In our attempt to investigate the basic active galactic nucleus (AGN) paradigm requiring a centrally located supermassive black hole (SMBH), a close to Keplerian accretion disk and a jet perpendicular to its plane, we have searched for radio continuum in galaxies with H2O megamasers in their disks. We observed 18 such galaxies with the Very Large Baseline Array in C band (5 GHz, ~2 mas resolution) and we detected 5 galaxies at 8 σ or higher levels. For those sources for which the maser data is available, the positions of masers and those of the 5 GHz radio continuum sources coincide within the uncertainties, and the radio continuum is perpendicular to the maser disk’s orientation within the position angle uncertainties.

Generally Coronal Mass Ejections (CMEs) are large eruptions of plasma and magnetic field from the Sun into interplanetary space. CMEs are most frequently associated with a variety of phenomena occurring in the lower corona before, during and after onset of eruption and generally are visible in coronagraph observation. Stealth CMEs do not obviously exhibit any of the low-coronal signatures (LCS) like solar flares, flows, jets, coronal dimmings or brightenings, filament eruptions or the formation of flare loop arcades. In this study, five stealth CMEs are selected using LASCO/SOHO CME catalogue and associated ICMEs (Interplanetaty CMEs) are identified using data from STEREO, ACE and WIND.

The initial results from timing observations of PSR J1141–6545, a relativistic pulsar-white dwarf binary system, are presented. Predictions from the timing baseline hint at the most stringent test of gravity by an asymmetric binary yet. The timing precision has been hindered by the dramatic variations of the pulse profile due to geodetic precession, a pulsar glitch and red timing noise. Methods to overcome such timing irregularities are briefly presented along with preliminary results from the test of the General Theory of Relativity (GR) from this pulsar.

We present preliminary results from a study exploring the origin of Milky Way substructures, and show initial evidence of a common “kicked-out” formation mechanism for two low-latitude substructures. In this scenario, stars in these substructures formed in the disk and were subsequently “kicked-out” by an external perturbation, such as the merger of an accreted satellite, which created an oscillation in the Galactic disk. To test this origin scenario, we found the fraction of different stellar populations – M giants and RR Lyrae stars – in the Monoceros Ring (also known as GASS) and A13, supplementing a study of stellar populations in the Triangulum-Andromeda cloud. This work provides: (1) the first analysis of the GASS and A13 features based upon their stellar populations; and (2) preliminary evidence of disk stars in the Milky Way that have been relocated to the disk-halo interface due to vertical oscillations of the Milky Way’s disk.

The SuperMALT survey is observing 76 MALT90 clumps at different evolutionary stages (from pre-stellar or quiescent to HII) in high excitation molecular lines and key isotopomers using the Apex 12m telescope with an angular resolution of ∼20” and a velocity resolution of ∼0.1 km/s. The aim of this survey is to determine the physical, chemical, and kinematical properties of the gas within clumps as they evolve. Here we report some preliminary results based on observations of the J=3-2 & 4-3 lines of HNC, HCN, HCO+, N2H+ and of the J=3-2 line of the isotopologue H13CO+. We find that the morphologies and line profiles vary with the evolutionary stage of the clumps. The average line width increases from quiescent to HII clumps while line ratios show hint of chemical differences among the various evolutionary stages.

In 1918 the only Mexican institution dedicated professionally to astronomical work was the National Astronomical Observatory, which had begun operations in 1878. In that year of the 20th century, Mexico was immersed in the armed movement known as the Mexican Revolution, which strongly affected the social and economic structure of the country. The Mexican astronomers saw their group drastically reduced and their infrastructure limited; however, they made great efforts to continue their participation in the international project of the Carte du Ciel, since they were part of the 18 observatories that originally participated in it. Despite the limitations they suffered, they soon joined the group of seven nations that in 1919 formed the IAU, and two members of that observatory actively participated in the first general assembly held in Rome in May 1922.

PSR J1913+1102 is a double neutron star system (DNS) discovered in the Pulsar Arecibo L-band Feed Array survey. We have now very precisely measured the rate of advance of periastron for the system and the Einstein delay. From general relativity, this results in precise mass measurements: 1.65 ± 0.05 and 1.24 ± 0.05 M⊙ for the pulsar and neutron-star companion, respectively. This makes PSR J1913+1102 both the most massive double neutron star system known, and the most asymmetric in mass among compact DNS binaries. This asymmetry will allow for stringent limits on the effects of dipolar gravitational-wave radiation, predicted by alternative theories of gravity, as well as insight into heavy-element production from the eventual merger of this system and others like it. Further observations will also tighten constraints on formation and evolution models; this is crucial for understanding the DNS population, for which there are relatively few mass measurements.

