Numerical solutions for the 3-body problem can be extremely sensitive to small errors. We consider how small errors in calculations can affect the lifetime of these systems. In particular, we show that numerical errors can shorten the average lifetime of a 3-body system. This is illustrated using the Sitnikov Problem as an example. To give a theoretical explanation, we construct an approximate Poincaré map for this problem and delineate the structure of the escape regions. We show that numerical errors can destroy escape regions and can cause orbits to migrate to a region in which escape is faster.

Prompted by the possibility that we have observed star formation triggered by globular cluster and dwarf spheroidal transits through galactic disks, we have examined kinematic evidence as to whether the superstar clusters in the Galactic bulge could have been formed from such transits. From their trajectores, we cannot exclude such a possibility. We note also that the high frequency of these transits may have generated rapid star formation at early times, and that remnant cluster cores may themselves nucleate further star formation.

The analysis of an 11-hour series of high resolution white light observations of a large pore in the sunspot group NOAA 7519, observed on 5 June 1993 with the Swedish Vacuum Solar Telescope at La Palma on Canary Islands, has been recently described by Dorotovič et al. (2002). Special attention was paid to the evolution of a filamentary region attached to the pore, to horizontal motions around the pore, and to small-scale morphological changes. One of the results, relevant to out work here, was the determination of temporal area evolution of the studied pore where the area itself showed a linear trend of decrease with time at an average rate of −0.23 Mm2h−1 during the entire observing period. Analysing the time series of the are of the pore, there is strong evidence that coupling between the solar interior and magnetic atmosphere can occur at various scales and that the referred decrease of the area may be connected with a decrease of the magnetic field strength according to the magnetic field-to-size relation. Periods of global acoustic, e.g. p-mode, driven waves are usually in the range of 5–10 minutes, and are favourite candidates for the coupling of interior oscillations with atmospheric dynamics. However, by assuming that magneto-acoustic gravity waves may be there too, and may act as drivers, the observed periodicities (frequencies) are expected to be much longer (smaller), falling well within the mMHz domain. In this work we determine typical periods of such range in the area evolution of the pore using wavelet analysis. The resulted periods are in the range of 20–70 minutes, suggesting that periodic elements of the temporal evolution of the area of this studied pore could be linked to, and considered as, observational evidence of linear low-frequency slow sausage (magneto-acoustic gravity) waves in magnetic pores. This would give us further evidence on the coupling of global solar oscillations to the overlaying magnetic atmosphere.

In this report we present the current status of the Chinese VLBI network (CVN), and the results of satellite tracking experiments in the past few years related to realtime processing of the CVN dataflow and the reliability and precision of the CVN measurements. We briefly outline the prospective astrometric roles of CVN in the studies of long-term monitoring of extragalactic radio sources, densification of radio celestial reference frame, determination of Earth Orientation Parameters and linkage parameters of reference frames as well as the observation of pulsars for deep space autonomous navigation.

The WG-IR was created following a Joint Commission Meeting at the IAU General Assembly in Baltimore in 1988, a meeting that provided both diagnosis and prescription for the perceived ailments of infrared photometry at the time. The results were summarized in Milone (1989). The challenges involve how to explain the failure to systematically achieve the milli-magnitude precision expected of infrared photometry and an apparent 3% limit on system transformability. The proposed solution was to redefine the broadband Johnson system, the passbands of which had proven so unsatisfactory that over time effectively different systems proliferated although bearing the same JHKLMNQ designations; the new system needed to be better positioned and centered in the atmospheric windows of the Earth's atmosphere, and the variable water vapour content of the atmosphere needed to be measured in real time to better correct for atmospheric extinction.

Observations of 10 transitions of HCO+, CO and CS isotopomers were taken with the IRAM 30 m telescope for a sample of 28 methanol maser sources detected in the Torun unbiased survey of the galactic plane. About 64% of the sources show line wings in one or more transitions, indicating the presence of molecular outflows. Two sources show evidence for infall motion. Comparison of the widths of line wings and methanol maser emission suggests that the 6.7 GHz maser line traces the environment of massive young stellar objects of various kinematic regimes. Calculations based on the CO and HCO+ lines and the CS line intensity ratios refine the physical parameters. Specifically, a gas density of <107 cm−3 is sufficient for strong maser emission and a high methanol fractional abundance (>5×10−7) is required.

We simulate the late stages of planet formation around Alpha Centauri B and analyze the detectability of the resulting terrestrial planet systems. The N-body accretionary evolution of a Σ ∝ r−-1 disk populated with 400–900 lunar-mass oligarchs is followed for 200 Myr for each simulation. All of eight runs result in the formation of multiple-planet systems with at least one planet in the 1–2 M⊕ mass range at 0.5–1.5 AU. We examine the detectability of our simulated planetary systems by generating synthetic radial velocity observations including noise based on the radial velocity residuals to the recently published three planet fit to the nearby K0V star HD 69830. Using these synthetic observations, we find that we can reliably detect a 1.8 M⊕ planet in the habitable zone of α Centauri B after only three years of high cadence observations. We also find that the planet is detectable even if the radial velocity precision is 3 ms−1, as long as the noise spectrum is white.

