We have recently found signals of candidates for two historical supernovae and past solar cycles in a depth profile of nitrate ion concentrations in an ice core portion corresponding to the 10th and the 11th centuries. This ice core was drilled in 2001 at Dome Fuji (Dome F) station in Antarctica. We briefly review our findings and discuss why Dome F is appropriate for this study.

We describe three space experiments designed to expose to space conditions, and more specifically to solar UV radiation, selected samples of organic and mineral material.

Constraints on the masses of dark matter haloes associated with galaxies in the field and in clusters have been successfully obtained used galaxy-galaxy lensing techniques. Weak lensing thus provides important information on the mass distribution in galaxies at large radii in a statistical fashion. Current work suggests that all galaxies possess extended dark matter haloes, however those that host galaxies in clusters are less extended and less massive.

Energy and mass interchanges in the interstellar medium are driven by the life-cycle of stars. They appear in our own Galaxy over a broad range of scales, from point-like injection from stars to global input on the scale of spiral density waves. Understanding this Galactic Ecosystem requires observations of the different phases of the ISM over this large angular dynamic range. The Canadian Galactic Plane Survey (CGPS) is a project to combine radio, millimeter, and infrared surveys of the Galactic plane, providing arcminute-scale images of all major components of the interstellar medium over a large portion of the Galactic disk.

The I-GALFA survey is mapping HI 21 cm emission in the inner parts of our Milky Way Galaxy using the Arecibo L-band Feed Array (ALFA). Examples of various H i features such as supershells and chimneys are shown.

The cosmic abundance of the 3He isotope has important implications for many fields of astrophysics. We are using the 8.665 GHz hyperfine transition of 3He+ to determine the 3He/H abundance in Milky Way H ii regions and planetary nebulae. Here we review the 30 year history of our 3He program, report on its current status, and describe our future plans.

In the last few years a variety of lithium and beryllium surveys have been carried out among Pop. I stars in the field and open clusters, with the goal to trace the dependence of these element abundances on stellar mass, age, metallicity, and to understand the physical processes that lead to their depletion. I summarize here the most recent results, focusing on stars with temperatures similar to the Sun. In particular, I will discuss Li measurements in solar-type members of old open clusters, which definitively show that the low solar lithium is not the standard for a star of that age and mass.

We have studied the core of the Hydra I cluster, around its central cD galaxy, NGC 3311. We have analyzed the kinematics a sample of 60 intracluster planetary nebulae (PNs), detected using the multi-slit imaging spectroscopy technique (MSIS, Gerhard et al., 2005, Ventimiglia et al., 2008). PNs are good tracers of light (Coccato et al., 2009) and the MSIS allows to measure their velocities and positions at the same time. The histogram of the PN radial velocities presents several discrete components. We are comparing this result with ΛCDM hydro-dynamical simulations and other data in order to interpret it in the framework of the formation of extended halos around cD galaxies. V band photometric data around NGC 3311 have revealed the presence of an excess of light in the North-East part of the galaxy, which is spatially coincident with most of the PNs contributing to the reddest peak in the PNs LOSVD. We have measured, using Long-Slit data, the velocity of HCC26, a dwarf (DW) galaxy in the middle of the excess of light. The reddest peak in the PNs LOSVD is consistent both with the velocity of HCC 26 and of several other DWs in the same region. We are investigating the possibility that the light in excess has been stripped from these galaxies and now incorporated into the halo of NGC 3311.

For nearby K dwarfs, the broadening of the observed Main Sequence at low metallicities is much narrower than expected from isochrones with the standard helium–to–metal enrichment ratio ΔY/ΔZ~2. A much higher value, of order 10, is formally needed to reproduce the observed broadening, but it returns helium abundances in awkward contrast with Big Bang Nucleosynthesis. This steep enrichment ratio resembles, on a milder scale, the very high ΔY/ΔZ estimated from the multiple Main Sequences observed in some metal-poor Globular Clusters. We argue that a revision of low Main Sequence stellar models, suggested from nearby stars, could help to reduce the overwhelmingly high ΔY/ΔZ deduced so far for those clusters. Under the most favourable assumptions, the estimated helium content for the enriched populations may decrease from Y ≃ 0.4 to as low as Y ≃ 0.3, with intermediate values being plausible.

