The XXIXth General Assembly was opened by a Oli Chant and Blessing by D. Akaka Jr.

Charles Malcolm Walmsley passed away on 1 May 2017. Over a long and highly productive career, Malcolm made numerous and fundamental contributions to the science of the interstellar medium and star formation. These have recently been summarized elsewhere (Menten & Cesaroni 2017). Here I would like to describe some of his work related to masers.

The study of solar rotation has a 150-year history. Early studies were restricted to looking at the movement of sunspots; much later came studies using other tracers such as supergranules, and spectroscopic measurements using Doppler shifts of spectral lines. These studies also found evidence of other large-scale flows, such as the meridional flows in the north-south direction and the zonal flows, or torsional oscillations, parallel to the equator. However, until the 1980s, the study of solar rotation and large-scale flows was restricted to what could be observed on the solar surface. The advent of good helioseismic data changed that and gave us the means to study flows in the solar interior. Instruments like GONG, MDI and HMI have now collected helioseismic data for two solar cycles and these also allow us to study the large scale flows and their variations with time and solar activity. We review what the long data sets tell us about the these flows and discuss some of the differences between solar cycles 23 and 24.

In the last decades, numerous observational and computational studies have shown that the global flare distribution is a power-law with a slope less than 2. In these studies, active regions are treated as statistically indistinguishable. To test this, we identify and separately analyze the flares produced by ten individual active regions (2006-2016). In five regions, we find a single power-law distribution, with a slope of a < 2. In the other five, we find a broken double power-law distribution, with slopes a1 < 2 and a2 > 2.

Astronomy, astrophysics and cosmology have changed out of all recognition over the last 100 years. The IAU has provided an essential means of fostering international collaboration in these disciplines including times of international tension. Developments will be highlighted which have profoundly changed our understanding and insight into the workings of our Universe.

Very metal-poor stars ([Fe/H] < –2.0) inform our understanding of the formation and evolution of the Galaxy, and the physical conditions in the earliest star-forming environments of the Universe. They play an integral part in the paradigms of stellar populations, stellar archaeology, and near-field cosmology. We review the carbon-rich and carbon-normal sub-populations of the most iron-poor stars, providing insight into chemical enrichment at the earliest times in the Universe. We also discuss the role of very metal-poor stars in providing insight into the Galaxy’s halo, thick disk, and bulge, and the promise they hold for the future. A comparison between the abundances obtained for the nine most Fe-poor stars ([Fe/H] < –4.5) (all but one of which is C-rich) with abundances obtained from far-field cosmology suggests that the former are the most chemically primitive objects yet observed and probably older than the DLA- and sub-DLA systems for which data are currently available from far-field studies.

Compact object mergers are promising candidates for the progenitor system of short gamma-ray bursts (GRBs). Using gravitational wave (GW) triggers to identify a merger, any electromagnetic (EM) counterparts from the jet can be used to constrain the dynamics and structure of short GRB jets. GW triggered searches could reveal a hidden population of optical transients associated with the short-lived jets from the merger object. If the population of merger-jets is dominated by low-Lorentz-factors, then a GW triggered search will reveal the on-axis orphan afterglows from these failed GRBs. By considering the EM counterparts from a jet, with or without the prompt GRB, the jet structure and dynamics can be constrained. By modelling the afterglow of various jet structures with viewing angle, we provide observable predictions for the on- and off- axis EM jet counterparts. The predictions provide an indication for the various features expected from the proposed jet structure models.

This paper provides a brief overview of the journey of molecules through the Cosmos, from local diffuse interstellar clouds and PDRs to distant galaxies, and from cold dark clouds to hot star-forming cores, protoplanetary disks, planetesimals and exoplanets. Recent developments in each area are sketched and the importance of connecting astronomy with chemistry and other disciplines is emphasized. Fourteen challenges for the field of Astrochemistry in the coming decades are formulated.

Since their discovery 50 years ago, neutron stars have continually astonished. From the first-discovered radio pulsars to the powerful “magnetars” that emit sudden bursts of X-rays and γ-rays, from the so-called Isolated Neutron Stars to Central Compact Objects, observational manifestations of neutron stars are surprisingly varied, with most properties totally unpredicted. The challenge is to cement an overarching physical theory of neutron stars and their birth properties that can explain this great diversity. Here I briefly survey the disparate neutron star classes, describe their properties, highlight recent results, and describe efforts at “grand unification” of this wealth of observational phenomena.

