In the Sun there has been much progress towards answering fundamental problems with profound implications for the behaviour of cosmic magnetic fields in other stars. A review is given here of such problems, including identifying some of the outstanding questions that remain. In the solar interior, the main dynamo operates at the base of the convection zone, but its details have not been identified. In the solar surface, recent observations have revealed many new and surprising properties of magnetic fields, but understanding the key processes of flux emergence, fragmentation, merging and cancellation is rudimentary. Sunspots have until very recently been an enigma. In the atmosphere, there are many new ideas for coronal heating and solar wind acceleration, but the mechanisms have not yet been pinned down. Also, the detailed mechanisms for solar flares and coronal mass ejections remain controversial. In future, new generations of space and ground-based measurements and computational modelling should enable a definitive physical understanding of these puzzles.

Several uncertain helioseismic findings of potential interest to Jüri about the solar convection zone are briefly discussed, along with some personal optimistic hopes for the future.

The consistency is awesome between over a dozen observations and the paradigm of radio lobes being immense sources of magnetic energy, flux, and relativistic electrons, – a magnetized universe.

The greater the total energy of an astrophysical phenomenon, the more restricted are the possible explanations. Magnetic energy is the most challenging because its origin is still considered problematic. We suggest that it is evident that the universe is magnetized because of radio lobes, ultra relativistic electrons, Faraday rotation measures, the polarized emission of extra galactic radio structures, the x-rays from relativistic electrons Comptonized on the CMB, and possibly extra galactic cosmic rays. The implied energies are so large that only the formation of supermassive black hole, (SMBH) at the center of every galaxy is remotely energetic enough to supply this immense energy, ~(1/10) 108M⊙c2 per galaxy. Only a galaxy cluster of 1000 galaxies has comparable energy, but it is inversely, (to the number of galaxies), rare per galaxy. Yet this energy appears to be shared between magnetic fields and accelerated relativistic particles, both electrons and ions. Only a large-scale coherent dynamo generating poloidal flux within the accretion disk forming the massive black hole makes a reasonable starting point. The subsequent winding of this dynamo-derived magnetic flux by conducting, angular momentum-dominated accreting matter, (~1011 turns near the event horizon in 108 years) produces the immense, coherent magnetic jets or total flux of radio lobes and similarly in star formation. By extending this same physics to supernova-neutron star formation, we predict that similar differential winding of the flux that couples explosion ejecta and a newly formed, rapidly rotating neutron star will produce similar phenomena of a magnetic jet and lobes in the forming supernova nebula. In all cases the conversion of force-free magnetic energy into accelerated ions and electrons is a major challenge.

During the very last year of what he himself described “as the best [eighteen] years of his life” spent at the University of Padua, Galileo first observed the heavens with a telescope. In order to appreciate the marvel and the true significance of those observations we must appreciate both the intellectual climate in Europe and the critical intellectual period through which Galileo himself was passing at the time those observations were made. Through his studies on motion Galileo had come to have serious doubts about the Aristotelian concept of nature. What he sensed was lacking was a true physics. He was very acute, therefore, when he came to sense the significance of his observations of the moon, of the phases of Venus, of the moons of Jupiter and of the Milky Way. The preconceptions of the Aristotelians were crumbling before his eyes. He had remained silent long enough, over a three month period, in his contemplations of the heavens. It was time to organize his thoughts and tell what he had seen and what he thought it meant. It was time to publish! In so doing he would become one of the pioneers of modern science. For the first time in over 2,000 years new significant observational data had been put at the disposition of anyone who cared to think, not in abstract preconceptions but in obedience to what the universe had to say about itself.

The idea that stars are formed by gravity goes back more than 300 years to Newton, and the idea that gravitational instability plays a role goes back more than 100 years to Jeans, but the idea that stars are forming at the present time in the interstellar medium is more recent and did not emerge until the energy source of stars had been identified and it was realized that the most luminous stars have short lifetimes and therefore must have formed recently. The first suggestion that stars may be forming now in the interstellar medium was credited by contemporary authors to a paper by Spitzer in 1941 in which he talks about the formation of interstellar condensations by radiation pressure, but then oddly says nothing about star formation. That may be because, as Spitzer later told me, when he first suggested very tentatively in a paper submitted to The Astrophysical Journal that stars might be forming now from interstellar matter, this was considered a radical idea and the referee said it was much too speculative and should be taken out of the paper. So Spitzer removed the speculation about star formation from the published version of his paper.

Identifying seven activities and activity-carrying properties and nine classes of Active OB Stars, the OB Star Activity Matrix is constructed to map the parameter space. On its basis, the occurrence and appearance of the main activities are described as a function of stellar class. Attention is also paid to selected combinations of activities with classes of Active OB Stars. Current issues are identified and suggestions are developed for future work and strategies.

