The solar wind is an ionized gas which, as a consequence of a hot solar corona and a low fluid pressure in the interstellar space, continuously emanates from the Sun into space to define a region known as the heliosphere. Since the electrical conductivity of the solar wind is very high, diffusion of the magnetic field through the plasma is not taken into account. In this picture (the frozen-in approximation) one imagines that the solar magnetic field is dragged into the heliospheric space by the radially outflowing solar wind. The structure of the solar wind is therefore intimately related to the structure of the solar corona and the solar magnetic field. The solar wind plasma itself is composed of protons, electrons, alpha particles, and a minor fraction of heavy ions.

The exploration of our Solar System is rapidly growing in importance as a scientific discipline. During the last decades, great progress has been achieved as the result of space missions to planets and small bodies and improved remote-sensing methods, as well as due to refined techniques of laboratory measurements and a rapid progress in theoretical studies, involving the development of various astrophysical and geophysical evolutionary models, based in particular on the approach of comparative planetology. In the crossroads of astronomy and geophysics, recent years have seen a growing understanding of the importance of impact phenomena throughout the history of the Solar System and, therefore, the necessity to get more insight into the problem of interactions of planets and small bodies. This importance is clearly manifested by the observed cratering records of planetary surfaces and such dramatic events as the explosions of the comet P/Shoemaker-Levy 9 fragments in Jupiter’s atmosphere in 1994, that of the Tunguska object over Siberia in 1908, and the Chicxulub event dating back to the end of the Cretaceous.

The question of the boundaries of the heliosphere is considered. The termination heliospheric shock should exist because the solar wind plasma flowing supersonically away from the Sun must make a transition to a subsonic flow. The heliopause is at the outermost extend of the solar wind. Beyond the heliopause lies the (very local) interstellar wind. Intensity of radio emissions at 2 to 3 kHz detected by the Voyager plasma wave instrument in the outer heliosphere can be explained provided that the electron beams generating Langmuir waves exist in the post-shock plasma due to secondary shocks in the compressed solar wind beyond the termination shock. The field strengths of Langmuir waves required to generate the second harmonic emissions are 50 – 100 μ V m-1. Alternatively, the emissions are generated in the vicinity of the heliopause. The Voyager 1 and 2 are proceeding toward a likely source region for Langmuir wave and these waves may be observed in situ in the near future.

The magnetism of the Sun manifests itself in innumerable ways, many of which constitute what is referred to as solar magnetic activity, while others are counted among the phenomena of the quiet Sun. After a brief overview of the structure of the solar magnetic field, a few examples of its manifestations are pointed out.

Ideas about the contents of the Solar System beyond Neptune and Pluto can be traced back to at least Edgeworth (1943, 1949) and Kuiper (1951), who speculated on the existence of pre-planetary small bodies in the outer Solar System beyond the orbit of Neptune - remnants of the accretion process in the primordial Solar Nebula. The basis for the speculation was primarily the argument that the Solar Nebula was unlikely to have been abruptly truncated at the orbit of Neptune, and that in the trans-Neptunian accretion timescales were too long for bodies larger than about ˜ 1000 km in radius to have formed in the 4.5 billion year age of the Solar System. Another important theoretical argument relevant to this region of the Solar System is related to the origin of short period comets. Fernández (1980) suggested that the short period comets may have an origin in a disk of small bodies beyond Neptune, rather than being “captured” from the population of long period comets originating in the Oort Cloud, the latter scenario having considerable difficulty reconciling the observed flux of short period comets with the exceedingly low efficiency of transfer of long period comet orbits to short period ones by means of the gravitational perturbations of the giant planets. The new scenario received further strength in the numerical work of Duncan et al. (1988) and Quinn et al. (1990) which showed that the relatively small orbital inclinations of the Jupiter-family short period comets were not consistent with a source in the isotropic Oort Cloud of comets but could be reproduced with a source in a low-inclination reservoir beyond Neptune’s orbit. Duncan et al. named this hypothetical source the Kuiper Belt, and the name has come into common use in the last decade (although other names are also in use, e.g. Edgeworth-Kuiper Belt, and trans-Neptunian objects). A recent theoretical milestone was the work by Holman and Wisdom (1993) and Levison and Duncan (1993) on the long term stability of test particle orbits in the trans-Neptunian Solar System. This work showed that low-eccentricity, low-inclination orbits with semimajor axes in excess of about 43 AU are stable on billion year timescales, but that in the region between 35 AU and 43 AU orbital stability times range from 107 yr to more than 109 yr [see, for example, figure 1 in Holman (1995)]. Orbital instability in this intermediate region typically leads to a close encounter with Neptune which causes dramatic orbital changes, with the potential for subsequent transfer to the inner Solar System. Thus, this region could in principle serve as the reservoir of short period comets at the present epoch. However, the idea of a kinematically cold — i.e. low-eccentricity, low-inclination — population in this region is at odds with recent observations, and the question of the origin of short period comets remains unsettled at the present time.

