By definition, brown dwarfs never reach the main-sequence, cooling and dimming over their entire lifetime, thus making substellar models challenging to test because of the strong dependence on age. Currently, most brown dwarfs with independently determined ages are companions to nearby stars, so stellar ages are at the heart of the effort to test substellar models. However, these models are only fully constrained if both the mass and age are known. We have used the Keck adaptive optics system to monitor the orbit of HD 130948BC, a brown dwarf binary that is a companion to the young solar analog HD 130948A. The total dynamical mass of 0.109 ± 0.003 M⊙ is the most precise mass measurement (3%) for any brown dwarf binary to date and shows that both components are substellar for any plausible mass ratio. The ensemble of available age indicators from the primary star suggests an age comparable to the Hyades, with the most precise age being 0.79+0.22−0.15 Gyr based on gyrochronology. Therefore, HD 130948BC is unique among field L and T dwarfs as it possesses a well-determined mass, luminosity, and age. Our results indicate that substellar evolutionary models may underpredict the luminosity of brown dwarfs by as much as a factor of ≈2–3×. The implications of such a systematic error in evolutionary models would be far-reaching, for example, affecting determinations of the initial mass function and predictions of the radii of extrasolar gas-giant planets. This result is largely based on the reliability of stellar age estimates, and the case study of HD 130948A highlights the difficulties in determining the age of an arbitrary field star, even with the most up-to-date chromospheric activity and gyrochronology relations. In order to better assess the potential systematic errors present in substellar models, more refined age estimates for HD 130948A and other stars with binary brown dwarf companions (e.g., ϵ Ind Bab) are critically needed.

This report gives an update of developments (since the last General Assembly at Prague) in the areas that are of relevance to the commission. In addition to numerous papers, a new monograph entitled Stellar Spectral Classification with Richard Gray and Chris Corbally as leading authors will be published by Princeton University Press as part of their Princeton Series in Astrophysics in April 2009. This book is an up-to-date and encyclopedic review of stellar spectral classification across the H-R diagram, including the traditional MK system in the blue-violet, recent extensions into the ultraviolet and infrared, the newly defined L-type and T-type spectral classes, as well as spectral classification of carbon stars, S-type stars, white dwarfs, novae, supernovae and Wolf-Rayet stars.

This paper presents the results of a study aimed at understanding the evolution of the dust properties, as a function of both the environmental conditions and the metal enrichment of the system. I first review the peculiar dust properties of dwarf galaxies, and discuss attempts to understand their origin. Then, I discuss the evolution of the PAH and dust abundances, constrained by the UV-to-radio SED of nearby galaxies, comparing the properties of low-metallicity environments and more evolved systems. I discuss the long term evolution of dust in galaxies, comparing the grain production by various stellar progenitors to their destruction by SN blast waves and in H ii regions. Finally, I will show how these models explain the paucity of PAHs in low-metallicity environments.

Planetary nebulae are formed by an interacting winds process where the remnant of the AGB wind is compressed and accelerated by a later-developed fast wind from the central star. One-dimensional dynamical models have successfully explained the multi-shell (bubble, shell, crown, haloes) structures and the kinematics of planetary nebulae. However, the origin of the diverse asymmetric morphology of planetary nebulae is still not understood. Recent observations in the visible, infrared, and the submillimeter have suggested that the AGB mass loss becomes aspherical in the very late stages, forming an expanding torus around the star. A fast, highly collimated wind then emerges in the polar directions and carves out a cavity in the AGB envelope to form a bipolar nebula. Newly discovered structures such as concentric arcs, 2-D rings, multiple lobes, and point-symmetric structures suggest that both the slow and fast winds may have temporal and directional variations, and precession can play a role in the shaping of planetary nebulae. In this paper, we review the latest observations of planetary nebulae and proto-planetary nebulae and discuss the various physical mechanisms (rotation, binary, magnetic field, etc) that could lead to the observed morphologies.