The infrared astronomical satellite AKARI performed an all sky survey at six infrared bands. We report here on the calibration of the all-sky image data, observed in the four long wavelength bands with the FIS instrument (AKARI Far-infrared All Sky Survey : AFASS). The preliminary image attains a calibration uncertainty and sensitivity of better than ~ 30% and ~ 10 MJy str−1, respectively, for all four bands. The point spread function (PSF) is obtained via a stacking technique. The data are shown to be useful for exploring the internal structure and dust spectral energy distributions (SEDs) of nearby galaxies.

We search for extended regions of radio emission not associated with Active Galactic Nuclei, known as ‘relics’, ‘halos’ and ‘mini halos’, in a sample of 70 Abell clusters for which we have radio, optical and X-ray data. AGN can produce particle bubbles of non-thermal emission, which can restrict cosmic rays. Hence, radio relics and (mini) halos could be forming as a result of the confinement of cosmic rays by these bubbles. We are probing the role that intracluster magnetic fields (using Faraday rotation measure and inverse compton arguments), mergers (through radio/X-ray interactions), cooling flows (X-ray data), radio jets/shocks, as well as radio (mini) halos/relics, play in the formation, acceleration, and propagation of cosmic rays. For the current study, we have selected two powerful nearby radio galaxies from our sample: Hercules A and 3C 388. We report on the work in progress and future plans.

Planetary satellites are an integral part of the hierarchy of planetary systems. Here we make two predictions concerning their formation. First, primordial satellites, which have an array of distinguishing characteristics, form only around giant planets. If true, the size and duration of a planetary system's protostellar nebula, as well as the location of its snow line, can be constrained by knowing which of its planets possess primordial satellites and which do not. Second, all satellites around terrestrial planets form by impacts. If true, this greatly enhances the constraints that can be placed on the history of terrestrial planets by their satellites' compositions, sizes, and dynamics.

Herschel opens a large field of investigations on the hidden star formation in galaxies. Combining UV and far-IR rest-frame data allows us to measure all the star formation in galaxies and to estimate the net dust attenuation. The analysis can be performed from the local universe using far-IR and GALEX surveys to high z (up to z < 2) by combining deep U data with the Herschel observations of the HerMES project.

The calibration of dust attenuation, and then star formation rate, is reinvestigated. We present the results of the first analyses performed with Herschel data obtained in the Lockman and COSMOS fields as part of the HerMES project and discuss the reliability of dust attenuation corrections.

This contribution contains the introductory remarks that I presented at IAU Symposium 270 on “Computational Star Formation” held in Barcelona, Spain, May 31–June 4, 2010. I discuss the historical development of numerical MHD methods in astrophysics from a personal perspective. The recent advent of robust, higher-order accurate MHD algorithms and adaptive mesh refinement numerical simulations promises to greatly improve our understanding of the role of magnetic fields in star formation.

UNESCO's World Heritage List http://whc.unesco.org/en/list exists to help identify, protect and preserve sites and landscapes that are considered to be of outstanding universal value to humankind. This means that their significance reaches beyond national and cultural boundaries, and (if our attempts at preservation are successful) will remain as a source of inspiration for many generations into the future.

Magnetic reconnection (Parker, 1957; Sweet, 1958; Petschek, 1964; Yamada et al., 2010; Biskamp, 2000; Tsuneta, 1996; Kivelson and Russell, 1995; Yamada, 2007; Birn et al., 2001; Drake et al., 2003) is considered important to many astrophysical phenomena including stellar flares, magnetospheric disruptions of magnetars, and dynamics of galactic lobes. Research on magnetic reconnection started with observations in solar coronae and in the Earths magnetosphere, and a classical theory was developed based on MHD. Recent progress has been made by understanding the two-fluid physics of reconnection, through space and astrophysical observations (Tsuneta, 1996; Kivelson and Russell, 1995), laboratory experiments (Yamada, 2007), and theory and numerical simulations (Birn et al., 2001; Daughton et al., 2006; Uzdensky and Kulsrud, 2006). Laboratory experiments dedicated to the study of the fundamental reconnection physics have tested the physics mechanisms and their required conditions, and have provided a much needed bridge between observations and theory. For example, the Magnetic Reconnection Experiment (MRX) experiment (http://mrx.pppl.gov) has rigorously cross-checked the leading theories though quantitative comparisons of the numerical simulations and space astrophysical observations (Mozer et al., 2002). Extensive data have been accumulated in a wide plasma parameter regime with Lundquist numbers of S = 100 − 3000, where S is a ratio of the magnetic diffusion time to the Alfven transit time.

