The contribution of citizens to research is irrefutable. Especially this century with the outburst of all-sky surveys, professional astronomers use citizen-science projects to engage the public in analysing and sorting large quantities of data, often leading to noteworthy discoveries. From crowdsourcing to acquiring data, citizens are leaving a significant mark in the science landscape, assisting professional astronomers with their work. In turn, citizen science is a means of increasing science literacy and public understanding of science. At the same time, the time domain enables a more active engagement of backyard observers in research. Citizen astronomers not only take data, but also reduce and analyse them, and participate in preparing scientific manuscripts.

We re-analyzed OJ287 in 120 Very Long Baseline Array (VLBA, MOJAVE) observations (at 15 GHz) covering the time span between Apr. 1995 and Apr. 2017. We find that the radio jet motion over the sky is consistent with a precessing and nutating jet source. The variability of the radio flux-density can be explained by Doppler beaming due to a change in the viewing angle. We suggest that part of the optical emission is due to synchrotron emission related to the jet radiation. We find a strikingly similar scaling for the timescales for precession and nutation as indicated for SS433 with a factor of roughly 50 times longer in OJ287.

The presence of counter-rotating (CR) components in galaxies is not that rare but their origin is still unclear. Important clues to the formation and evolution of CR galaxies are provided by galaxy kinematics, such as the mass distribution and the shape of the gravitational potential. In order to better understand the origin and incidence of CR galaxies, we aim at modeling CR stellar disks, as they would be observed with Integral Field Units (IFU) instruments, and measuring the kinematics of these peculiar astrophysical objects to reveal the CR signatures. In the bi-dimensional maps of analysed models, the double sigma signature is the best diagnostic to spot the presence of a CR disk component.

We present ALMA observations of the circumstellar envelope around the AGB carbon star TX Psc in molecular CO(2–1) emission, and detect a previously unknown detached shell with filamentary structure and elliptical shape. Up to now, all observed detached shells are found around carbon AGB stars and are of remarkable spherical symmetry. The elliptical shell around TX Psc is the first clear exception to that rule, with TX Psc being classified as rather ’’fresh’’ carbon star, that most likely has only experienced very few thermal pulses yet. We investigate and discuss the 3D structure of the CSE and its most likely formation scenarios, as well as the link of this peculiar detached shell to the AGB evolutionary status of TX Psc.

. We present a significantly improved version of our numerical code JASMINE, that can now solve the Jeans equations for axisymmetric models of stellar systems, composed of an arbitrary number of stellar populations, a Dark Matter halo, and a central Black Hole. The stellar components can have different structural (density profile, flattening, mass, scale length), dynamical (rotational support, velocity dispersion anisotropy), and population (age, metallicity, Initial Mass Function, mass-to-light ratio) properties. These models, when combined with observations, will allow to investigate important issues, such as quantifying the systematic effects of IMF variations, of mass-to-light ratio gradients, and of different stellar kinematic components (e.g. counter rotating disks, kinematically decoupled cores) on luminosity-weighted properties. The developed analytical and numerical framework aims at modeling Early-Type Galaxies, but it can also be applied to dwarf Spheroidal galaxies and Globular Clusters.

The launch of NASA’s next exoplanet mission, the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS), took place successfully on 2018 April 18, and has now commenced science operations. TESS is specifically designed to search for exoplanets transiting the closest and brightest stars using high-cadence photometric measurements. The images employed for detecting those planets can also be used for a wide variety of time-domain astronomy, especially when considering the full-frame images that TESS takes every 30 minutes. This (pre-launch) workshop familiarised participants with the details of how TESS will operate, described the expected data products and how to access them, introduced the software suite PyKE, which can be used to analyse TESS data, and highlighted ways for participants to request additional TESS targets.

We developed a numerical method[-70pt] to compute the gravitational field of an infinitely-thin axisymmetric disc with an arbitrary surface mass density profile. We evaluate the gravitational potential by a split quadrature using the double exponential rule and obtain the acceleration vector by numerically differentiating the potential by Ridders’ algorithm. By using the new method, we show the rotation curves of some non-trivial discs: (i) truncated power-law discs, (ii) discs with a non-negligible center hole, (iii) truncated Mestel discs with edge-softening, (iv) double power-law discs, (v) exponentially-damped power-law discs, and (vi) an exponential disc with a sinusoidal modulation of the density profile. Also, we present a couple of model fittings to the observed rotation curve of M33: (i) the standard deconvolution by assuming a spherical distributin of the dark matter and (ii) a direct fit of infinitely-thin disc mass with a double power-law distribution of the surface mass density.