Although it has long been hypothesised that core-collapse supernovae may produce large quantities of dust, interest in this problem has recently been rekindled given the enormous dust masses inferred at very high redshifts (z ≳ 6), when conventional low-mass dust-producing stars would fail to contribute significantly to the universal dust budget. Emission due to warm dust peaks at mid-IR wavelengths. However, with the notable exception of SN 1987A, supernova studies in the mid-IR have been virtually non-existent until the advent of the Spitzer Space Telescope. On behalf of the Mid-Infrared Supernova Consortium, I briefly discuss recent exciting results from mid-IR studies of core-collapse supernovae using Spitzer and attempt to put the role of supernovae as major dust producers into perspective.

We present results from a study of the SFH of a sample of LSB galaxies around the HDF-S. For the selection of the LSB galaxy candidates we used color–color diagrams, from which we selected the candidates based on their different location in comparison to the HSB galaxy redshift tracks. We compared measured spectra to synthetic SEDs from synthesis evolution models. We were able to fit SEDs in the range of 2 to 5 Gyr to the spectra of the LSB galaxies, while applying the same method to a sample of HSB galaxies resulted in an averaged stellar population of about 10 to 14 Gyr. Therefore, LSB galaxies tend to show much younger averaged stellar populations. This implies that the major star formation event of LSB galaxies took place at a redshift of z ~ 0.2 to 0.4 while for HSB galaxies this tends to be at z ~ 2 to 4.

In this work wave propagation in a 3-D magnetic flux tube is solved numerically. The aim is to find interaction between kink waves and higher order modes (flute modes).

A 60x60x60 cube is set up, containing a vertically oriented uniform magnetic flux tube, to solve numerically. Waves are observed propagating after triggering them with solution to the linearized system.

The waves propagate acquiring a distinctive shape (seen in the crosscut of the tube at an arbitrary height showing the radial velocity maps). It is discarded that this is caused by the existence of higher order modes and is found that the radial dependence of the phase speed creates the motion.

It was also found that the study of the profile of the radial velocity map of a slice of the system is a very intuitive way of analysing the modes of waves propagating through the flux tube.

This discussion of recent maser surveys in the southern sky will allow us to see the context of the new methanol multibeam survey, which is currently in progress and described elsewhere at this symposium. My emphasis will be on masers that arise in star-forming regions in the disc of our Galaxy. I discuss outcomes from existing surveys, and comparison of different maser species, with special attention to the recognition of blue-shifted outflows.

Using the APEX sub-millimeter telescope we have detected for the first time the CO rotational transition 12CO(J=3→2) in two of five low surface brightness galaxies. For galaxies with positive detection, the emission is detected in their bulges, with measured gas velocity dispersion of about 80 km/s and observed main-beam brightness temperature TM B ~ 10 mK. Using a standard CO to H2 conversion factor, we are able to estimate molecular gas masses for LSBs with positive detections, and upper limits for those LSBs with negative detections. Assuming a higher gas temperature for the generation of the 12CO(J=3→2) line compared to that for the 12CO(J=1→0) one, results suggest that a warm molecular gas component is present in bulges, indicating a radiation field preventing the formation of large cooler amounts of molecular gas, compared to high surface brightness galaxies with higher metallicity and likely more dust.

Using phase-referenced multi-epoch Very Long Baseline Array observations, we have measured the trigonometric parallax of several young stars in the Taurus and Ophiuchus star-forming regions with unprecedented accuracy. The mean distance to the Taurus complex was found to be about 140 pc, and its depth around 20 pc, comparable to the linear extent of Taurus on the sky. In Ophiuchus, 4 sources have been observed so far. Two of them were found to be at about 160 pc (the distance traditionally attributed to Ophiuchus), while the other 2 are at about 120 pc. Since the entire Ophiuchus complex is only a few parsecs across, this difference is unlikely to reflect the depth of the region. Instead, we argue that two physically unrelated sites of star-formation are located along the line of sight toward Ophiuchus.

Understanding the formation and dynamical evolution of habitable planets in extrasolar planetary systems is a challenging task. In this respect, systems with multiple giant planets and/or multiple stars present special complications. The formation of habitable planets in these environments is strongly affected by the dynamics of their giant planets and/or their stellar companions. These objects have profound effects on the structure of the disk of planetesimals and protoplanetary objects in which terrestrial-class planets are formed. To what extent the current theories of planet formation can be applied to such “extreme” planetary systems depends on the dynamical characteristics of their planets and/or their binary stars. In this paper, I present the results of a study of the possibility of the existence of Earth-like objects in systems with multiple giant planets (namely υ Andromedae, 47 UMa, GJ 876, and 55 Cnc) and discuss the dynamics of the newly discovered Neptune-sized object in 55 Cnc system. I will also review habitable planet formation in binary systems and present the results of a systematic search of the parameter-space for which Earth-like objects can form and maintain long-term stable orbits in the habitable zones of binary stars.