Full disk magnetic field measurements of the photosphere and chromosphere have been performed at National Solar Observatory (NSO), USA for many decades. Here we briefly describe recent upgrades made to this synoptic observing program. In particular, we present the full Stokes polarimetry observations made using the chromospheric Ca II 854.2 nm spectral line. These new observations have the potential to probe vector nature of magnetic field in the chromosphere above the active regions and provide improved estimates of magnetic free-energy, which is released during flares and coronal mass ejections (CMEs). We emphasize that these observations could improve estimates of polar fields, as compared to photospheric observations, due to magnetic field expansion in higher layers and perspective effect near the polar regions. The global coronal potential field models and solar wind speed estimates depend critically on polar field measurements.

This paper presents the thermospheric winds and temperature properties measured with a Fabry-Pérot interferometer (FPI) over Oukaimeden observatory (31.2°N, 7.8°W, 22.8°N magnetic) in Morocco. After Three years of successful functioning from 2014 to 2017, we can address the seasonal behavior of the temperature and the winds (vertical, zonal and meridional). The dependence of the thermospheric winds and temperature on the solar cycle is also presented. The day-to-day variations of the quiet time wind pattern exhibits the importance of other type of waves superposed to the main diurnal tides. The storm time wind and temperature exhibits also a variety of ways to react to the storm. However, there is seasonal effect to the storm that will be illustrated in this paper. The signature of the MTM phenomenon is also present in the winds and temperature in geomagnetically quiet and disturbed nights. The occurrence of this phenomenon over the studied area is also addressed.

We have compiled the X-ray characteristic properties for a unique and homogeneous sample of Type 2 AGN with water megamaser activity observed by XMM-Newton and for a control sample of non-maser galaxies, both analyzed in a uniform way. A comparison of the luminosity distributions confirms previous results (from smaller and/or less systematic studies) that water maser galaxies appear more luminous than non-maser sources. In addition, the maser phenomenon is associated with more complex X-ray spectra, higher column densities and higher equivalent widths of the Fe Kα line. Both a sufficiently luminous X-ray source and a high absorbing column density in the line of sight favor the appearance of the water megamaser phenomenon in AGN.

Recent observations from SEGUE, RAVE, and LAMOST have revealed tantalizing evidence that the local stellar disk of the Milky Way is in a state of disequilibrium. In particular, the disk appears to exhibit bending and breathing waves normal to its midplane within 2 kiloparsecs of our position within the disk. There also appear to be bending waves or corrugations at larger Galactocentric radii. These waves may be linked to other time-dependent disk phenomena such as the bar, spiral structure, and warp, or they may be the result of a passing dark matter subhalo or dwarf galaxy. Here, we discuss the observational evidence for these waves, the theory of bending and breathing waves in (simulated) stellar disks, and implications of disequilibrium for attempts to determine the local vertical force and dark matter density (the Oort problem). We also discuss the types of analyses that one might do with the Gaia database.

Silicon carbide dust grains are ubiquitous in circumstellar envelopes around C-rich AGB stars. However, the main gas-phase precursors leading to the formation of SiC dust have not yet been identified. To date, only three molecules containing an Si–C bond have been identified to have significant abundances in C-rich AGB stars: SiC2, SiC, and Si2C. The ring molecule SiC2 has been observed in a handful of evolved stars, while SiC and Si2C have only been detected in the C-star envelope IRC +10216. We aim to study how widespread and abundant SiC2, SiC, and Si2C are in envelopes around C-rich AGB stars and whether or not these species play an active role as gas-phase precursors of silicon carbide dust in the ejecta of carbon stars.

