We present here a study of the Infrared properties ofAsymptoticGiant Branch stars (hereafter AGB) based on existing databases,mainly from space-borne experiments. Preliminary results about Cand S stars are discussed, focusing on the topics for which futureInfrared surveys from Antarctica will be crucial. This kind ofsurveys will help in making more quantitative our knowledge of thelast evolutionary stages of low mass stars, especially for whatconcerns luminosities and mass loss.

We present a model for the dispersal of protoplanetary disks by winds from either the central star or the inner disk. These winds obliquely strike the flaring disk surface and strip away disk material by entraining it in an outward radial-moving flow at the disk-wind interface. This interface lies several disk scale heights above the mid plane. The disk dispersal time depends on the velocity at which disk material flows into the mixing layer. If this velocity is ~10% of the sound speed, the disk dispersal time at ~1–10 AU is ~5 Myr for a 0.01 M๏ disk around a solar mass star, with a spherical wind launched from the inner disk or central star with a typical mass loss rate of 10-8M๏yr-1 and terminal velocity of vw = 100 kms-1. We conclude that wind stripping is not a dominant disk dispersal mechanism compared with viscous accretion and photoevaporation. Nevertheless, wind stripping may affect the evolution of the intermediate disk regions.

In this contribution, I will focus on two nuclides, 26Al and19F whose origin has been uncertain for a long time and stillremains a matter of debate. I will present the contribution of ManuelForestini to the understanding of the origin of these nuclides, and inparticular to the description of their synthesis in asymptotic giant branchstars. I will also present an overview of the latest resultsconcerning 26Al and 19F and of the open questions stillto be answered.

We develop a simple method of dark energy reconstruction using a geometrical form of the luminosity-distance relation. In this method the FRW dynamical system with dark energy is reconstructed instead of the equation of state parameter. We give several examples which illustrate the usefulness of our method in fitting the redshift transition from the decelerating to accelerating phase as the value of the Hubble function at the transition.

The dynamics of stars and gas appear markedly different in flocculent, tidally induced and quasi-stationary spiral galaxies. Numerical simulations show that the gas and stars exhibit fairly chaotic dynamics during a tidal interaction, unlike the predictions of density wave theory. For a flocculent galaxy, the stars and gas tend to be situated in potential minima associated with the stellar distribution. I will demonstrate a possible observational test to distinguish between drivers of spiral structure by comparing the ages of stellar clusters, using the results of the simulations as an example.

With high resolution simulations, we are also starting to resolve giant molecular clouds, and can thus relate the properties of these clouds to the presence of spiral structure. Calculations so far suggest that spiral structure simply defines where the clouds form, rather than directly triggering star formation. In the last section of this review, I highlight recent efforts to produce synthetic HI and CO observations from numerical simulations.

The δ Scuti pulsators occupy a region in the Hertzsprung-Russell diagram where several physical processes occur: the subsurface convection layers change from being deep and vigorous to being shallow and ineffective to transport energy. This transition has a large impact not only on pulsational stability but also on stellar evolution, activity, transport of angular momentum, mixing processes, etc.. It is therefore of great interest to understand how exactly the stellar structure changes with increasing temperature and mass. Theoretical models (Houdek et al. 1999; Samadi et al. 2002) predicted that the convection in the outer layers of δ Scuti stars is still efficient enough to excite solar-like oscillations. The Kepler target, HD 187547 (a.k.a. Superstar), was the first δ Scuti star to suggest that solar-like oscillations are indeed present in this type of stars (Antoci et al. 2011). There were several reasons to conclude that HD 187547 is a δ Scuti/solar-like hybrid pulsator. (1) The peaks at high frequencies are modes of pulsations approximately equidistantly spaced, as expected for high radial order pressure modes; these peaks are not combination frequencies as it is sometimes observed in δ Scuti stars. (2) The opacity mechanism cannot excite a continuous frequency range as observed in HD 187547 (Pamyatnykh 2000). (3) The identification as an Am star consistent with the low v sini, makes it very unlikely to be a δ Scuti/roAp hybrid, because strong large-scale magnetic fields, a necessity for roAp pulsators, have never been detected in Am stars (Auriere et al. 2010). (4) Although a large number of Am stars are found in binary systems, we find no evidence in the observed spectra for a companion, i.e. no significant RV shift over 170 days can be detected and the absorption lines can perfectly be reproduced by assuming a slowly-rotating chemically peculiar Am star. This means that the peaks at high frequencies are unlikely to be from a companion, because such a star would be an A or F-type star and would be visible in the spectrum and this is not the case. (5) The large separation Δν, which is the frequency difference between consecutive radial orders of the same degree l, predicts the frequency of maximum power (νmax) to be exactly where the mode with the highest amplitude in the supposed stochastic region is observed. Note that the Δν and νmax scaling relation is valid only for stochastic oscillations (e.g. Huber et al. 2011). (6) The statistical properties (Chang & Gough 1998) of the modes interpreted to be solar-like were very similar to what is expected for stochastic signals in general.