Long-duration gamma-ray bursts are the manifestations of massive stellar death. Due to the immense energy release they are detectable from most of the observable universe. In this way they allow us to study the deaths of single (or binary) massive stars possibly throughout the full timespan massive stars have existed in the Universe. GRBs provide a means to infer information about the environments and typical galaxies in which massive stars are formed. Two main obstacles remain to be crossed before the full potential of GRBs as probes of massive stars can be harvested: i) we need to build more complete and well understood samples in order not to be fooled by biases, and ii) we need to understand to which extent GRBs may be intrinsically biased in the sense that they are only formed by a limited subset of massive stars defined by most likely a restricted metallicity interval. I describe the status of an ongoing effort to build a more complete sample of long-duration GRBs with measured redshifts. Already now we can conclude that the environments of GRB progenitors are very diverse with metallicities ranging from solar to a hundredth solar and extinction ranging from none to AV > 5 mag. We have also identified a sightline with significant escape of Lyman continuum photons and another with a clear 2175 Å extinction bump.

The president welcomed all the participants of the Business Meeting and remarked that several of the major ongoing and planned Radial Velocity projects were well represented.

We present Spitzer observations of Tidal Dwarf Galaxies (TDGs) in three interacting systems: NGC 5291, Arp 105 & Stephan's Quintet. The spectra show bright emission from polyaromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), nebular lines and warm molecular hydrogen, characteristic of recent episodes of star formation. The PAH emission that falls in the IRAC 8.0 μm band leads to the TDGs having an extremely red IRAC color, with [4.5] − [8.0] > 3. The emission from PAHs is characterized by a model with mainly neutral 100-C PAH atoms.

In this brief proceedings article I summarize the review talk I gave at the IAU 246 meeting in Capri, Italy, glossing over the well-known results from the literature, but paying particular attention to new, previously unpublished material. This new material includes a careful comparison of the apparently contradictory results of two independent methods used to simulate the evolution of binary populations in dense stellar systems (the direct N-body method of Hurley, Aarseth, & Shara (2007) and the approximate Monte Carlo method of Ivanova et al. (2005)), that shows that the two methods may not actually yield contradictory results, and suggests future work to more directly compare the two methods.

Recently, it has been observed the extreme metal-poor stars in the Galactic halo, which must be formed just after Pop III objects. On the other hand, the first gas clouds of mass ∼ 106 M⊙ are supposed to be formed at z ∼ 10, 20, and 30 for the 1σ, 2σ and 3σ, where the density perturbations are assumed of the standard ΛCDM cosmology. Usually it is approximated that the distribution of the density perturbation amplitudes is gaussian where σ means the standard deviation. If we could apply this gaussian distribution to the extreme small probability, the gas clouds would be formed at z ∼40, 60, and 80 for the 4σ, 6σ, and 8σ where the probabilities are approximately 3 × 10−5, 10−9, and 10−15. Within our universe, there are almost ∼ 1016 (∼ 1022M⊙/106M⊙) clouds of mass 106M⊙. Then the first gas clouds must be formed around z ∼ 80, where the time is ∼ 20 Myr (∼ 13.7/(1 + z)3/2 Gyr). Even within our galaxy, there are ∼ 105 (∼ 1011M⊙/106M⊙) clouds, then the first gas clouds within our galaxy must be formed around z ∼ 40, where the time is ∼ 54 Myr (∼ 13.7/(1+z)3/2Gyr).

The evolution time for massive star (∼ 102M⊙) is ∼ 3 Myr and the explosion of the massive supernova distributes the metal within a cloud. The damping time of the supernova shock wave in the adiabatic and isothermal era is several Myr and stars of the second generation (Pop II) are formed within a free fall time ∼ 20 Myr. Even if the gas cloud is metal poor, there is a lot of possibility to form the planets around such stars. The first planetary systems could be formed within ∼ 6 × 107 years after the Big Bang in the universe. Even in our galaxies, the first planetary systems could be formed within ∼ 1.7 × 108 years. If the abundance of heavy elements such as Fe is small compared to the elements of C, N, O, the planets must be the one where the rock fraction is small. It is interesting to wait the observations of planets around metal-poor stars. For the panspermia theory, the origin of life could be expected in such systems.

Using the SiO J=1−0 v=1 and v=2 lines near 43 GHz, we have detected about 2000 of 3600 sources observed with the Nobeyama 45-m radio telescope. The sources were chosen from IRAS/MSX/2MASS catalogs using color-selection criteria to pick up mass-losing oxygen-rich AGB stars and some post-AGB objects. A number of interesting sources were also found: supergiants in a massive star cluster, a nova with light echo (V838 Mon), AGB stars in globular clusters, and AGB candidates associated with dwarf galaxies. With the exception of the stars in the massive open star cluster, these ‘unusual’ objects are associated with metal poor environments where mass losing oxygen-rich AGB stars are unexpected. It is inferred that these objects were created by stellar merging which can occur in dense star clusters.