc sec. of the target galaxies in the waveband 340–710nm with the unusually high resolution of R=7000 in the red (530–710nm), and R=3000 in the blue (340–560nm). These data provide the morphology, kinematics and the excitation structure of the extended narrow-line region, probe relationships with the black hole characteristics and the host galaxy, measures host galaxy abundance gradients and the determination of nuclear abundances from the HII regions. From photoionisation modelling, we may determine the shape of the ionising spectrum of the AGN, discover whether AGN metallicities differ from nuclear abundances determined from HII regions, and probe grain destruction in the vicinity of the AGN. Here we present some preliminary results and modelling of both Seyfert galaxies observed as part of the survey.

We present a spectral decomposition technique that separates the contribution of different kinematic components in galaxies from the observed spectrum. This allows to study the kinematics and properties of the stellar populations of the individual components (e.g., bulge, disk, counter-rotating cores, orthogonal structures). Here, we discuss the results of this technique for galaxies that host counter-rotating stellar disks of comparable size. In all the studied cases, the counter-rotating stellar disk is the less massive, the youngest and has different chemical content (metallicity and α-elements abundance ratio) than the main galaxy disk. Further applications of the spectral decomposition technique are also discussed.

Representing a post-scriptum supplementary to a previous paper of the authors Brumberg & Ivanova (2011) this note aims to simplify the practical development of the Earth's rotation theory, in the framework of the general planetary theory, avoiding the non–physical secular terms and involving the separation of the fast and slow angular variables, both for planetary–lunar motion and Earth's rotation. In this combined treatment of motion and rotation, the fast angular terms are related to the mean orbital longitudes of the bodies, the diurnal and Euler rotations of the Earth. The slow angular terms are due to the motions of pericenters and nodes, as well as the precession of the Earth. The combined system of the equations of motion for the principal planets and the Moon and the equations of the Earth's rotation is reduced to the autonomous secular system with theoretically possible solution in a trigonometric form. In the above–mentioned paper, the Earth's rotation has been treated in Euler parameters. The trivial change of the Euler parameters to their small declinations from some nominal values may improve the practical efficiency of the normalization of the Earth's rotation equations. This technique may be applied to any three-axial rigid planet. The initial terms of the corresponding expansions are given in the Appendix.

Fomalhaut harbours a moderately eccentric dust belt with a planet candidate (Fom b) imaged near its inner edge. MCMC-based orbital determination of Fom b shows that the orbit is highly eccentric (e≃0.9), nearly apsidally aligned with the belt. We study the secular interaction between the planet and the dust ring. We show that only if it is a small mass object, Fom b can perturb the belt without destroying it. But Fom b's perturbing action inevitably drives the belt to high eccentricity and apsidal misalignment. This behaviour is due to the planet's high eccentricity.

This dynamical outcome contradicts both observations and orbital determination. We conclude that another, more massive and less eccentric planet (Fom c) is required to dynamically control the belt. We show that Fom b is likely to have been formerly trapped in mean-motion resonance with Fom c and that subsequent eccentricity increase caused it to cross Fom c's orbit and to jump on its present day orbit via a scattering event.

The morphological, spectroscopic and kinematical properties of the warm interstellar medium (wim) in early-type galaxies (ETGs) hold key observational constraints to nuclear activity and the buildup history of these massive quiescent systems. High-quality integral field spectroscopy (IFS) data with a wide spectral and spatial coverage, such as those from the CALIFA survey, offer a precious opportunity for advancing our understanding in this respect. We use deep IFS data from CALIFA (califa.caha.es) to study the wim over the entire extent and optical spectral range of 32 nearby ETGs. We find that all ETGs in our sample show faint (Hα equivalent width EW(Hα)∼0.5 … 2 Å) extranuclear nebular emission extending out to ≥2 Petrosian50 radii. Confirming and strengthening our conclusions in Papaderos et al. (2013, hereafter P13) we argue that ETGs span a broad continuous sequence with regard to the properties of their wim, and they can be roughly subdivided into two characteristic classes. The first one (type i) comprises ETGs with a nearly constant EW(Hα)∼1–3 Å in their extranuclear component, in quantitative agreement with (even though, no proof for) the hypothesis of photoionization by the post-AGB stellar component being the main driver of extended wim emission. The second class (type ii) consists of virtually wim-evacuated ETGs with a large Lyman continuum (Lyc) photon escape fraction and a very low (≤0.5 Å) EW(Hα) in their nuclear zone. These two ETG classes appear indistinguishable from one another by their LINER-specific emission-line ratios. Additionally, here we extend the classification by P13 by the class i+ which stands for a subset of type i ETGs with low-level star-forming activity in contiguous spiral-arm like features in their outermost periphery. These faint features, together with traces of localized star formation in several type i&i+ systems point to a non-negligible contribution from young massive stars to the global ionizing photon budget in ETGs.