Edge Clouds 1 and 2 (EC1 and EC2) are large molecular clouds with the largest galactocentric distances known to exist in the Milky Way. We present observations of these clouds and use them to determine physical characteristics. For EC2 we calculate a gas temperature of 20 K and a density of n(H2) ~ 104 cm−3. Based on our CO maps, we estimate the mass of EC2 at around 104 M⊙, and continuum observations suggest a dust-to-gas mass ratio as low as 0.001. Chemical models have been developed to reproduce the abundances in EC2 and they indicate that: heavy element abundances may be reduced by a factor of five relative to the solar neighbourhood (similar to dwarf irregular galaxies and damped Lyman alpha systems); very low extinction (AV < 4 mag) due to a very low dust-to-gas ratio; an enhanced cosmic ray ionisation rate; and a higher UV field compared to local interstellar values. The reduced abundances may be attributed to the low level of star formation in this region and are probably also related to the continuing infall of low metallicity halo gas since the Milky Way formed. We find that shocks from an old supernova remnant may have determined the morphology and dynamics of EC2, including the recently discovered star clusters embedded in the northern and southern cores. However, compared to EC2, EC1 appears to be a chemically less varied environment. The apparent molecule-poor nature of EC1 demonstrates the characteristics of clouds that have not had the benefit of SN shocks to stimulate an active cloud chemistry and star formation.

Dynamics of coronal mass ejections (CMEs) is strongly affected by the interaction of the erupting structure with the ambient magnetoplasma: eruptions that are faster than solar wind transfer the momentum and energy to the wind and generally decelerate, whereas slower ones gain the momentum and accelerate. Such a behavior can be expressed in terms of “aerodynamic” drag. We employ a large sample of CMEs to analyze the relationship between kinematics of CMEs and drag-related parameters, such as ambient solar wind speed and the CME mass. Employing coronagraphic observations it is demonstrated that massive CMEs are less affected by the aerodynamic drag than light ones. On the other hand, in situ measurements are used to inspect the role of the solar wind speed and it is shown that the Sun-Earth transit time is more closely related to the wind speed than to take-off speed of CMEs. These findings are interpreted by analyzing solutions of a simple equation of motion based on the standard form for the drag acceleration. The results show that most of the acceleration/deceleration of CMEs on their way through the interplanetary space takes place close to the Sun, where the ambient plasma density is still high. Implications for the space weather forecasting of CME arrival-times are discussed.

We report the results of the submillimeter observations with the ASTE 10 m telescope toward the giant molecular clouds (GMCs) in the Magellanic Clouds to reveal the physical properties of dense molecular gas, the principle sites of star and cluster formation. Six GMCs in the Large Magellanic Cloud have been mapped in the 12CO(J = 3 − 2) transition and 32 clumps are identified in these GMCs at a resolution of 5 pc. These data are combined with 12CO(J = 1 − 0) and 13CO(J = 1 − 0) results and compared with LVG calculations to derive the density and temperature of clumps. The derived density and temperature are distributed in wide ranges. We have made small mapping observations in the 13CO(J = 3 − 2) transition toward 9 representative peak positions of clumps to determine the density and temperature of clumps. These physical properties are constrained well and there are differences in density and temperature among clumps. We suggest that these differences of clump properties represent an evolutionary sequence of GMCs in terms of density increase leading to star formation.

We report the discovery that substructures/subhaloes of a galaxy-size halo tend to fall in together in groups in cosmological simulations, something that may explain the oddity of the MW satellite distribution. The original clustering at the time of infall is still discernible in the angular momenta of the subhaloes even for events which took place up to eight Gyrs ago, z ~ 1. This phenomenon appears to be rather common since at least 1/3 of the present-day subhaloes have fallen in groups in our simulations. Hence, this may well explain the Lynden-Bell & Lynden-Bell ghostly streams. We have also found that the probability of building up a flattened distribution similar to the MW satellites is as high as ~ 80% if the MW satellites were from only one group and ~ 20% when five groups are involved. Therefore, we conclude that the ‘peculiar’ distribution of satellites around the MW can be expected with the CDM structure formation theory. This non-random assignment of satellites to subhaloes implies an environmental dependence on whether these low-mass objects are able to form stars, possibly related to the nature of reionization in the early Universe.

