Recently we were able to retrieve the Earth's transmission spectrum through lunar eclipse observations. This spectrum showed that the depth of most molecular species was stronger than models had anticipated. The presence of other atmospheric signatures, such as atmospheric dimers, were also present in the spectrum. We have been developing a radiative transfer code able to reproduce the Earth's transmission spectra at different depths into the penumbra and umbra, and taking into account transmission, refraction, and multiple scattering. Here we discuss the results to date and the work ahead.

In this paper, we compare components of the horizontal flow below the solar surface in and around regions consisting of rotating and non-rotating sunspots. Our analysis suggests that there is a significant variation in both components of the horizontal flow at the beginning of sunspot rotation as compared to the non-rotating sunspot. The flows in surrounding areas are in most cases relatively small. However, there is a significant influence of the motion on flows in an area closest to the sunspot rotation.

According to a Top500.org compilation, large computer systems have been doubling in sustained speed every 1.14 years for the last 17 years. If this rapid growth continues, we will have computers by 2020 that can execute an Exaflop (1018) per second. Storage is also improving in cost and density at an exponential rate. Several innovations that will accompany this growth are reviewed here, including shrinkage of basic circuit components on Silicon, three-dimensional integration, and Phase Change Memory. Further growth will require new technologies, most notably those surrounding the basic building block of computers, the Field Effect Transistor. Implications of these changes for the types of problems that can be solved are briefly discussed.

Simultaneous multi-wavelength observations are crucial for understanding the physics of microquasars, especially the accretion disk/jet connection. The enigmatic microquasar Cygnus X-3 exhibits strong, relativistic jet ejection events producing radio flares up to 20 Jy. These events are preceded by a very soft X-ray state with quenched emission in the radio and hard X-ray bands. Recently, GeV flux was observed by the AGILE and Fermi γ-ray observatories during the newly-identified hypersoft state. By using an extensive database of simultaneous multi-wavelength observations gathered from Cygnus X-3 we can form a more unified picture of the nature of the source and show how the recent γ-ray observations fit into it.

Luminous compact blue galaxies (LCBGs) are a diverse class of galaxies characterized by high luminosity, blue color, and high surface brightness that sit at the critical juncture of galaxies evolving from the blue to the red sequence. As part of our multi-wavelength survey of local LCBGs, we have been studying the HI content of these galaxies using both single-dish telescopes and interferometers. Our goals are to determine if single-dish HI observations represent a true measure of the dynamical mass of LCBGs and to look for signatures of recent interactions that may be triggering star formation in LCBGs. Our data show that while some LCBGs are undergoing interactions, many appear isolated. While all LCBGs contain HI and show signatures of rotation, the population does not lie on the Tully-Fisher relation nor can it evolve onto it. Furthermore, the HI maps of many LCBGs show signatures of dynamically hot components, suggesting that we are seeing the formation of a thick disk or spheroid in at least some LCBGs. There is good agreement between the HI and Hα kinematics for LCBGs, and both are similar in appearance to the Hα kinematics of high redshift star-forming galaxies. Our combined data suggest that star formation in LCBGs is primarily quenched by virial heating, consistent with model predictions.

The effects of turbulence on the dynamics of dust grains in protoplanetary discs is of relevant importance in the study of pre-planetesimal formation. The complex interplay between gas and dust and the modelling of turbulence require numerical simulations.

A statistical study of the noise in SPH simulations of gas-only protoplanetary accretion discs is performed in order to determine if it could mimic turbulence and to what extent.

We use the BCD spectrophotometric classification system to derive fundamental parameters of B stars in NGC 2439, NGC 3766 and NGC 6087. We are able to perform a complete study of each open cluster by deriving spectral classification of its members, distance modulus and age as well.

The coming years will see routine use of solar data of unprecedented spatial and spectral resolution, time cadence, and completeness in the wavelength domain. To capitalize on the soon to be available radio facilities such as the expanded OVSA, SSRT and FASR, and the challenges they present in the visualization and synthesis of the multi-frequency datasets, we propose that realistic, sophisticated 3D active region and flare modeling is timely now and will be a forefront of coronal studies over the coming years. Here we summarize our 3D modeling efforts, aimed at forward fitting of imaging spectroscopy data, and describe currently available 3D modeling tools. We also discuss plans for future generalization of our modeling tools.