PARTNeR is the acronym for Academic Project with the NASA Radio Telescopeat Robledo. The 34-m antenna in Robledo de Chavela is used by highschools, universities and amateur astronomers to learn aboutradioastronomy, physics and to get interested in science. The mainproject we develop is the observations of radio-bursts in X-ray binaries.
The high-school teachers joining our program take a trainingcourse to learn the basis of radioastronomy. Some practical lessons toteach the children the physical fundamentals of radioastronomy arealso given to them.
The operational phase of the project started in 2004, and 25 highschools, 5 universities and 4 societies of amateur astronomers havebeen involved in the project.

In this review, we focus on the winds of standard massive starsof spectral types O and B. We introduce the fundamental parametersthat are used to characterize the stellar winds and we describethe various techniques available nowadays to derive the windproperties. The latter are reviewed and interpreted in theframework of the standard theory of line-driven winds.

Our aim is to study the evolution of tidal dwarf galaxies. The firststep is to understand whether a model galaxy without Dark Matter cansustain the feedback of the ongoing star formation. We present testsof the evolution of models in which star formation efficiency,temperature threshold, initial distribution of gas and infall arevaried. We conclude that it is feasible to keep a fraction of gasbound for several hundreds of Myr and that the development of galacticwinds does not necessarily stop continuous star formation.

In this contribution, I review recent results from observational investigations of early-type binaries of spectral types O and Wolf-Rayet. These studies aim at an accurate determination of fundamental parameters such as masses and radii of the most massive stars. In addition, multi-wavelength analyses of wind collisions in massive binaries provide constraints on the properties of stellar winds of massive stars and shock physics of cosmic plasmas.

Contrary to what is still often admitted when studying the chemical evolution of galaxies, the element abundances observed in stellar atmospheres are often not representative of the initial composition of the protostellar nebula. Element abundances may be altered during stellar evolution by atomic diffusion and/or accretion, if not by nuclear reactions. Atomic diffusion occurs in any type of stars, with time scales extremely different according to the macroscopic motions with which they have to compete. Accretion may occur in solar type stars during planetary formation, which seems to be a common process. Following the success of helioseismology, asteroseismology is now becoming a fundamental tool for penetrating the secrets of the internal structure of stars. In particular it may be used to derive their internal abundances compared to the observed ones. In the present paper, I focus on main-sequence stars. I first recall the situations where abundance stratification can act for exciting or stabilizing stellar oscillations, second I describe how seismic observations can be used to derive abundance gradients inside stars.

The complex circumstellar environments associated with several of the most luminous cool supergiants provide evidence for episodic high mass loss events. The origin of the high mass loss is not understood but circumstantial evidence strongly suggests that large scale surface activity and magnetic fields are responsible. I briefly review the observational evidence from multi-epoch imaging and spectroscopy for the high mass loss events and instabilities in these stars. New results from high-resolution AO near and mid-IR imaging of VY CMa, IRC +10420 and μ Cep is also presented.

The unexpected diversity of exoplanets includes a growing number of super Earth-planets, i.e. exoplanets with masses smaller than 10 Earth masses and a similar chemical and mineralogicalcomposition like Earth. We present a thermal evolution model for a super-Earth to calculate the sourcesand sinks of atmospheric carbon dioxide. The photosynthesis-sustaining habitable zone (pHZ) isdetermined by the limits of biological productivity on the planetary surface. We apply the model tocalculate the habitability of super-Earths in Gliese 581. The super-Earth Gl 581c is clearly outside thepHZ while Gl 581d at the outer edge of the pHZ could at least harbor some primitive life forms.