VLT FORS 1 observations indicate the presence of a variable significant magnetic field in the X-ray binary Cyg X-1. The importance of this investigation comes from the fact that it rules one of the most significant BH manifestations: the X-ray millisecond flickering, usually related to reconnection of magnetic lines in the innermost part of the accretion disc.

Oscillations occur in stars of most masses and essentially all stages of evolution. Asteroseismology is the study of the frequencies and other properties of stellar oscillations, from which we can extract fundamental parameters such as density, mass, radius, age and rotation period. We present an overview of asteroseismic analysis methods, focusing on how this technique may be used as a tool to measure stellar properties relevant to planet transit studies. We also discuss details of the Kepler Asteroseismic Investigation – the use of asteroseismology on the Kepler mission in order to measure basic stellar parameters. We estimate that applying asteroseismology to stars observed by Kepler will allow the determination of stellar mean densities to an accuracy of 1%, radii to 2–3%, masses to 5%, and ages to 5–10% of the main-sequence lifetime. For rotating stars, the angle of inclination can also be determined.

One of the few carbon-rich environments found in interstellar space is the ejecta of asymptotic giant branch (AGB) stars. Such material, which forms a circumstellar envelope, becomes enriched in carbon due to “dredge-up” phenomena associated with nucleosynthesis. A unique organic synthesis flourishes in the gas phase in these envelopes, and radio and millimeter observations have identified a wide range of C-bearing compounds, including long acetylenic chains such as HC5N, HC7N, C4H, C6H, C8H, C6H−, C8H−, and C3O. Oxygen-rich envelopes also have a non-negligible carbon chemistry, fostering species such as HCN and HCO+. Phosphorus chemistry appears to be active as well in circumstellar shells, as evidenced by the recent detections of HCP, CCP, and PO. Radio observations also indicate that some fraction of the circumstellar molecular material survives into the planetary nebula stage, and then becomes incorporated into diffuse, and eventually, dense clouds. The complex organic molecules found in dense clouds such as Sgr B2(N) may be the products of “seed” material that can be traced back to the carbon-enriched circumstellar gas.

In this review I am discussing the current state of simulating the internal evolution of AGB stars. Recent work on AGB stars include the effect of rotation, magnetic fields and internal gravity waves, as well as thermohaline mixing induced by the 3He + 3He pp-chain reaction. Hydrodynamic simulations of the interior convection of AGB stars are now becoming available, giving insights to convective boundary mixing, for example for He-shell flash convection. At very low metallicity convective-reactive events are encountered in AGB stars (as well as in massive stars), and the necessity of hydrodynamic simulations to address this difficult phase of stellar evolution is emphasized.

Using special relativistic magnetohydrodynamic simulation, the nonlinear dynamics of the magnetized outflow triggered on the magnetar surface is investigated. It is found that the strong shock propagates in the circumstellar medium in association with the expanding outflow. The shock velocity vsh depends on the strength of the dipole field anchored to the stellar surface Bdipole and is described by a simple scaling relation vsh ∝ Bdipole0.5. In addition, the outflow-driven shock can be accelerated self-similarly to the relativistic velocity when the density profile of the circumstellar medium is steeper than the critical density profile, that is α ≡ d logρ(r)/d log r ≲ αcrit = −5.0, where the density is set as a power law distribution with an index α and r is the cylindrical radius. Our results suggest that the relativistic outflow would be driven by the flaring activity in a circumstellar medium with a steep density profile.

We have obtained metallicities from near-infrared calcium triplet spectroscopy for nearly a thousand red giants in 28 fields spanning a range of radial distances from the center of the bar to near the tidal radius. We have used these data to investigate the radius-metallicity and age-metallicity relations. A powerful application of these data is in conjunction with the analysis of deep HST color–magnitude diagrams (CMDs). Most of the power in determining a robust star-formation history from a CMD comes from the main-sequence turnoff and subgiant branches. The age-metallicity degeneracy that results is largely broken by the red giant branch color, but theoretical model RGB colors remain uncertain. By incorporating the observed metallicity distribution function into the modelling process, a star-formation history with massively increased precision and accuracy can be derived. We incorporate the observed metallicity distribution of the LMC bar into a maximum-likelihood analysis of the bar CMD, and present a new star formation history and age–metallicity relation for the bar. The bar is certainly younger than the disk as a whole, and the most reliable estimates of its age are in the 5–6 Gyr range, when the mean gas abundance of the LMC had already increased to [Fe/H] ≳ −0.6. There is no obvious metallicity gradient among the old stars in the LMC disk out to a distance of 8–10 kpc, but the bar is more metal-rich than the disk by ≈0.1–0.2 dex. This is likely to be the result of the bar's younger average age. In both disk and bar, 95% of the red giants are more metal-rich than [Fe/H] = −1.2.