We present a new technique developed to model the radiative transfer (RT) effects in nearby face-on galaxies. The face-on perspective provides insight into the star-forming regions and clumpy structure, imposing the need for high-resolution 3D models to recover the asymmetric stellar and dust geometries observed in galaxies. RT modeling of the continuum emission of stars and its interaction with the embedding dust in a galaxy's interstellar medium enables a self-consistent study of the main dust heating mechanisms in galaxies. The main advantage of RT calculations is the non-local character of dust heating that can be addressed by tracing the propagation of stellar radiation through the dusty galaxy medium.

HD 82943 hosts a mysterious multi-planet system in the 2:1 mean-motion resonance that puzzles astronomers for more than a decade. We describe our new analysis of all radial velocity data currently available for this star, including both the most recent Keck data and the older but more numerous CORALIE measurements.

Here we pay a major attention to the task of optimal scheduling of the future observation of this system. Applying several optimality criteria, we demonstrate that in the forthcoming observational season of HD 82943 (the winter 2014/2015) rather promising time ranges can be found. Observations of the near future may give rather remarkable improvement of the orbital fit, but only if we choose their time carefully.

I present an overview of new observations of atomic and molecular gas in early-type galaxies, focusing on the Atlas3D project. Our data on stellar kinematics, age and metallicity, and ionized gas kinematics allow us to place the cold gas into the broader context of early-type galaxy assembly and star formation history. The cold gas data also provide valuable constraints for numerical simulations of early-type galaxies.

Yarkovsky-Radzievskij effect exceeds the Poynting-Robertson effect in the perturbing action on particles larger than 100 μm. We obtained formulae for averaged changes in a meteoroid's Keplerian orbital elements and used them to estimate dispersion in the Geminid meteoroid stream. It was found that dispersion in semi-major axis of the model shower increased nearly three times on condition that meteoroids rotation is fast, and the rotation axis is stable.

I review the implementation of the effects from varying chemical element abundance ratios in stellar population modelling, focusing on α- and Fe-peak elements. A brief overview of the development of such models over the past 30 years is provided, starting with early work on the identification of relevant absorption features in the spectra of early-type galaxies in the 1980s leading to the most recent developments of the past years. Recent highlights include the adoption of new flux calibrated libraries, the inclusion of a wide range of chemical elements, the calculation of error estimates on the model, and the consideration of element variation effects on full spectra. The calibration of such models with globular clusters and some key results on the element ratios measured in early-type galaxies are presented.

A comparison of several known dynamical indicators of chaos based on the numerical integration of differential variational equations is performed. The comparison is implemented on the examples of studying dynamics in the planar circular restricted three-body problem.

We present the kinematic morphology-density relation in three galaxy clusters, Abell 85, 168 and 2399, using data from the SAMI Pilot Survey. We classify the early-type galaxies in our sample as fast or slow rotators (FRs/SRs) according to a measured proxy for their projected specific stellar angular momentum. We find each cluster contains both fast and slow rotators with and average fraction of SRs in the sample of fSR=0.15 ± 0.04. We investigate this fraction within each cluster as a function of local projected galaxy density. For Abell 85 we find that fSR increases at high local density but for Abell 168 and 2399 this trend is not seen. We find SRs not just at the centres of our clusters but also on the outskirts and hypothesise that these SRs may have formed in group environments eventually accreted to the larger cluster.

The radio and optical characteristics of faint radio sources are investigated thanks to the VIPERS spectroscopic and photometric data, and radio data from the VLA FIRST survey at 1.4 GHz.