In this paper it is explained how asteroids with large aphelion distances avoid very close approach to Jupiter. Namely, since for asteroids with resonant mean motions the critical arguments librate as it has been known for many years, and for those with non-resonant mean motions the eccentricities change with the argument of perihelion so the distance to Jupiter cannot be very small.

Also some behaviours of Kuiper-belt asteroids are studied by a similar way and it is found that the libration region for the argument of perihelion appears only when the eccentricity is very large. Therefore, even though the eccentricity is very large it is possible for any Kuiper-belt asteroid to avoid very close approach to any of the planets.

The combined operations of the Large Angle Spectrometric Coronagraph (LASCO) and the Extreme Ultraviolet Imaging Telescope (EIT) on the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO), launched in December 1995, have provided an unprecedented opportunity for observing essentially all coronal phenomena that are not hidden behind the disk of the Sun. Consequently, observations with these instrument are providing information on coronal mass ejections (CMEs) from their initiation through their development over 30 ⊙. They reveal a coronal that never reaches a steady state. The corona is the site of continuous, time-dependent outflows, both within the coronal holes and the high speed streams and in the streamer belts and their mid-latitude sources. The spatial scales of these outflows range from 10s of arc-seconds through about a solar radius in large CMEs.

The acceleration of electrons and charged nuclei to high energies is a phenomenon occuring at many sites throughout the universe, including the galaxy, pulsars, quasars, and around black holes. In the heliosphere, large solar flares and the often associated coronal mass ejections (CMEs) are the most energetic natural particle accelerators, occasionally accelerating protons to GeV and electrons to tens of MeV energies. The observation of these particles offers the unique opportunity to study fundamental processes in astrophysics. Particles that escape into interplanetary space can be observed in situ with particle detectors on spacecraft. In particular, particle spectra can be diagnostic of flare acceleration processes. On the other hand, energetic processes on the sun can be studied indirectly, via observations of the electromagnetic emissions (radio, X-ray, gamma-ray) produced by the particles in their interactions with the solar atmosphere. The purpose of this article is to give a brief overview on current models on particle acceleration and the present status of observations of solar energetic particles.

P/1996 N2 Elst-Pizarro was discovered with a tail of dust in July 1996 and was thus classified as periodic comet. From the orbit point of view it belongs to the outer asteroid belt and is very likely a member of the Themis family, a group of bodies originating from an asteroid collision.

The absence of a coma and the presence of the needle-like anti-tail in August 1996 did not exclude the possibility of a sudden emission event which could have been caused by the impact of another minor body on the object. However, with the development of a normal tail between September and November 1996 it became obvious that the dust emission episode continued at least for 2 months after perihelion, a scenario that is typical for gas-driven cometary activity. However, it is still possible that a collision triggered the event.

The paper summarizes the observational pro and cons for impact-induced activity in this object, possibly the first ever detected comet-asteroid of the solar system.

The evidence for a major population of small comets (SCs) is summarized in two steps. First, we briefly summarize our previous work. Second, we describe recent work that continues to find SCs. When new capabilities become available that can detect SCs, we expect to find them and this is occurring. At present, their detection is a haphazard process and we advocate a dedicated, optimized search program.

We define SCs as those icy bodies (i.e., sublimating bodies) with radius less than 1000 meters. Often the existence of SCs is inferred from effects ascribed to them. These “effects” include: lunar cratering; cratering on Ganymede; excess interplanetary hydrogen; delivery of volatile materials to the terrestrial planets; and a source of fragile bodies entering the Earth’s atmosphere. While some of these indirect methods support the existence of SCs, direct observations are clearly preferred.

The solar corona is not easily observable from the ground; only with the coronagraphs located in high mountains or at infrequent and short occasions of total eclipses. And in any case these observations are limited to the corona beyond the solar limb. Therefore, it is natural that our understanding of the physics of the solar corona has advanced dramatically by sustained observations from space-based platforms, like Skylab in the 1970’s. These several years are particularly notable in this respect, because of a wide variety of data from Yohkoh, Ulysses, and SOHO.

The second session of the Joint Discussion 19 (Physics of the Sun and Heliosphere in the Era of Space Probes; Scientific Highlights of SOHO, ULYSSES and YOHKOH) was devoted to the Evolution and Termination of the 3-D Solar Wind. As was the case with the other two sessions, it consisted of three invited talks, three oral contributions, a number of posters and a general discussion.

