The theoretical modelling of prominence vibrations has been performed mainly through the analysis of the magnetohydrodynamic normal modes of oscillation of simple equilibrium structures. Research on this topic has concentrated mostly on the oscillatory properties of prominence slabs (i.e. without taking into account the internal thread structure) and prominence fibrils (i.e. introducing some of this inherent internal complexity of prominences, although in a simplified manner). In an attempt to understand the observed strong damping of prominence oscillations, work has also been done on the attenuation of waves in these objects. The achievements in this particular research area are reviewed and some trends for possible future investigations are given.

We report the first detection of a short-duration (<3 months) outburst of an H2CO 6cm maser based on multi-epoch observations of IRAS18566+0408 obtained with Arecibo, the Green Bank Telescope, and the Very Large Array. The H2CO maser was observed nine times between 2002 and 2005. In May 2006 we began a two-year program of monthly monitoring with the Arecibo Telescope. The H2CO maser in IRAS18566+0408 is coincident with a young massive stellar object and the line profile of the maser suggests that the H2CO emission originates from two different regions, perhaps associated with the kinematics of a circumstellar disk.

Applications have been received from Dr. Peter Wheatley (proposed by UK), Prof. Harald Schuh (proposed by Austria), and Dr. Busaba Kramer (proposed by Thailand). All applications were endorsed, with the caveat that Dr. Kramer's application needs to be endorsed by at least one of the other commissions since she has not a publication record in our field.

Gravitational lensing and stellar dynamics provide two complementary methods to probe the smooth and clumpy stellar and dark-matter mass distribution in early-type galaxies, currently already over a range of two orders of magnitude in virial mass, more than ten orders of magnidude in dynamic mass range in each galaxy (i.e. from stars, CDM substructure to massive dark-matter halos), over 0–1 in redshift, and a range of 0–100 effective radii. This makes their unification a powerful new tool in the study of the formation, structure and evolution of these massive systems. I review recent results that we obtained, based on gravitational lens systems from the Sloan Lens ACS Survey (SLACS), and outline some ongoing and future work.

Massive stars played a key role in the early evolution of the Universe. They formed with the first halos and started the re-ionisation. It is therefore very important to understand their evolution. In this review, we first recall the effect of metallicity (Z) on the evolution of massive stars. We then describe the strong impact of rotation induced mixing and mass loss at very low Z. The strong mixing leads to a significant production of primary 14N, 13C and 22Ne. Mass loss during the red supergiant stage allows the production of Wolf-Rayet stars, type Ib,c supernovae and possibly gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) down to almost Z = 0 for stars more massive than 60 M⊙. Galactic chemical evolution models calculated with models of rotating stars better reproduce the early evolution of N/O, C/O and 12C/13C. Finally, the impact of magnetic fields is discussed in the context of GRBs.

The case is outlined for a new galaxy survey, including spectroscopy with AAOmega and sub-arcsecond multi-band imaging, that bridges a crucial gap between the SDSS and VVDS surveys. The science focus is to study structure and the relationship between matter and light on kpc-to-Mpc scales. The range of scales probed will enable direct constraints on the Cold Dark Matter model by: (1) measuring the halo mass function down to and its evolution to z ~ 0.4; (2) measuring the galaxy stellar mass function to very low mass limits of constraining baryonic feedback processes; and (3) quantifying the environment-dependent merger rate since z ~ 0.4. Here, we highlight the fact that the high-resolution imaging will enable the bulge-disk decomposition of ~200000 galaxies in u–K, providing a valuable resource for statistical studies of bulge properties.

We report on the progress of the Brown Dwarf Kinematics Project (BDKP), which aims to measure the 6D positions and velocities of all known brown dwarfs within 20 pc of the Sun and select sources of scientific interest. In this paper we report on the status of the 33 targets on our parallax list as well as the results of our proper motion survey where we have measured over 400 new proper motions for known late M, L and T dwarfs.