Using radio and X-ray data of two powerful radio galaxies, we attempt to find out the role that radio jets (in terms of composition and power), as well as intracluster magnetic fields, play in the formation, propagation, and acceleration of cosmic rays. For this study we have selected the powerful radio galaxies Hercules A and 3C 310 because of the presence of ring-like features in their kpc-scale radio emission instead of the usual hotspots. These two FR1.5 lie at the center of galaxy cooling flow clusters in a dense environment. We observed the unique jets of Hercules both in kpc-scales (multifrequency VLA data) and pc-scales (EVN observations at 18 cm). We have also observed the core and inner jets of 3C310 at 18 cm using global VLBI. We report on the work in progress.

Among the most persistent popular misperceptions of Galileo is the image of an irreligious scientist who opposed the Catholic Church and was therefore convicted of heresy–was even excommunicated, according to some accounts, and denied Christian burial. In fact, Galileo considered himself a good Catholic. He accepted the Bible as the true word of God on matters pertaining to salvation, but insisted Scripture did not teach astronomy. Emboldened by his discovery of the Medicean Moons, he took a stand on Biblical exegesis that has since become the official Church position.

Sunspot fine structure has been modeled in the past by a combination of idealized magneto-convection simulations and simplified models that prescribe the magnetic field and flow structure to a large degree. Advancement in numerical methods and computing power has enabled recently 3D radiative MHD simulations of entire sunspots with sufficient resolution to address details of umbral dots and penumbral filaments. After a brief review of recent developments we focus on the magneto-convective processes responsible for the complicated magnetic structure of the penumbra and the mechanisms leading to the driving of strong horizontal outflows in the penumbra (Evershed effect). The bulk of energy and mass is transported on scales smaller than the radial extent of the penumbra. Strong horizontal outflows in the sunspot penumbra result from a redistribution of kinetic energy preferring flows along the filaments. This redistribution is facilitated primarily through the Lorentz force, while horizontal pressure gradients play only a minor role. The Evershed flow is strongly magnetized: While we see a strong reduction of the vertical field, the horizontal field component is enhanced within filaments.

The large-scale dynamics of the solar convection zone have been inferred using both global and local helioseismology applied to data from the Global Oscillation Network Group (GONG) and the Michelson Doppler Imager (MDI) on board SOHO. The global analysis has revealed temporal variations of the “torsional oscillation” zonal flow as a function of depth, which may be related to the properties of the solar cycle. The horizontal flow field as a function of heliographic position and depth can be derived from ring diagrams, and shows near-surface meridional flows that change over the activity cycle. Time-distance techniques can be used to infer the deep meridional flow, which is important for flux-transport dynamo models. Temporal variations of the vorticity can be used to investigate the production of flare activity. This paper summarizes the state of our knowledge in these areas.

In the standard description of stellar interiors, O and B stars possess a thoroughly mixed convective core surrounded by a stable radiative envelope in which no mixing occurs. But as is well known, this model disagrees strongly with the spectroscopic diagnostic of these stars, which reveals the presence at their surface of chemical elements that have been synthesized in the core. Hence the radiation zone must be the seat of some mild mixing mechanisms. The most likely to operate there are linked with the rotation: these are the shear instabilites triggered by the differential rotation, and the meridional circulation caused by the changes in the rotation profile accompanying the non-homologous evolution of the star. In addition to these hydrodynamical processes, magnetic stresses may play an important role in active stars, which host a magnetic field. These physical processes will be critically examined, together with some others that have been suggested.

We analyze the statistics of Doppler-detected planets and Keplere-detected planet candidates of high integrity. We determine the number of planets per star as a function of planet mass, radius, and orbital period, and the occurrence of planets as a function of stellar mass. We consider only orbital periods less than 50 days around Solar-type (GK) stars, for which both Doppler and Kepler offer good completeness. We account for observational detection effects to determine the actual number of planets per star. From Doppler-detected planets discovered in a survey of 166 nearby G and K main sequence stars we find a planet occurrence of 15+5−4% for planets with M sin i = 3–30 ME and P < 50 d, as described in Howard et al. (2010). From Keplere, the planet occurrence is 0.130 ± 0.008, 0.023 ± 0.003, and 0.013 ± 0.002 planets per star for planets with radii 2–4, 4–8, and 8–32 RE, consistent with Doppler-detected planets. From Keplere, the number of planets per star as a function of planet radius is given by a power law, df/dlog R = kRRα with kR = 2.9+0.5−0.4, α = −1.92 ± 0.11, and R = RP/RE. Neither the Doppler-detected planets nor the Keplere-detected planets exhibit a “desert” at super-Earth and Neptune sizes for close-in orbits, as suggested by some planet population synthesis models. The distribution of planets with orbital period, P, shows a gentle increase in occurrence with orbital period in the range 2–50 d. The occurrence of small, 2–4 RE planets increases with decreasing stellar mass, with seven times more planets around low mass dwarfs (3600–4100 K) than around massive stars (6600–7100 K).