The gender† dimension of science and technology has become one of the most important and debated issues worldwide, impacting society at every level. A variety of international initiatives on the subject have been undertaken, including the continued monitoring of the status of women in science by Unesco Institute for Statistics (UIS) or the annual reports “Education at a Glance” by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) as well as field-related working groups and networking in order to collect data in a consistent manner. The majority of the international organizations have made clear statements about their discrimination policies (independently of their main field(s) of action), including the International Council for Science whose regulations are followed by the IAU. Gender equality at large is one of the eight United Nations Millennium Development Goals, which clearly calls for action related to science, technology and gender.

The cosmic infrared background (CIB) radiation was a long-sought fossil of energetic processes associated with structure formation and chemical evolution since the Big Bang. The COBE Diffuse Infrared Background Experiment (DIRBE) and Far Infrared Absolute Spectrophotometer (FIRAS) were specifically designed to search for this background from 1.25 μm to millimeter wavelengths. These two instruments provided high quality, absolutely calibrated all-sky maps which have enabled the first detections of the CIB, initially at far infrared and submillimeter wavelengths, and more recently in the near infrared as well. The aim of this paper is to review the status of determinations of the CIB based upon COBE measurements. The results show that the energy in the CIB from far infrared to millimeter wavelengths is comparable to that in the integrated light of galaxies from UV to near infrared wavelengths: the universe had a luminous but dusty past. On the assumption that nucleosynthesis in stars is the energy source for most of this light, the results also imply that 1–8% of cosmic baryons has been converted to helium and heavier elements in stars. The integrated background light from UV to millimeter wavelengths, 60–120 nW m−2 sr−1, is about 10% of that in the cosmic microwave background. Current knowledge of the CIB provides significant new constraints on models of the history of star formation and galaxy evolution.

Properties of the quasi-coherent oscillations in the extreme ultraviolet flux of the dwarf nova SS Cygni are described.

A small subset of Galactic O-stars possess surface magnetic fields that alter the outflowing stellar wind by magnetically confining it. Key to the magnetic confinement is that it induces rotational modulation of spectral lines over the full EM domain; this allows us to infer basic quantities, e.g., mass-loss rate and magnetic geometry. Here, we present an empirical study of the Hα line in Galactic magnetic O-stars to constrain the mass fed from the stellar base into the magnetosphere, using realistic multi-dimensional magnetized wind models, and compare with theoretical predictions. Our results suggest that it may be reasonable to use mass-feeding rates from non-magnetic wind theory if the absolute mass-loss rate is scaled down according to the amount of wind material falling back upon the stellar surface. This provides then some empirical support to the proposal that such magnetic O-stars might evolve into heavy stellar-mass black holes (Petit et al.2017).

One of the most intriguing open questions of today's astrophysics is the jet physical properties and the location and the mechanisms for the production of MeV, GeV, and TeV gamma-rays in AGN jets. M87 is a privileged laboratory for a detailed study of the properties of jets, owing to its proximity, its massive black hole, and its conspicuous emission at radio wavelengths and above. We started on November 2009 a monitoring program with the e-EVN at 5 GHz. We present here results of these multi-epoch observations and discuss the two episodes of activity at energy E>100 GeV that occured in this period. One of these observations was obtained at the same day of the first high energy flare. We added to our results literature data obtained with the VLBI and VLA. A clear change in the proper motion velocity of HST-1 is present at the epoch ~2005.5. In the time range 1998 – 2005.5 the apparent velocity is subluminal, and superluminal (~2.7c) after 2005.5.

The integral field spectrograph TIGER, in operation at CFHT since a few years, has been successfully used on a large variety of astrophysical objects, ranging from the planet Mars to distant radio-galaxies and quasars. This review discussed the peculiarities of the TIGER design and gives the main characteristics of the instrument. Two examples of scientific applications are presented to highlight the new possibilities offered by integral field spectrography. Finally the OASIS project dedicated to the CFHT adaptive optics bonnette is briefly presented.

We present results from a high resolution study of six Li-depleted halo dwarfs. These stars exhibit Lithium abundances more than 0.5 dex below the Spite Plateau. The study is comprised of two parts: 1) a detailed abundance analysis covering many light, alpha, Fe-peak and neutron capture elements and 2) a study of rotational line broadening. We find that there are no common abundance anomalies, other than the Lithium depletion, that distinguish these stars from the Li-normal population. Four of the six stars however, show evidence of abnormally high projected rotation velocities. These findings support a non-standard depletion mechanism in Li-depleted halo stars, and emphasize their necessary exclusion from future studies of the Spite Plateau.

The increase in the amount of scientific information in heliophysics is related to both quantitative – increasing the number of high-power telescopes and the size of light receivers coupled to them, and qualitative reasons – new modes of observation, large-scale and multiple studies of the solar corona in different ranges, large-scale numerical experiments to simulate the evolution of various processes and formations, etc. The paper discusses the role and importance of methods for processing images of the solar corona, the store of obtained “raw” data and the need to access high-performance computing systems in order to obtain scientific results from the observational experiments, the need of international collaboration and access to the data in the era of increase in the amount of scientific information in heliophysics.

We present a matched-filter, surface density map of the “300 km/s” stream recently discovered in the vicinity of the ultrafaint dwarf galaxy Segue 1.