We observe the acoustic velocity oscillations in and near active region NOAA 10960 on 8 June, 2007 using observations from the IBIS instrument at the Dunn Solar Telescope at NSO/Sacramento Peak and simultaneous Hinode BFI/SP data. Inversions were performed on the spectropolarimetric datasets in order to get magnetic field information for the AR. A time series of Doppler maps from line bisectors and Stokes V zero-crossing was constructed and allowed us to construct power maps for the AR. Past works by various authors have shown that acoustic power in the solar atmosphere is strongly influenced by magnetic field strength and inclination. Our study also explores this, but in addition, we also discuss the role of oscillations due to purely magnetized gas in the photosphere. Our preliminary results for this study are presented.

A current investigation is underway into the possible collision between a circumstellar disk and the secondary star in the δ Scorpii binary system. δ Scorpii is a prime candidate for a disk-star collision since the primary star has a circumstellar disk and the secondary star has a highly elliptical orbit with a period of approximately 10.5 years making the periastron passage very close to the primary star. The Navy Prototype Optical Interferometer (NPOI) was used to spatially resolve the two stars as well as the cirumstellar disk around the primary. A revised orbit with new orbital parameters has been calculated using observations obtained between 2005 and 2010. Our results indicate periastron passage will occur on 2011-07-03.

Assuming that the torsional oscillation is driven by the Lorentz force of the magnetic field associated with the sunspot cycle, we use a flux transport dynamo to model it and explain its initiation at a high latitude before the beginning of the sunspot cycle.

We are carrying out a multifrequency survey of late type galaxies in nearby clusters with the aim to investigate the effects exerted by both the very local and the global cluster environments. We report new VLA-HI images of galaxies in Abell 1367 and study the evolution of their gaseous component. In Abell 85 we perform a deep NIR imaging survey of the brightest spirals projected up to 1.0 Abell radius with the aim of unveiling possible gravitational effects on their stellar disks. Here we show preliminary results of these projects, mainly focused on infalling compact groups of galaxies moving towards their respective cluster centers.

The outcome of collisions between pre-planetesimals is important in the theory of planetesimal formation by collisional growth and strongly depends on their internal structure. Since pre-planetesimals are highly porous, reaching 90% porosity, they could show the so called anomalous behaviour (decrease of density during shock compression, e.g. Bolkhovitinov & Khvostov 1978). Due to involved sizes (>dm), laboratory experiments are unfeasible therefore numerical simulations equipped with adequate porosity models are necessary.

Here we focus on the P-α model and its variations. We found that they are suitable for applications in the high porosity range only after a modification of the basic equations, that avoids an inconsistency and takes into account the effect of dissipated energy, is performed.

We present new insights about accretion and ejection physics based on joint RXTE/Chandra HETGS studies of rapid X-ray variability in GRS 1915+105. For the first time, with fast phase-resolved spectroscopy of the ρ state, we are able to show that changes in the broadband X-ray spectrum (RXTE) on timescales of seconds are associated with measurable changes in absorption lines (Chandra HETGS) from the accretion disk wind. Additionally, we make a direct detection of material evaporating from the radiation-pressure-dominated inner disk. Our X-ray data thus reveal the black hole as it ejects a portion of the inner accretion flow and then drives a wind from the outer disk, all in a bizarre cycle that lasts fewer than 60 seconds but can repeat for weeks. We find that the accretion disk wind may be sufficiently massive to play an active role in GRS 1915+105, not only in quenching the jet on long timescales, but also in possibly producing or facilitating transitions between classes of X-ray variability.

The ALMA (Atacama Large Millimeter/sub-millimeter Array) is the large interferometer that will consist up to 64 high-precision antennas operating in the 31.3 – 950 GHz frequency range. In this range unique observations in cosmology, cold universe, galaxies, stars and their formations, and so on are expected. Among these objectives there is a unique possibility to observe the Sun and to address outstanding issues of solar physics. The ALMA is shortly described and then the new ESO-ALMA European node (ARC) built at Ondřejov Observatory is presented. The new ARC is the only one in Europe oriented to solar physics. The requirements and limitations for ALMA solar observations, as well as some examples of possible solar-oriented ALMA projects, are mentioned.

We developed a fast numerical scheme for solving ambipolar diffusion MHD equations with the strong coupling approximation, which can be written as the ideal MHD equations with an additional ambipolar diffusion term in the induction equation. The mass, momentum, magnetic fluxes due to the ideal MHD equations can be easily calculated by any Godunov-type schemes. Additional magnetic fluxes due to the ambipolar diffusion term are added in the magnetic fluxes, because of two same spatial gradients operated on the advection fluxes and the ambipolar diffusion term. In this way, we easily kept divergence-free magnetic fields using the constraint transport scheme. In order to overcome a small time step imposed by ambipolar diffusion, we used the super time stepping method. The resultant scheme is fast and robust enough to do the long term evolution of star formation simulations. We also proposed that the decay of alfen by ambipolar diffusion be a good test problem for our codes.