Followup infrared spectroscopy is reported for V1647 Ori, a young star whose recent eruption illuminated McNeil's Nebula. Lines of HI, H2, and CO are compared to previous observations. We find that the accretion rate fell two orders of magnitude and the CO bandheads disappeared at the end of the outburst. We also report a striking metamorphosis of the fundamental CO spectrum from centrally peaked profiles to emission lines with superimposed blue-shifted absorption lines and back again one year later. This remarkable change in spectral appearance indicates that the system did not return to equilibrium immediately following the outburst. In this paper we propose a mechanism to explain the emergence of a transient post-outburst outflow.

The WIYN open cluster study (WOCS) has been working to yield precise optical (UBRVI) photometry for all stars in the field of a selection of “prototypical” open clusters. Additionally, WOCS has been using radial velocities to obtain orbit solutions for cluster member hard-binary stars (with period less than 1000 days). Recently, WOCS has been expanded to include the near-infrared (JHKs; 2MASS plus new deep ground-based) and mid-infrared ([3.6], [4.5], [5.8], [8.0] micron) photometry from Spitzer/IRAC observations. This multi-wavelength data (0.3–8.0 microns) allows us to identify binaries photometrically, with mass ratios from 1.0–0.3, across a wide range of primary masses. The spectral energy distribution (SED) fitter by Robitaille et al. (2007) is used to fit the fluxes of 10–12 bands to Kurucz stellar models. This technique allows us to explore the soft binary population for the first time. Using this photometric technique, we find that NGC 188 has a binary fraction of 36-49% and provide a star-by-star comparison to the WOCS radial velocity-based hard binary study.

Short period planets provide an exciting opportunity of constraining structural properties. Observations have revealed a diverse class of objects, including several at odds with aspects of conventional planet formation theories. Here we present several scenarios that may help in producing the observed diversity. For short period planets in particular, their proximity to their host stars suggests that star-planet interactions may play an important role in their orbital and structural evolution. We first show that the penetration of a non-synchronous stellar magnetic field into short period planets will provide a significant source of energy for planetary expansion and may help stall inward migration. In addition to magnetic dissipation, the intense irradiation from the host star will drive atmospheric flows, whose behaviour is strongly influenced by the opacity of the envelope. Finally, we explore the role of late stage planetesimal and embryo bombardment on the structure of gas-giant planets. Dynamical trapping during migration, followed by orbital destablization during the final stage of gas-giant growth, leads to a surge in the collision rate. Such collisions will lead to preferential core growth and inflated radii. All three of these processes, occurring late in the planetary formation process, will produce a large range in planetary properties and may account for the diversity we see today.

Present were the members Abe, Babadzhanov, Baggaley, Borovička, Bowell, Ceplecha, Consolmagno, Jenniskens, Kolomiets, Koten, Marsden, Porubčan, Spurný, Valsecchi, Watanabe, and Williams.

Based on a NIR morphological study of 25 galaxies in eight Compact Groups (CGs), we find that the galaxies are not in equilibrium but in a process of transformation: late-type galaxies morphological change into earlier types. As much as half of the galaxies in our sample show evidence of ongoing or past mergers.We identify tidal stripping and mergers as the process responsible of this transformation. Our observations also suggest that galaxies in CGs merge more frequently under “dry” conditions (i.e. once they have lost most of their gas).

The resolution of pairs of objects closer than the scale of seeing, and of difference of magnitude larger than ten percent is unreliable by direct imaging. The resulting image FWHM differs from a true PSF by no more than four percent. Yet, the peak of the associated Gaussian is shifted to a larger proportion.

The main results are the description of the FWHM and peak location shifts as function of the seeing scale, the centers separation, and of the magnitudes difference. Analytically, the estimators of variation were the resulting Gaussian amplitude, mean value, and standard deviation. The later is shown to be the most reliable estimator.

We discuss how rotation and binary interactions may be related to the diversity of type Ibc supernovae and long gamma-ray bursts. After presenting recent evolutionary models of massive single and binary stars including rotation, the Tayler-Spruit dynamo and binary interactions, we argue that the nature of SNe Ibc progenitors from binary systems may not significantly differ from that of single star progenitors in terms of rotation, and that most long GRB progenitors may be produced via the quasi-chemically homogeneous evolution at sub-solar metallicity. We also briefly discuss the possible role of magnetic fields generated in the convective core of a massive star for the transport of angular momentum, which is potentially important for future stellar evolution models of supernova and GRB progenitors.

