Stanford's Solar Center, Electrical Engineering Department, and local educators have developed inexpensive Space Weather Monitors that students around the world can use to track solar- and lightning-induced changes to the Earth's ionosphere. Through the United Nations Basic Space Science Initiative (UNBSSI) and the International Heliophysical Year (IHY) Education and Public Outreach programme, our Monitors are being deployed to 191 countries. In partnership with Chabot Space and Science Center, we are designing and developing classroom and educator support materials to accompany the distribution. Materials will be culturally sensitive and will be translated into the six official languages of the United Nations (Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian, and Spanish). Monitors will be provided free of charge to developing nations and can be set up anywhere there is access to power.

We have conducted a 3D imaging spectroscopic survey of 15 nearby Seyfert and control non-active galaxies, using the SAURON Integral Field Unit on the WHT. One goal of the project is to search for dynamical triggers of nuclear activity in nearby galaxies. We present here the preliminary results of the kinematic analysis of the gaseous and stellar velocity fields.

We examine the galaxy luminosity functions (LFs) in the Hydra I cluster (Abell 1060) at z = 0.0126, for which very faint galaxies (down to M ~ −10) have not been surveyed yet. We conclude that the total LF has a slightly steep slope (α ~ −1.6) at −20 < M < −10 in the B- and RC-bands. The numbers of galaxies at the faint end (M ≳ −14) differ in between the cluster center and the outskirts slightly. We divide the Hydra member galaxies into red/blue galaxies and find that the shape of LFs in the faint magnitude range is determined by red dwarf galaxies.

Using radial velocities of vibrationally excited H2 emission in OMC1 we present the structure functions and the scaling of the structure functions with their order at scales ranging from 70 AU to 30000 AU extending earlier related studies to scales lower by two orders of magnitude. The structure functions for OMC1 show clear deviations from power laws at 1500 AU. The scaling of the higher order structure functions with order deviates from predicted theoretical scalings. Observational results are compared with simulations of supersonic hydrodynamic turbulence. The unusual scaling is explained as a selection effect of preferentially observing the shocked part of the gas. The simulations are unable to reproduce the deviations from power laws of the structure functions.

Optical identifications of all IRAS PSC sources at high galactic latitudes by means of the First Byurakan Survey (FBS) in the area with +61° < δ < +90° at galactic latitudes |b|>15° have been carried out with a total surface of 1487 deg2. 1577 sources have been optically identified, 1178 sources corresponding to galaxies. The BIG sample (Byurakan-IRAS Galaxies) was constructed of 1178 newly identified galaxies and 789 other IRAS galaxies in the same area, known before, altogether 1967 galaxies. Studies of the BIG objects include: spectroscopic follow-up for the brighter (<18m) objects; discovery and study of new AGN; discovery and study of new ULIRGs; deep imagery of the most interesting objects and the “empty fields”; 2D spectroscopy of interacting/merging systems; search for obscured IRAS galaxies (with the Spitzer Space Telescope), etc. The BIG objects are a rich source for new AGN, high-luminosity IR galaxies (hence, starburst activity), and interacting/merging systems. All these phenomena are crucial for understanding the galaxy evolution and their interrelation, as well as the triggering of the powerful IR radiation. In frame of the redshift survey of these galaxies, spectroscopic observations have been carried out for the BIG objects (including the pairs and multiples) by means of the Byurakan Astrophysical Observatory (BAO, Armenia) 2.6m, Special Astrophysical Observatory (SAO, Russia) 6m, and Observatoire de Haute Provence (OHP, France) 1.93m telescopes. It is shown that, without an exception, all double/multiple BIG systems are physical pairs or groups, and they are mostly interacting and/or merging systems. From the high IR luminosities derived from the observations, one can conclude that perhaps the ULIRG/HLIRG phenomenon is connected with galaxy interactions/merging. We find an evolution in luminosity function of these objects with respect to their redshift distribution.

Existence of AGN among the multiple BIG objects provides a chance for study of the galaxy evolution in sense of interrelationship between the three phenomena: starburst, interactions/merging, and nuclear activity. We have shown (Mickaelian et al. 2001) that the maximum IR luminosity of a single spiral galaxy may not be larger than 1012 Solar luminosities. Hence, all high-L IRAS galaxies are interacting pairs/multiples or mergers. But what is the relation of the active nucleus to the starburst (i.e. IR) activity?

The fundamental properties of detached eclipsing binary stars can be measured very accurately, which could make them important objects for constraining the treatment of convection in theoretical stellar models. However, only four or five pieces of information can be found for the average system, which is not enough. We discuss studies of more interesting and useful objects: eclipsing binaries in clusters and eclipsing binaries with pulsating components.