In this paper we determined the parameters of 45 full halo coronal mass ejections (HCMEs) for various modifications of their cone forms (“ice cream cone models”). We show that the CME determined characteristics depend significantly on the CME chosen form. We show that, regardless of the CME chosen form, the trajectory of practically all the considered HCMEs deviate from the radial direction to the Sun-to-Earth axis at the initial stage of their movement.

Our Working Group studies massive, luminous stars, with historical focus on early-type (OB) stars, but extending in recent years to include massive red supergiants that evolve from hot stars. There is also emphasis on the role of massive stars in other branches of astrophysics, particularly regarding starburst galaxies, the first stars, core-collapse gamma-ray bursts, and formation of massive stars.

We investigate the evolution of dust formed in Population III supernovae (SNe) by considering its transport and processing by sputtering within the SN remnants (SNRs). We find that the fate of dust grains within SNRs heavily depends on their initial radii aini. For Type II SNRs expanding into the ambient medium with density of nH,0 = 1 cm−3, grains of aini < 0.05 μm are detained in the shocked hot gas and are completely destroyed, while grains of aini > 0.2 μm are injected into the surrounding medium without being significantly destroyed. Grains with aini = 0.05–0.2 μm are finally trapped in the dense shell behind the forward shock. We show that the grains piled up in the dense shell enrich the gas up to 10−6–10−4Z⊙, high enough to form low-mass stars with 0.1–1 M⊙. In addition, [Fe/H] in the dense shell ranges from −6 to −4.5, which is in good agreement with the ultra-metal-poor stars with [Fe/H] < −4. We suggest that newly formed dust in a Population III SN can have great impact on the stellar mass and elemental composition of Population II.5 stars formed in the shell of the SNR.

The evolution of galactic disks from their early stages is dominated by gas dynamical effects like gas infall, galactic fountains, and galactic outflows, and more. The influence of these processes is only understandable in the framework of diverse gas phases differing in their thermal energies, dynamics, and element abundances. To trace the temporal and chemical evolution of galactic disks, it is therefore essential to model the interstellar gasdynamics combined with stellar dynamics, the interactions between gas phases, and star-gas mass and energy exchanges as detailed as possible. This article reviews the potential of state-of-the-art numerical schemes like Smooth-Particle and grid-based hydrodynamics and their ingredients, such as star-formation criteria and feedback, energy deposit and metal enrichment by stars, and the influence of gas-phase interactions on the galactic gas dynamics and chemistry.

A variety of new observational opportunities have made transit and more generally light curve analysis central to the study of exoplanets. Talks at this IAU 253 Symposium have dramatically highlighted the measurement of the radius, density, atmospheric composition and atmospheric thermal structure, presently for relatively large, hot planets, but soon for smaller planets orbiting further from their host stars. On-going and future space observations will play a key role in the detection and characterization of these planetary systems. After a brief review, I focus on two topics: the need for a sensitive all-sky survey for planets transiting the brightest, closest stars and the follow-up opportunities afforded by the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST).

The construction of all age indicators consists of certain basic steps which lead to the identification of the properties desirable for stellar age indicators. Prior age indicators for main sequence field stars possess only some of these properties. The measured rotation periods of cool stars are particularly useful in this respect because they have well-defined dependencies that allow stellar ages to be determined with ~20% errors. This method, called gyrochronology, is explained informally in this talk, shown to have the desired properties, compared to prior methods, and used to derive ages for samples of main sequence field stars.