It is now evident that the exceptional seeing at Dome C willallow, in the next years, to pursue astronomical programs withconditions better than at any other observatory in the world, andvery close to space experiments.Considering a new type of wide-field telescope, particularastronomical programs could be well optimized for observations atDome C such as surveys for the discovery and follow up ofnear-Earth asteroids, search for extra-solar planets using transitor micro-lensing events, and stellar luminosity variations.We propose to build a 1.5–2 m class three-reflections telescope, with1–1.5 degree FOV, four times shorter than an equivalent Schmidttelescope, and providing a flat field without requiring atriplet- or quadruplet-lens corrector since its design isanastigmatic.We present the preliminary optical tests of such designs:MINITRUST 1 and 2 are two 45 cm identical prototypes based inFrance and Italy, and manufactured using active optics techniques.

A recent observation of the Orion Nebula Cluster withthe Chandra X-ray Observatory detected 1075 sources, providing auniquely large and well-defined sample to study the dependence ofmagnetic activity on bulk properties for pre-main sequence (PMS) starsdescending the Hayashi tracks. The principal result is that X-rayemission does not show the activity-rotation relation which is thedominant correlate of magnetic activity indicators in main sequencestars. Instead, other effects are seen in PMS stars: X-rayluminosities are correlated with stellar bolometric luminosity, massand size for M <2-3 M⊙, but the emission drops precipitouslyin some or all PMS stars with M >2-3 M⊙. The absence of an X-ray/rotation correlation in PMS stars, andparticularly the high X-ray values seen in some very slowly rotatingstars, is a clear indication that the mechanisms of magnetic fieldgeneration differ from those operating in main sequence stars. Themost promising possibility is a turbulent dynamo distributed throughoutthe convective zone, but other models such as a "supersaturated"α - Ω dynamo or relic core fields are not immediatelyexcluded. The evidence does not support X-ray production inlarge-scale star-disk magnetic fields. This work is described indetail by Feigelson et al. (2003).

Thanks to development of some new detectors small compare to wavelength of detected wave, as we foreseen in SWIFTS that these detectors can be placed in the vanishing field along propagation of light in order to detect the Lippmann interferogram, we propose here to present basic of SWIFTS and review some concepts where detectors has already set inside optical components and thinking about extensions of the concept of SWIFTS in new optical instrumentation by including directly detectors inside optical component.

Reference systems and frames are crucial for high precision absolute astrometric work, and their foundations must bewell-defined. The current frame, the International CelestialReference Frame, will be discussed: its history, the use of the groupdelay as the measured quantity, the positional accuracy of 0.3 mas,and possible future improvements. On the other hand, for thedetermination of the motion of celestial objects, accuraciesapproaching 0.01 mas can be obtained by measuring the differentialposition between the target object and nearby stationary sources.This relative astrometric technique uses phase referencing, andthe current techniques and limitations are discussed, usingthe resultsfrom four experiments. Brief comments are included on theinterpretation of the Jupiter gravity deflection experiment ofSeptember 2002.


The Dome C high plateau is unique for coronagraphic observations: sky brightness is reduced, water vapour is low, seeing is excellent and continuity of observations on several weeks is possible. ESCAPE (the Extreme Solar Coronagraphy Antarctic Program Experiment) will perform 2-dimensional spectroscopy of the forbidden line of FeXIV at 530.285 nm: precise line profile analysis will allow the diagnostic of the nature of waves by simultaneous measurements of velocities and intensities in the corona. ESCAPE is proposed to Institut Paul-Emile Victor (IPEV) for a campaign in 2012–2013 at Dome C/Concordia since all subsystems are available in particular thanks to an ESA STARTIGER 2010 R&D “Toward a New Generation of Formation Flying Coronagraph”. Using state-of-the-art technologies developed for Space missions (a Three Mirrors Anastigmat telescope, the TMA, a 4 stages Liquid Crystal Tunable-filter Polarimeter, the LCTP) allows us to propose an automated Coronal Green Line full-field Polarimeter for unique observations (waves nature and intensity to address coronal heating) with the best possible performances on Earth and for preparing and testing the technologies for the next steps in Space. No other site would allow such coronagraphic performances (the sky brightness is a factor 2 to 4 better than in Hawaï) and with high spatial resolution (better than an arcsec is possible).

In this brief review we discuss how some of our basic understanding of chemical processes in interstellar medium has received a boost from the Herschel Space Observatory. With Herschel in operations for over 1 year, it is still early to discuss the full impact of new results and instead I demonstrate the new science enabled by near-complete spectroscopic access to sub-millimeter to far-infrared wavelengths.