The Infrared Space Observatory (ISO), a fully approved and funded project of the European Space Agency (ESA), is an astronomical satellite, which will operate at wavelengths from 3–200 μm. ISO will provide astronomers with a unique facility of unprecedented sensitivity for a detailed exploration of the universe ranging from objects in the solar system right out to distant extragalactic sources. The satellite essentially consists of a large cryostat containing at launch about 2300 litres of superfluid helium to maintain the Ritchey-Chrétien telescope, the scientific instruments and the optical baffles at temperatures between 2K and 8K. The telescope has a 60-cm diameter primary mirror and is diffraction-limited at a wavelength of 5μm. A pointing accuracy of a few arc seconds is provided by a three-axis-stabilisation system consisting of reaction wheels, gyros and optical sensors. ISO’s instrument complement consists of four instruments, namely: a photo-polarimeter (3–200μm), a camera (3–17μm), a short wavelength spectrometer (3–45μm) and a long wavelength spectrometer (45–180μm). These instruments are being built by international consortia of scientific institutes and will be delivered to ESA for in-orbit operations. ISO will be launched in 1993 by an Ariane 4 into an elliptical orbit (apogee 70000km and perigee 1000km) and will be operational for at least 18 months. In keeping with ISO’s role as an observatory, two-thirds of its observing time will be made available to the european and american astronomical community.

An observational study of the Hα feature in Algol type binary systems has revealed the presence of emission in nearly all systems with periods greater than 6 days. The disks which produce this emission are generally thin and can extend out to 90% of the Roche surface of the primary star. If emission is found in the systems of shorter period, it tends to be transient, lasting only a few orbital cycles. In several systems, there is evidence of mass loss from the vicinity of the primary at phase 0.5.

The strong water maser line at 22 GHz is an excellent tool for studying shocked and turbulent interstellar regions, especially, if simultaneous single-dish and VLBI data are available. After a brief review of 22 GHz time variation studies, we focus on effects caused by magnetic field pressure on observed properties of water masers. We use the powerful and rich maser cluster W49N as an example. Furthermore, we point out the connection between postshock wave damping and observed excess in single-dish flux density and line width.

We present an overview of recent observations of stellar X-ray flares obtained with the EXOSAT Observatory. We discuss a few examples of flares from M dwarf flare stars, from RS CVn and Algol-type binaries, from single late-type stars (including a G0 dwarf and an A-type visual binary), and from pre-main-sequence objects. We also draw some general conclusions from the pieliminary analysis of the EXOSAT data sample.

. Hercules X-1 (Her X-1) was observed extensively by the Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer (RXTE) over its 17 year lifetime. Here, the archival RXTE/PCA observations of Her X-1 are analyzed with emphasis on the 35-day cycle dependence. Spectral fits are carried out and the 35-day phase dependences are characterized. The regular behaviours of the changes are interpreted in terms of the precessing accretion disk. We find that the most important variation is caused by the changing illumination of the inner edge of the disk, but other variations with different causes are also seen.

The predictions of the Padoan and Nordlund IMF model are tested using the largest simulations of supersonic hydrodynamic (HD) and magneto-hydrodynamic (MHD) turbulence to date (~10003 computational zones). The striking difference between the HD and MHD regimes, predicted by the model, is recovered.

We present the first results of a series of Monte-Carlo simulations investigating the imprints of a central black hole on the core structure of globular clusters. We investigate the three-dimensional and the projected density profile of the inner regions of idealized as well as more realistic globular cluster models, taking into account a stellar mass spectrum, stellar evolution and allowing for a larger, more realistic, number of stars than was previously possible with direct N-body methods. We compare our results to other N-body simulations published previously in the literature.

We present the first results of the estimation of gravity and effective temperature for some poorly studied chemically peculiar stars that were recently observed with the spectropolarimeter ESPaDOnS at CFHT. We have analyzed the spectra of HD71030, HD95608 and HD116235 to determine their radial velocity, vsini and the average abundance of several chemical species. We have also analyzed our results to verify for possible vertical abundance stratification of iron and chromium in these stars.

Including resistive effects in relativistic magnetized plasmas is a challenging task, that a number of authors have recently tackled employing different methods. From the numerical point of view, the difficulty in including non-ideal terms arises from the fact that, in the limit of very high plasma conductivity (i.e., close to the ideal MHD limit), the system of governing equations becomes stiff, and the standard explicit integrating methods produce instabilities that destroy the numerical solution. To deal with such a difficulty, we have extended the relativistic MHD code MR-GENESIS, to include a number of Implicit Explicit Runge-Kutta (IMEX-RK) numerical methods. To validate the implementation of the IMEX-RK schemes, two standard tests are presented in one and two spatial dimensions, covering different conductivity regimes.

We review the interaction in intermediate and high mass stars between their evolution and magnetic and chemical properties. We describe the theory of Ap-star ‘fossil’ fields, before touching on the expected secular diffusive processes which give rise to evolution of the field. We then present recent results from a spectropolarimetric survey of Herbig Ae/Be stars, showing that magnetic fields of the kind seen on the main-sequence already exist during the pre-main sequence phase, in agreement with fossil field theory, and that the origin of the slow rotation of Ap/Bp stars also lies early in the pre-main sequence evolution; we also present results confirming a lack of stars with fields below a few hundred gauss. We then seek which macroscopic motions compete with atomic diffusion in determining the surface abundances of AmFm stars. While turbulent transport and mass loss, in competition with atomic diffusion, are both able to explain observed surface abundances, the interior abundance distribution is different enough to potentially lead to a test using asterosismology. Finally we review progress on the turbulence-driving and mixing processes in stellar radiative zones.

Results of the Mars Express mission to Mars are summarized.