Dense cores represent a critical stage in the star-formation process, but are not physically well-defined entities. We present a new technique to define core boundaries in observations of molecular clouds based on the physical properties of the cloud medium. Applying this technique to regions in the Pipe nebula, we find that our core boundaries differ from previous analyses, with potentially crucial implications for the statistical properties of the core sample.

Studies of the presence of magnetic fields in Herbig Ae/Be stars are extremely important because they enable us to improve our insight into how the magnetic fields of these stars are generated and how they interact with their environment, including their impact on the planet formation process and the planet-disk interaction. We report new detections of weak mean longitudinal magnetic fields in the close Herbig Ae double-lined spectroscopic binary AK Sco and in the presumed spectroscopic Herbig Ae binary HD 95881 (Järvinen et al. 2018) based on observations obtained with HARPSpol attached to ESO’s 3.6 m telescope. Such studies are important because only very few close spectroscopic binaries with orbital periods below 20 d are known among Herbig Ae stars. Our detections favour the conclusion that the previously suggested low incidence (5-10%) of magnetic Herbig Ae stars can be explained by the weakness of these fields and the limited accuracy of the published measurements. The search for magnetic fields and the determination of their geometries in close binary systems will play an important role for understanding the mechanisms that are responsible for the magnetic field generation.

Using the VLT-SPHERE/ZIMPOL adaptive optics imaging polarimeter, images of a sample of nearby red supergiants (RSGs) were obtained in multiple filters. From these data, we obtain information on geometrical structures in the inner wind, the onset radius and spatial distribution of dust grains as well as dust properties such as grain size. As dust grains may play a role in initiating and/or driving the outflow, this could provide us with clues as to the wind driving mechanism.

The high mass X-ray binaries (HMXBs) provide an exciting framework to investigate the evolution of massive stars and the processes behind binary evolution. HMXBs have shown to be good tracers of recent star formation in galaxies and might be important feedback sources at early stages of the Universe. Furthermore, HMXBs are likely the progenitors of gravitational wave sources (BH–BH or BH–NS binaries that may merge producing gravitational waves). In this work, we investigate the nature and properties of HMXB population in star-forming galaxies. We combine the results from the population synthesis model MOBSE (Giacobbo & Mapelli 2018a) together with galaxy catalogs from EAGLE simulation (Schaye et al. 2015). Therefore, this method describes the HMXBs within their host galaxies in a self-consistent way. We compute the X-ray luminosity function (XLF) of HMXBs in star-forming galaxies, showing that this methodology matches the main features of the observed XLF.

We constrained the jet proper motion of PMN J2134–0419 at z = 4.33 to μ = 0.035±0.023mas yr−1 using very long baseline interferometry (VLBI). This is the second most distant source where such a measurement could be made. Another distant blazar SDSS J1026+2542 (z = 5.27) shows jet component proper motions up to μ = 0.112 ± 0.031 mas yr−1. In both cases, the measured values are consistent with the expectations of current ΛCDM cosmological models.

Cosmological simulations predict that early-type galaxies (ETGs) are the results of extended mass accretion histories. The latter are characterized by different numbers of mergers, mergers’ mass ratios and gas fractions, and timing. Depending on the sequence and nature of these mergers that follow the first phase of the in-situ star formation, these accretion histories may lead to ETGs that have low or high mass halos, and that rotate fast or slow. Since the stellar halos maintain the fossil records of the events that led to their formation, a discontinuity may be in place between the inner regions of ETGs and their outer halos, because the time required for the halos’ stars to exchange their energies and momenta is very long compared with the age of these systems. Exquisite deep photometry and extended spectroscopy for significant samples of ETGs are then used to quantify the occurrence and significance of such a transition in the galaxies’ structural and kinematical parameters. Once this transition radius is measured, its dependency with the effective radius of the galaxies’ light distribution and total stellar masses can be investigated. Such correlations can then be compared with the predictions of accreted, i.e. ex-situ vs. in-situ components from cosmological simulations to validate such models.

Recent analyses of Lee et al. (2018, 2019) have confirmed that Galactic bulge consists of stellar populations originated from Milky Way globular clusters (MWGCs). Motivated by this, here we present the evolutionary population synthesis (EPS) for the Galactic bulge and early-type galaxies (ETGs) with the realistic treatment of individual variations in light elements observed in the MWGCs. We have utilized our model with GC-origin populations to explain the CN spread observed in ETGs, and the results show remarkable matches with the observations. We further employ our model to estimate the age of ETGs, which are considered as good analogs for the MW bulge. We find that, without the effect of our new treatments, EPS models will almost always underestimate the true age of ETGs. Our analysis indicates that the EPS with GC-origin populations is an essential constraint in determining the ETG formation epoch and is closely related to understanding the evolution of the Universe.