The Herschel and Planck satellites have started imaging the sky at far-IR to mm wavelengths with an unprecedented combination of sky and spectral coverage, angular resolution, and sensitivity, thus opening the last window of the electromagnetic spectrum on the Galaxy. Dedicated observing programs on Herschel and the Planck all-sky survey will provide the first complete view at cold dust across the Galaxy, opening new perspectives on the structure and dynamical evolution of the Milky Way relevant to Gaia. The analysis and modelling of these observations will contribute to our understanding of two key questions: how do stars form from interstellar matter? how are the interstellar medium and the magnetic field dynamically coupled? The comparison with Gaia observations will contribute to build a 3D model of the Galactic extinction taking into account dust evolution between ISM components

The Parkes Pulsar Timing Array project is timing 20 millisecond pulsars with the aims of detecting gravitational waves, establishing a time scale based on pulsar periods and improving solar-system ephemerides.

We present examples of an extended asteroseismic modelling in which we aim at fitting not only pulsational frequencies but also certain complex parameter related to each frequency. This kind of studies, called complex asteroseismology, has been successfully applied to a few main sequence B-type pulsators and provided, in particular, plausible constraints on stellar opacities. Here, we briefly describe our results for three early B-type stars.

An important factor in estimating the likelihood of life elsewhere in the Universe is determining the stability of a planet's orbit. A significant fraction of stars like the Sun occur in binary systems which often has a considerable effect on the stability of any planets in such a system. In an effort to determine the stability of planets in binary star systems, we conducted a numerical simulation survey of several mass ratios and initial conditions. We then estimated the stability of the planetary orbit using a method that utilizes the hodograph to determine the effective eccentricity of the planetary orbit. We found that this method can serve as an orbital stability criterion for the planet.

Chemically Peculiar (CP) stars have been the subject of systematic research for more than 50 years. With the discovery of pulsation of some of the cool CP stars, and the availability of advanced spectropolarimetric instrumentation and high signal-to-noise, high resolution spectroscopy, a new era of CP star research emerged about 20 years ago. Together with the success in ground-based observations, new space projects are developed that will greatly benefit future investigations of these unique objects. In this contribution we will give an overview of some interesting results obtained recently from ground-based observations and discuss the future outstanding Gaia space mission and its impact on CP star research.

Globular clusters exhibit peculiar chemical patterns where Fe and heavy elements are constant inside a given cluster while light elements (Li to Al) show strong star-to-star variations. This pattern can be explained by self-pollution of the intracluster gas by the slow winds of fast rotating massive stars. Besides, several main sequences have been observed in several globular clusters which can be understood only with different stellar populations with distinct He content. Here we explore how these He abundances can constrain the self-enrichment in globular clusters.

The effect of variations of the fundamental nuclear parameters on big-bang nucleosynthesis are modeled and discussed in detail taking into account the interrelations between the fundamental parameters arising in unified theories. Considering only 4He, strong constraints on the variation of the neutron lifetime, neutron-proton mass difference are set. We show that a variation of the deuterium binding energy is able to reconcile the 7Li abundance deduced from the WMAP analysis with its spectroscopically determined value while maintaining concordance with D and 4He.

Jean Heidmann (1923-2000) began his research career as a radio-astronomer in 1959 at Paris Observatory, investigating the structure of galaxies and the distance scale in the nearby universe. In the early 1980's, his scientific interest broadened to the search for extraterrestrial intelligence and he became a strong advocate of SETI, either from the ground or from space.

The International Astronomical Union (IAU) launched 2009 as the International Year of Astronomy (IYA2009) under the theme, The Universe, Yours to Discover. IYA2009 marked the 400th anniversary of the first astronomical observation through a telescope by Galileo Galilei. It has been, and still is, a global celebration of astronomy and its contributions to society and culture, with a strong emphasis on education, public engagement and the involvement of young people, with events at national, regional and global levels throughout the whole of 2009. UNESCO endorsed IYA2009 and the United Nations proclaimed the year 2009 as the International Year of Astronomy on 20 December 2007. These proceedings aim to give a brief account of IYA2009, from its inception to the present and how its legacy will influence the future of astronomy communication on a planet-wide scale.

In this presentation, I will outline some of the different ways that neutron stars can generate gravitational waves, discuss recent improvements in modeling the relevant scenarios in the context of improving detector sensitivity, and show how observations are beginning to put interesting “constraints” on our theoretical models.

Molecules and dust are formed in and around the asymptotic giant branch (AGB) stars and supernovae (SNe), and are ejected into the interstellar medium (ISM) through the stellar wind. The dust and gas contain elements newly synthesised in stars, thus, dying stars play an important role in the chemical enrichment of the ISM of galaxies. However, quantitative analysis of molecules and dust in these stars had been difficult beyond our Galaxy. The high sensitivity instruments on-board the Spitzer Space Telescope (SST; Werner et al. 2004) have enabled us to study dust and molecules in these stars in nearby galaxies. Nearby galaxies have a wide range in metallicity, thus the impact of the metallicity on dust and gas production can be studied. This study will be useful for chemical evolution of galaxies from low to high metallicity.