In-spiraling supermassive black holes should emit gravitational waves, which would produce characteristic distortions in the time of arrival residuals from millisecond pulsars. Multiple national and regional consortia have constructed pulsar timing arrays by precise timing of different sets of millisecond pulsars. An essential aspect of precision timing is the transfer of the times of arrival to a (quasi-)inertial frame, conventionally the solar system barycenter. The barycenter is determined from the knowledge of the planetary masses and orbits, which has been refined over the past 50 years by multiple spacecraft. Within the North American Nanohertz Observatory for Gravitational Waves (NANOGrav), uncertainties on the solar system barycenter are emerging as an important element of the NANOGrav noise budget. We describe what is known about the solar system barycenter, touch upon how uncertainties in it affect gravitational wave studies with pulsar timing arrays, and consider future trends in spacecraft navigation.

Coronal mass ejections (CMEs) have become one of the key indicators of solar activity, especially in terms of the consequences of the transient events in the heliosphere. Although CMEs are closely related to the sunspot number (SSN), they are also related to other closed magnetic regions on the Sun such as quiescent filament regions. This makes CMEs a better indicator of solar activity. While sunspots mainly represent the toroidal component of solar magnetism, quiescent filaments (and hence CMEs associated with them) connect the toroidal and poloidal components via the rush-to-the-pole (RTTP) phenomenon. Taking the end of RTTP in each hemisphere as an indicator of solar polarity reversal, it is shown that the north-south reversal asymmetry has a quasi-periodicity of 3-5 solar cycles. Focusing on the geospace consequences of CMEs, it is shown that the maximum CME speeds averaged over Carrington rotation period show good correlation with geomagnetic activity indices such as Dst and aa.

During the last twenty years, due to the extensive help and assistance of the international scientific community, there has been a great success in the development and establishment of new well-functioning and competitive scientific groups specialized in general relativity and relativistic astrophysics in Uzbekistan (Tashkent), Kazakhstan (Astana and Almaty), Kyrgyzstan (Bishkek) and great achievements have been made on the study in Central Asia in relativistic cosmology and astrophysics of compact gravitational objects.

In this work we present a method for detecting the activity of the ionosphere (TEC) and we illustrate the signature of the solar activity on the vertical total electron content VTEC, during 02 to 08 November 2015, using GPS measurements obtained from two stations in Morocco, the first one in Marrakech at Observatory of Oukaimeden OUCA (31°12′23.3″ N 7°51′58.8″ W), the second in Rabat, Rabt (33.9981°N;353.1457°E, geographic).

The Milky Way is currently the subject of great observational effort. This includes both ESA's unique Gaia mission, as well as a multitude of ground-based surveys. Several of these are already returning data of unprecedented depth and quality for large numbers of Milky Way stars. These new data are likely to lead to a quantum step in our understanding of Milky Way structure and evolution. Because the new data will allow us to study our Galaxy at much greater resolution than possible in other galaxies, we also expect to greatly improve our understanding of disk galaxy formation in general.

The present-day response of a Galactic disc stellar population to a non-axisymmetric perturbation of the potential, in the form of a bar or spiral arms, can be treated, away from the main resonances, through perturbation theory within the action-angle coordinates of the unperturbed axisymmetric system. The first order moments of such a perturbed distribution function (DF) in the presence of spiral arms give rise to non-zero radial and vertical mean stellar velocities, called breathing modes. Such an Eulerian linearized treatment however diverges at resonances. The Lagrangian approach to the impact of non-axisymmetries at resonances avoids this problem. It is based on the construction of new orbital tori in the resonant trapping region, which come complete with a new system of angle-action variables. These new tori can be populated by phase-averaging the unperturbed DF over the new tori. This boils down to phase-mixing the DF in terms of the new angles, such that the DF for trapped orbits only depends on the new set of actions. This opens the way to quantitatively fitting the effects of the bar and spirals to Gaia data with an action-based DF.

We present preliminary results of the high resolution (0.10″ × 0.15″) observations of the high mass star forming region S255IR with ALMA in several spectral windows from ∼335 GHz to ∼350 GHz. The main target lines were C34S(7–6), CH3CN(19K − 18K), CO(3–2) and SiO(8–7), however many other lines of various molecules have been detected, too. We present sample spectra and maps, discuss briefly the source structure and kinematics. A new, never predicted methanol maser line has been discovered.

We present the results of a survey of several tens of dense high mass star forming (HMSF) cores in three transitions of the SO molecule at 30 and 100 GHz with the 100-m Effelsberg and 20-m Onsala radio telescopes. The physical parameters of the cores are estimated from the line ratios and column densities. Relative abundances are derived as well.