Star-disk interaction is thought to drive the angular momentum evolution of young stars. In this review, I present the latest results obtained on the rotational properties of low mass and very low mass pre-main sequence stars. I discuss the evidence for extremely efficient angular momentum removal over the first few Myr of pre-main sequence evolution and describe recent results that support an accretion-driven braking mechanism. Angular momentum evolution models are presented and their implication for accretion disk lifetimes discussed.

We investigate the dynamical response of a non-synchronized hot Jupiter to stellar irradiation. In our current model, the stellar radiation acts like a diurnal thermal forcing from the top of a radiative layer of a hot Jupiter. If the thermal forcing period is longer than the sound speed crossing time of the planet's surface, the forcing can excite internal waves propagating into the planet's interior. When the planet spins faster than its orbital motion, these waves carry negative angular momentum and are damped by radiative loss as they propagate downwards from the upper layer of the radiative zone. As a result, the upper layer gains the angular momentum from the lower layer of the radiative zone. Simple estimates of angular momentum flux are made for all transiting planets.

We present a detailed dynamical study of the old (7 Gyr) open cluster NGC 188. Our combined radial-velocity data set spans a baseline of 35 years, a magnitude range of 12 ≤ V ≤ 16.5, and a 1° diameter region on the sky. Our magnitude limits include solar-mass main-sequence stars, subgiants, giants, and blue stragglers, and our spatial coverage extends radially to 11.5 core radii. We have measured radial velocities for 1014 stars in the direction of NGC 188 with a precision of 0.4 km s−1, and have calculated radial-velocity membership probabilities for stars with ≥ 3 measurements. We find 420 stars to be high-probability cluster members, including 137 spectroscopic binaries. These detectable binaries all have orbital periods of less than 104 days, and thus are hard. We have derived orbit solutions for 67 member binary stars, and use our 35 main-sequence binaries with orbit solutions to compare the eccentricity and period distributions with simulated observations of the Hurley et al. (2005) model of M67 (4.5 Gyr). We also compare the spatial distributions of cluster member populations.

Eight strong methanol masers were monitored using the 32-m Torun radio telescope at 6.7 and 12.2 GHz. The observations were taken in the period 2003 December to 2005 July at 1–2 week intervals. We have noted strong variability of single features but did not notice spectacular spectral shape changes. From our results we designated two groups of variability for corresponding features: Those where the 12.2 GHz flux density variations follow those at 6.7 GHz, and those where the 12.2 GHz flux density variations are opposite to 6.7 GHz.

Recent high-resolution observations have pointed out that prominences are made of small threads (also named fibrils) piled up to form the body of the prominence. These fine structures also seem to support their own oscillatory modes, while their effect on the global modes of the prominences are less certain. We study the effect of adding a smooth transition layer between the prominence material and the corona along the magnetic field line, since previous studies have considered a jump in density in this interface. Then we compare the results with previous models and check that these transition layers do not affect significantly the periods of the modes.

We present the distribution of luminous and dark matter in a set of strong lensing (early-type) galaxies. By combining two independent techniques – stellar population synthesis and gravitational lensing – we can compare the baryonic and dark matter content in these galaxies within the regions that can be probed using the images of the lensed background source. Two samples were studied, extracted from the CASTLES and SLACS surveys. The former probes a wider range of redshifts and allows us to explore the mass distribution out to ~ 5Re. The high resolution optical images of the latter (using HST/ACS) are used to show a pixellated map of the ratio between total and baryonic matter. We find dark matter to be absent in the cores of these galaxies, with an increasing contribution at projected radii R ≳ Re. The slopes are roughly compatible with an isothermal slope (better interpreted as an adiabatically contracted NFW profile), but a large scatter in the slope exists among galaxies. There is a trend suggesting most massive galaxies have a higher content of dark matter in the regions probed by this analysis.