The LOFAR Tied Array All-Sky Survey (LOTAAS) is an ongoing all northern sky survey for pulsars and transients. It is one of the first large scale pulsar surveys conducted at an observing frequency below 200 MHz. The unique set-up of the survey is the simultaneous formation of 222 beams for each survey pointing by coherently adding signals from the central 6 LOFAR stations. This represents the first SKA-like pulsar survey. As of 12 September 2017, the survey has completed 1456 pointings, more than two-thirds of the total. The survey has discovered 61 new pulsars via Fourier-based periodicity searches and a further 5 via single pulse searches. I present the survey approach and distinctive features including a discussion of an improved machine learning classifier used to identify the best candidates produced by the pipeline for further investigation. I present a summary of the discoveries so far including the first binary pulsar and the pulsar with the longest spin period of 23.5 s.

Using continuous observations for 22 years from ground-based network GONG and space-borne instruments MDI onboard SoHO and HMI onboard SDO, we report both global and local properties of the convection zone and their variations with time.

Much progress has been achieved in the age-dating of old stellar systems, and even of individual stars in the field, in the more than sixty years since the evolution of low-mass stars was first correctly described. In this paper, I provide an overview of some of the main methods that have been used in this context, and discuss some of the issues that still affect the determination of accurate ages for the oldest stars.

The identification of the electromagnetic(EM) counterpart of gravitational wave(GW) trigger in the sky localization is a very difficult task because of the large uncertainty. Two complementary approaches are used in order to search for EM counterpart of GW signal with a typical large sky localization uncertainty: wide-field tilling search on high probability GW region, e.g. Gravitational Wave Inaf Team(GRAWITA) project or pointed search of selected galaxies in high probability GW region, e.g. Distance Less Than 40 Mpc survey(DLT40) project.

The President of the IAU, Prof. Norio Kaifu, welcomed the delegates and members to this first business session of the General Assembly. The President invited the General Secretary, Dr. Thierry Montmerle, to start the business session.

Magnetic activity information is concealed in the shape of stellar light curves owing to the process of rotational modulation. We developed approaches to extract magnetic activity characteristics from stellar light curves, and applied the method to a solar-type star observed with Kepler space telescope and also to the Sun for comparison. The result reveals distinct magnetic activity discrepancies between the solar-type star and the Sun. (1) The light-curve periodicity of the solar-type star is generally stronger than that of the Sun. (2) For the solar-type star, when the range of light-curve fluctuation is larger, the periodicity is also higher; while for the Sun, only during the solar minima with minimal range of fluctuation, the light curves show some periodicity. We propose that on the solar-type star, it is the large-scale magnetic field that leads to the light curves with both high periodicity and large range of fluctuation.

In external galaxies, some galaxies have higher activities of star formation and central supermassive black holes. The interstellar medium in those galaxies can be heated by different mechanisms such as UV-heating, X-ray heating, cosmic-ray heating, and shock/mechanical heating. Chemical compositions can also be affected by those heating mechanisms. Observations of many molecular species in those nearby galaxies are now possible with the high sensitivity of Atacama Large Millimeter/sub-millimeter Array (ALMA). Here I cover different chemical models for those heating mechanisms. In addition, I present recent ALMA results of extragalactic astrochemistry including our results of a face-on galaxy M83 and an infrared-luminous merger NGC 3256.

One hundred years ago, the International Astronomical Union was created, one of the very first Unions dedicated to the advancement of a discipline and the promotion of international collaboration and exchange. In 100 years, astronomy has made huge progress, and the IAU has greatly expanded in volume and purpose. In recent years, it has become more and more active in education, astronomy for development and dissemination of astronomy to a large public.

Maser theory continues to be driven by advances in observational techniques. Here, I consider the responses to VLBI with space-Earth baselines and cross-correlation spectroscopy (a re-consideration of coherence properties), routine observation in full-Stokes polarization (a re-casting of the polarization transfer equations), and long-term variability monitoring (3-D modelling of irregular domains).

The ongoing Green Bank North Celestial Cap pulsar survey is using the Green Bank Telescope to search for pulsars and transients over 85% of the celestial sphere. The survey has resulted in over 150 new pulsars, among which are high-precision millisecond pulsars, several binary pulsars, including at least one relativistic double neutron star system, nulling pulsars, and several nearby millisecond pulsars. We find no fast radio bursts in the survey to date. We present these results and discuss the future prospects for the survey.

At the Sydney IAU General Assembly (GA) the statutes were modified to remove the votes by individual members. Few noticed this at the time but the subsequent reaction by disenfranchised members led us to revise this position in Prague. The need to have a members’ vote on the status of Pluto was complicated by these changes and the drama behind the scene at the Prague GA where the planet definition was resolved is not well known despite the huge public impact of this GA. I will describe some of the activities of the executive and its working groups during this very exciting GA. The IAU structures served us well during this process but of course there were also many lessons learned.