While until recently they were often considered as exotic objects of dubious existence, in the last decades there have been overwhelming observational evidences for the presence of stellar mass black holes in binary systems, supermassive black holes at the centers of galaxies, and possibly, intermediate-mass black holes observed as ultraluminous X-ray sources in nearby galaxies. Black holes are now widely accepted as real physical entities that play an important role in several areas of modern astrophysics.

Here I review the concluding remarks of the IAU Symposium No 238 on Black Holes, with particular emphasis on the topical questions in this area of research.

Cometary globule CG 12 lies at the distance of 630 pc more than 200 pc above the Galactic plane. The cloud's structure could be due to the passage of a supernova blast wave. Curiously, the cometary tail points at the galactic plane which would put the putative supernova even farther above the Galactic plane than the globule. The globule contains a low/intermediate mass stellar cluster with at least 9 members (Williams et al. 1977). The head of CG 12 has been observed using NIR imaging (NTT SOFI), mm continuum (SEST SIMBA) and sub mm (APEX) and mm (SEST) spectroscopy (Haikala & Olberg 2006, Haikala et al.). The molecular material is distributed in a North-South 10' long elongated lane with two compact maxima separated by 3'. Strong C18O (3-2), (2-1) and (1-0) emission is detected in both maxima and both have an associated compact 1.2 mm continuum source. The Northern core, CG 12 N, is cold and is possibly still pre-stellar. A dense and compact core is observed in DCO+ and CS emission in the direction of the Southern core, CG 12 S. A remarkable C18O hot spot was detected in CG 12 S. This is the first detection of such a compact, warm object in a low mass star forming region. The hot spot can be modelled with a 60″ to 80″ diameter (~0.2 pc) hot (80 K ≲ Tex≲ 100 K) 1.6 solar mass clump (Haikala et al. 2006). The hot spot lies at the edge of a dense cloud core and on the axis of a highly collimated bipolar molecular outflow (White 1993). The driving source of the outflow is most probably embedded in the dense core. NIR imaging reveals a bright cone like feature with a faint counter cone in the centre of CG 12 S. The size of the CG 12 compact head, 1.1 pc by 1.8 pc, and the C18O mass larger than 100 solar masses are comparable to those of other nearby low/intermediate mass star formation regions.

The CON+Deuterium Observations Receiver (CONDOR) is a heterodyne receiver that operates between 1250–1530 GHz. Its primary goal is to observe star-forming regions in CO, N+, and H2D+ emission.

In Galactic microquasars with double-peak kHz quasi-periodic oscillations (QPOs), the ratio of the two frequencies is 3:2. This supports the suggestion that double-peak kHz QPOs are due to a non-linear resonance between two modes of accretion disk oscillations. For the microquasars with known mass, we briefly compare the black hole spin estimates based on the orbital resonance model with the recently reported spin predictions obtained by fitting the spectral continua. Results of these two approaches are not in good agreement. We stress that if the spectral fit estimates are accurate and can be taken as referential (which is still questionable), the disagreement between the predicted and referential values would represent a rather generic problem for any relativistic QPO model, as no spin influence would appear in the observed 1/M scaling of the QPO frequencies. The epicyclic frequencies relevant in these models are often considered to be equal to those of a test particle motion. However modifications of the frequencies due to disc pressure or other non-geodesic effects may play an important role, and the inaccuracy introduced in the spin estimates by the test particle approximation could be crucial.

It is shown that a number of key observations of the Galactic ISM can be understood, if it is treated as a highly compressible and turbulent medium, energized predominantly by supernova explosions (and stellar winds). We have performed extensive numerical high resolution 3D hydrodynamical and magnetohydrodynamical simulations with adaptive mesh refinement over sufficiently long time scales to erase memory effects of the initial setup. Our results show, in good agreement with observations, that (i) volume filling factors of the hot medium are modest (typically below 20%), (ii) global pressure is far from uniform due to supersonic (and to some extent super-Alfvénic) turbulence, (iii) a significant fraction of the mass (~60%) in the warm neutral medium is in the thermally unstable regime (500 < T < 5000 K), (iv) the average number density of Ovi in absorption is 1.81 × 10−8 cm−3, in excellent agreement with Copernicus and FUSE data, and its distribution is rather clumpy, consistent with its measured dispersion with distance.

Supermassive black holes are nowadays believed to reside in most local galaxies. Observations have revealed us vast information on the population of local and distant black holes, but the detailed physical properties of these dark massive objects are still to be proven. Accretion of gas and black hole mergers play a fundamental role in determining the two parameters defining a black hole: mass and spin. We briefly review here the basic properties of the population of supermassive black holes, focusing on the still mysterious formation of the first massive black holes, and their evolution from early times to now.