Starbursts are finite periods of intense star formation (SF) that can dramatically impact the evolutionary state of a galaxy. Recent results suggest that starbursts in dwarf galaxies last longer and are distributed over more of the galaxy than previously thought, with star formation efficiencies (SFEs) comparable to spiral galaxies, much higher than those typical of non-bursting dwarfs. This difference might be explainable if the starburst mode is externally triggered by gravitational interactions with other nearby systems. We present new, sensitive neutral hydrogen observations of 18 starburst dwarf galaxies, which are part of the STARburst IRregular Dwarf Survey (STARBIRDS) and each were mapped with the Green Bank Telescope (GBT) and/or Parkes Telescope in order to study the low surface brightness gas distributions, a common tracer for tidal interactions.

We have modeled the luminosity-displacement correlation of high-mass X-ray binaries (HMXBs) with an evolutionary population synthesis (EPS) code. Detailed properties including offsets of simulated HMXBs are presented under both common envelope prescriptions usually adopted (i.e., the αCE formalism and the γ algorithm), and several theoretical models describing the natal kicks. We suggest that the distinct observational properties may be used as potential evidence to discriminate between models.

The Optical Gravitational Lensing Experiment (OGLE) started at Las Campanas Observatory in 1992 with a pilot monitoring programme of two million stars in the Galactic Bulge. It is still operating today, collecting time-domain photometric data of a billion stars from the densest regions in the southern sky. Among its main achievements are discoveries of thousands of microlensing events, a few dozen extrasolar planets and candidates for black holes, a million variable stars, and thousands of quasars and supernovæ. It has made a major contribution to the studies of the dark-matter content of the Milky Way halo, the structure of the Galactic Bulge, the Magellanic Clouds, and new classes of variable stars. In this its 25th anniversary year, we presented a selection of the major scientific highlights of OGLE.

Stencel et al. (1986) analyzed IUE spectra of a modest set of cool stars and found that they continue to produce chromospheres even in the presence of high dust levels in their outer atmospheres. This reversed the previous results of Jennings (1973) and Jennings & Dyck (1972). We describe an on-going extension of these studies to a sample of stars representing a broader range in dust/gas ratios, using archival IUE and archival and new HST data on both RGB and AGB stars. Surface fluxes in emission lines will be analyzed to assess the chromospheric activity and obscuration by dust in each star, as those fluxes will follow a different pattern for reduced activity (temperature/density dependent) vs. dust obscuration (wavelength dependent). Wind characteristics will be measured by modeling of wind-reversed chromospheric emission lines.

Black holes at the centers of the galaxies grow mainly by the processes of accretion, mergers, and consumption of stars. In the case of gas accretion with cooling sources, the flow is momentum driven, after which the black hole reaches a saturated mass, and subsequently, it grows only by consumption of stars. In addition, we include the effect of mergers on the growth of black hole spin and mass and study its evolution as a function of redshift in a ΛCDM cosmology using an initial seed mass and spin distribution functions that we have derived. For the stellar ingestion, we have assumed a power-law density profile for the galaxy in our framework of a new relativistic loss cone theory that includes the effect of the black hole spin. We predict the impact of the evolution on the M•−σ relation and compare it with available observations.

Emission lines from CO and Hi are the standard tracers of molecular and atomic interstellar medium, respectively. In the past two decades, a consensus has formed that a substantial fraction of Galactic molecular gas evades detection by these two tracers, thus giving rise to the empirical concept of dark molecular gas (DMG). Largely based on the experience and evidence garnered from the Arecibo Millennium survey, we have formed an international consortium, the Pacific Rim Interstellar Matter Observers (PRIMO), to pursue alternative tracers of DMG, particularly absorption against background radio sources (quasars). PRIMO have carried out observing programs at Arecibo, JVLA, Delingha 13.7m, ATCA and ALMA, among others. Our observations reveal abundant hydrides, namely OH and CH, in DMG clouds. The historical difficulty of mapping OH can be explained by the measured OH excitation temperature $f(T_{{\rm{ex}}}^{{\rm{OH}}}) \propto \frac{1}{{\sqrt {2\pi } \sigma }}{\rm{exp}}[ - {(ln(T_{ex}^{OH}) - ln(3.4\;K))^2}/(2{\sigma ^2})],$

which is a modified log-normal function peaking close to the numerical value of the L-band Galactic continuum background (synchrotron + CMB). Both OH and CH are shown to be better tracers of molecular hydrogen than CO, particularly in the intermediate extinction regions (Av ~ 0.05-2 magnitude), where DMG dominates. http://ism.bao.ac.cn/primo