This paper briefly summarises the contribution to the understanding of meteoroids and their orbits from recent radar studies of meteors. New data from VHF and UHF observations indicates that some meteoroids are ablating at heights up to 160 km and modelling work suggests that such meteoric ionization can only be deposited by meteoroids that ablate at temperatures below 1000° K. Meteoroids with entry speeds well in excess of 100 km/s are clearly interstellar and some tentative sources have been identified. The distributions of the orbital elements of earlier data have been reanalysed in the light of a new understanding of the selection effects in those radar studies, and the presence of a significant set of retrograde orbits identified. The new technique of observing meteors ‘coming down the radar beam’ has led to very accurate measures of deceleration and detailed analysis of fragmentation events.

Excellent review papers have been presented in this session by S. Solanki (Manifestations of solar magnetic fields), K. Dere (Coronal Mass Ejections and interplanetary ejecta) and W. Droege (Particle acceleration by waves and fields) and the relevant texts can be found in this volume.

The Joint Discussion benefited from three contributed papers: X-Ray/Radio network flares of the quiet Sun by A.O. Benz, S. Krucker, L.W. Acton, and T.S. Bastian (presented by A.O. Benz) Radio observations of coronal X-ray jets by M.R. Kundu

The hypothesis relating mass extinctions of life on Earth to impacts of comets whose flux is partly modulated by the dynamics of the Milky Way Galaxy contains a number of postulates that can be tested by geologic evidence and statistical analyses. In an increasing number of cases, geologic evidence for impact (widespread impact debris and/or large impact craters) is found at times of mass extinction events, and the record of dated impact craters has been found to show a significant correlation with mass extinctions. Statistical analyses suggest that mass extinction events exhibit a periodic component of about 26 to 30 Myr, and periodicities of 30± 0.5 Myr and 35 ±2 Myr have been extracted from sets of well-dated impact craters. The evidence is consistent with periodic or quasi-periodic showers of impactors, probably Oort Cloud comets, with an approximately 30-Myr cycle. The best explanation for these proposed quasi-periodic comet showers involves the Sun’s vertical oscillation through the galactic disk, which may have a similar cycle time between crossings of the galactic plane.

We consider the subject of time dependence of the Oort cloud comet flux. Over long time scales the flux is likely to be dominated by the adiabatic galactic tide. This tide is substantially modulated as the Solar System moves in its galactic orbit. If Shoemaker was correct in his estimate that virtually all terrestrial craters of diameter > 100 km are produced by long period comets, then the phase and plane crossing period of the Solar System about the galactic disk should be consistent. with the ages of accurately dated large craters. A time series analysis of these ages in which the Solar oscillation phase is fixed to be consistent with observations indicates a maximal correlation for a period of 36 ± 2 Myr. This period is well within observational limits. If improvements in stellar velocity dispersion studies continue, it is possible that a sufficiently accurate determination of the Solar oscillation period can be found to unambiguously answer the following questions. Is the Solar oscillation cycle correlated with the time series of ages for large craters? If so, can we reject the hypothesis that the correlation is an artifact that could likely be reproduced by a random distribution of ages? We present evidence which suggests that if it is found that the data requires a plane crossing period in the range 36 ± 2 Myr, the answer to both of these questions will be affirmative.

Astronomy research and teaching has been actively carried out in the Department of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka for the past 20 years and before that, in the Department of Mathematics. Economic problems, lack of recent journals, text books and computing facilities, and very poor communications have made it increasingly difficult for these programmes to continue. Added to these problems there is often unrest in the Universities resulting in frequent closures and almost constant uncertainty about payment of the already poor salaries. It is a wonder that anyone could be even thinking of astronomy.

Different options for searching for near-Earth asteroids that may pose an impact hazard to the Earth in the future are discussed. The space option has not been studied in as much detail as the ground-based survey option, so a more detailed study of the space option might be appropriate. It is not evident, however, that a space-based system can be competitive or superior to the ground-based option, because past experience argues very strongly to the contrary.

Recently, important efforts have been made to organize and consolidate the Assembly of Central American Astronomers (AAAC), an organization created to contribute to the development of astronomy and astrophysics in Central America, with the help of international cooperation; the Central American Courses in Astronomy and Astrophysics, have been hosted each year by a different national university in Central America (1995: Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Honduras, 1996: Universidad de El Salvador, 1997: Universidad de San Carlos de Guatemala, and 1998: Universidad de Panama). These courses aimed to provide an exchange of knowledge and experience among university staff and students interested in continuing studies in Astronomy and Astrophysics. Regional Observational Campaigns have been organized to train young astronomers in the use of astronomical equipment and observational techniques. It seems that the broad development of astronomy and astrophysics in Central American as a whole, will be possible only when nuclei of astronomers in each of the countries concerned begin to develop many more activities, countries As part of the III Central American Course on Astronomy and Astrophysics (III-CURCAA, April 1997, Guatemala), in a forum about Education and Research in Astronomy in Central America, several important conclusions were stated. In this paper we present the six most relevant conclusions discussed there.