Detached eclipsing binaries are very useful objects for calibrating theoretical stellar models and checking their predictions. Detached eclipsing binaries in open clusters are particularly important because of the additional constraints on their age and chemical composition from their membership of the cluster. I compile a list containing absolute parameters of well-studied eclipsing binaries in open clusters, and present new observational data on the B-type systems V1481 Cyg and V2263 Cyg which are members of the young open cluster NGC 7128.

We present preliminary results of the Gemini/GMOS longslit spectra for four radiogalaxies: 3C 135, 3C 180, 3C 234 and 3C 284. These objects are a subsample of a set of galaxies with noticeable extended structure selected from the HST/WFPC2 3CR Snapshot Survey, data taken with the filters F555W, F702W and narrow-ramp. All of these objects show large regions of [Oiii]λ5007 emission (narrow ramp filter) and the broad-band filters data show similar structures indicating the presence of strong emission in several lines over these regions. The morphology observed seems to be related (e.g. same position angle, direct overlapping or similar shape) with the radio-jet. For some candidates with these properties GMOS/Gemini spectroscopy was taken. These data (both HST direct imaging and Gemini spectroscopy) can be tested with diagnostic diagrams and total UV photons budget to understand the source of energy that is ionizing the gas. This source of ionization was commonly believed to be the UV photons emitted by the powerful AGN, but several of these objects shows clearly that shocks produce by the radio jet are the main cause of the observed gas line emission.

There is now considerable interest in how stellar streams in the Milky Way can be used to probe how the earlier merger history of our galaxy, which in turn can be related to hierarchical models of galaxy evolution.

In this review we discuss the evidence for galaxy interactions and mergers in the distant universe and the role of mergers in forming galaxies. Observations show that the fraction of massive (M>M*) galaxies involved in major mergers is roughly 5–10% at z ~ 1. The merger fraction however increases steeply for the most massive galaxies up to z ~ 3, where the merger fraction is 50± 20%. Using N-body models of the galaxy merger process at a variety of merger conditions, merger mass ratios, and viewing angles this merger fraction can be converted into a merger rate, and mass accretion rate due to mergers. A simple integration of the merger rate shows that a typical massive galaxy at z ~ 3 will undergo 4–5 major mergers between z ~ 3 and z ~ 0, with most of this activity, and resulting mass assembly, occurring at z>1.5.

Bars are the most important features that redistribute angular momentum and drive secular evolution in disk galaxies. We have derived the distribution of bar strengths in spirals and the Fourier properties of early-type galaxy bars in order to evaluate recent models of bar-halo angular momentum transfer and external gas accretion. A few results are presented here.

Several examples of observational evidence of possible variations of geometrical and physical characteristics of the Broad Line Regions (BLR) of AGN on the time-scale of years are listed. Cases of accretion disk size variations and variable input of jets in BLR formation are presented.

We present a new diagnosis method for determining physical properties of star-forming gas in high-z galaxies. In this method, we employed three key observational quantities, [CI], CO, and FIR luminosities, including our new detections of CO J = 4–3 emission from the pure-starburst (non-AGN) submm galaxy SMM J14011+0252 (z = 2.6) and the type-2 AGN IRAS FSC 10214+4724 (z = 2.3) obtained with the Nobeyama Millimeter Array (NMA) at the Nobeyama Radio Observatory. These two sources have extremely high star formation rate, and exhibit strong emission of CO and [CI] 609 μm lines. We determined ISM physical conditions for the two objects and another three high-z quasars in order to investigate the relationship between their ISM and power sources (i.e., massive star formation or AGN). A new PDR analysis (Wolfire et al. 2005, private communication) using CO, [CI], and FIR on five high-z sources provides new evidence that AGN host galaxies harbor denser (log nH ~ 5–6) ISM exposed to stronger far-UV fluxes of log G0 ~ 3.5–4 than the non-AGN submm galaxy. Volume filling factors of the star-forming dense gas in the AGN hosts are an order of magnitude smaller than that of the pure-starburst submm galaxy. This suggests that, in these AGN hosts, dense molecular clouds are dominating the central kpc around AGN, triggering extensive circumnuclear starbursts, and possibly feeding their central supermassive black hole simultaneously.

Differential rotation, similar to that seen on our gas giants, is manifested at the surface of three-dimensional (3D) computer simulations of thermal convection in density-stratified rotating planets without solid cores. Below the surface, the flow forms short axially-aligned vortices, generated by fluid expanding as it rises and contracting as it sinks. The convergence of the nonlinear Reynolds stresses resulting from the vorticity generated by fluid flowing through the density stratification maintains the surface banded zonal flow without the classical vortex stretching of Taylor columns. These preliminary simulations demonstrate that large non-convecting cores are not required to obtain multiple zonal jets at the surface, and show greater convective heat flux towards the poles relative to that seen at the equator. This result could help explain the nearly uniform with latitude thermal emission observed at the surface of Jupiter.