The future space debris environment will be dominated by the production of fragments coming from massive fragmentations. In order to identify the most relevant parameters influencing the long term evolution of the environment and to assess the criticality of selected space objects in different regions of the circumterrestrial space, a large parametric study was performed. In this framework some indicators were produced to quantify and rank the relevance of selected fragmentations on the long term evolution of the space debris population. Based on the results of the fragmentation studies, a novel analytic index, the Criticality of Spacecraft Index, aimed at ranking the environmental criticality of abandoned objects in LEO, has been devised and tested on a sample population of orbiting objects.

In this contribution I show that by combining imaging and integral-field spectroscopy it is possible to unravel the internal structure of galaxies. In particular, I will present the photometric and kinematic evidence for discs linking them with stellar angular momentum content of early-type galaxies. Furthermore, I show that the existence of both fast rotators with core and slow rotators with core-less nuclear light profiles challenges the standard formation scenarios for fast and slow rotators and suggests new pathways of mass assembly.

van Dokkum and Conroy (2010) have heralded the possible implication of NaI 8200A lines on extra bottom-heavy IMF of bright elliptical galaxies. A flurry of papers have followed it and revisited the half a century old issue all over again from various angles. For a sanity check, we investigate on the issue this time using the better measured NaD 5900A line instead. We found from the SDSS database that a large (~ 10%) fraction of galaxies (both early and late types) exhibit strong NaD lines and that the same bottom-heavy models of van Dokkum and Conroy that reproduced the strong NaI 8200 lines of elliptical galaxies are not capable of reproducing NaD line strengths at all. The mystery prevails. This article is mainly a review of our recent paper (Jeong et al. 2013).

Highly non-coplanar extrasolar systems (e.g. Upsilon Andromedae) and unexpected spin-orbit misalignment of some exoplanets have been discovered. In Libert and Tsiganis (2011), a significant increase of the mutual inclination of some multi-planet systems has been observed during the type II migration, as a result of planet-planet scattering and/or resonant interactions between the planets. Here we investigate the effect of the inclination damping due to planet-disk interactions on the previous results, for a variety of planetary systems with different initial configurations and mass ratios. Using the damping formulae for eccentricity and inclination provided by the numerical hydrodynamical simulations of Bitsch et al. (2013), we examine their impact on the possible multiple resonances between the planets and how the growth in eccentricity and inclination is affected.

We highlight recent results on the DYNAMO survey of turbulent, clumpy disks galaxies found at z=0.1. Bright star forming DYNAMO galaxies are found to be very similar in properties to star forming galaxies in the high redshift Universe. Typical star formation rates of turbulent DYNAMO galaxies range 10-80 M⊙ yr−1. Roughly 2/3 of DYNAMO galaxies have Hα kinematics that are consistent with rotation. The typical gas velocity dispersion of DYNAMO galaxies is σHα ~ 20 - 60 km s−1. We show that, when convolved to the same resolution, maps of Hα emission in DYNAMO galaxies have essentially identical morphology as that of z ~ 1 - 3 galaxies. Finally, DYNAMO galaxies have high molecular gas fractions fmol ~ 20 - 35%. We note that DYNAMO galaxies are not dwarfs, typical masses are Mstar ~ 0.8 - 8 × 1010 M⊙. These data are all consistent with a scenario in which despite being at relatively low redshift the DYNAMO galaxies are forming stars similarly to that observed in the high-redshift Universe, that is to say star formation is occurring in very massive (Mclump ~ 109 M⊙), very large (rclump ~ 300 pc) clumps of gas.

Planar motions of a triangular body and a massive point under the action of mutual Newtonian attraction are studied. For the first formulation the triangle is assumed to be composed of three massive points. For the second formulation it is constructed with three homogeneous rods. Some partial solutions are observed within the analysis of the geometry of mass distribution.

The investigation is motivated by the problem of motion of spacecrafts near asteroid-like celestial objects possessing irregular mass distribution. Comparison of dynamical effects for two types of mass distribution is another goal of the research.

Problems appearing because of irregularities in mass distributions have been known for a long time. Certain approaches to the description of motions under attraction as well as qualitative particulars of dynamics are discussed by Demin (1963), Burov & Karapetyan (1995), Buchin & Burov & Troger (2008), Burov & Guerman & Sulikashvili (2010), Kholshevnikov & Kuznetsov (2011), Beletsky & Rodnikov (2011) and Scheeres (2012).