We present the innovative soft X-ray spectro-polarimeter, SolpeX. This instrument consists of three functionally independent blocks. They are to be included into the Russian instrument KORTES, to be mounted onboard the ISS. The three SolpeX units are: a simple pin-hole X-ray spectral imager, a polarimeter, and a fast-rotating drum multiple-flat-crystal Bragg spectrometer. Such a combination of measuring blocks will offer a new opportunity to reliably measure possible X-ray polarization and spectra of solar flares, in particular during the impulsive phase. Polarized Bremsstrahlung and line emission due to the presence of directed particle beams will be detected, and measurements of the velocities of evaporated hot plasma will be made. In this paper we discuss the details of the construction of the SolpeX units. The delivery of KORTES with SolpeX to the ISS is expected to happen in 2017/2018.

We present the optical/infrared counterpart to GT0106+613, a transient gamma-ray source believed to be a blazar. Long-term differential photometry and satellite information was used to confirm the variability in optical/infrared wavelengths, correlated with gamma-ray flares from the source. An intense optical flare with no counterpart in gamma-rays is also remarkable.

We compare the performance of the very popular Tree-GPU code BONSAI with the older Particle-(Multi)Mesh code SUPERBOX. Both code we run on a same hardware using the GPU acceleration for the force calculation. SUPERBOX is a particle-mesh code with high resolution sub-grid and a higher order NGP (nearest grid point) force-calculation scheme. In our research, we are aiming to demonstrate that the new parallel version of SUPERBOX is capable to do the high resolution simulations of the interaction of the system of disc-bulge-halo composed galaxy. We describe the improvement of performance and scalability of SUPERBOX particularly for the Kepler cluster (NVIDIA K20 GPU). A comparison was made with the very popular and publicly available Tree-GPU code BONSAI†.

We discuss possible mechanisms underlying the observed features of stellar activity cycles, such as multiple periodicities in very active stars, non-cyclic activity observed in moderately active stars, and spatial distribution of stellar magnetic regions. We review selected attempts to model the dependence of stellar activity cycles on stellar properties, and their comparison with observations. We suggest that combined effects of dynamo action, flux emergence and surface flux transport have substantial effects on the long-term manifestations of stellar magnetism.

We resolve spatially the star formation history of 300 nearby galaxies from the CALIFA integral field survey to investigate: a) the radial structure and gradients of the present stellar populations properties as a function of the Hubble type; and b) the role that plays the galaxy stellar mass and stellar mass surface density in governing the star formation history and metallicity enrichment of spheroids and the disks of galaxies. We apply the fossil record method based on spectral synthesis techniques to recover spatially and temporally resolved maps of stellar population properties of spheroids and spirals with galaxy mass from 109 to 7×1011 M⊙. The individual radial profiles of the stellar mass surface density (μ⋆), stellar extinction (AV), luminosity weighted ages (〈logage〉L), and mass weighted metallicity (〈log Z/Z⊙〉M) are stacked in seven bins of galaxy morphology (E, S0, Sa, Sb, Sbc, Sc and Sd). All these properties show negative gradients as a sight of the inside-out growth of massive galaxies. However, the gradients depend on the Hubble type in different ways. For the same galaxy mass, E and S0 galaxies show the largest inner gradients in μ⋆; and Andromeda-like galaxies (Sb with log M⋆ (M⊙) ∼ 11) show the largest inner age and metallicity gradients. In average, spiral galaxies have a stellar metallicity gradient ∼ −0.1 dex per half-light radius, in agreement with the value estimated for the ionized gas oxygen abundance gradient by CALIFA. A global (M⋆-driven) and local (μ⋆-driven) stellar metallicity relation are derived. We find that in disks, the stellar mass surface density regulates the stellar metallicity; in spheroids, the galaxy stellar mass dominates the physics of star formation and chemical enrichment.

The meeting was attended by the President and Vice-President of the Commission, along with approximately 15 other members. The President reported on the election of new officers that took place at the end of March 2012, for four new members of the Organizing Committee as well as a new Vice-President, and thanked the outgoing members. Tomaz Zwitter (Slovenia) was elected as the new VP (2012–2015), and the new OC members for the period 2012–2018 are Alceste Bonanos (Greece), Alain Jorissen (Belgium), David Katz (France), and Matthias Steinmetz (Germany). The current VP, Dimitri Pourbaix, became the President through 2015.

I describe a new integral field spectroscopic survey called MaNGA (Mapping Nearby Galaxies at Apache Point Observatory). One of three core programs in the 6-year SDSS-IV project† that began on July 1st, 2014, MaNGA will deploy 17 fiber-bundle IFUs across the Sloan 2.5m Telescope's 3 degree field-of-view, targeting a mass-selected sample with a median redshift of 0.03, typical spatial resolution of 1-2 kpc, and a per-fiber signal-to-noise ratio of 4-8 in the outskirts of target galaxies. For each galaxy in the sample, MaNGA will provide maps and measured gradients of the composition and dynamics of both stars and gas. I discuss early results that highlight MaNGA's potential to shed light on the ionization and chemical enrichment of gas in galaxies, spatial patterns in their star formation histories, and the internal makeup of stellar populations. MaNGA's unprecedented data set will not only provide powerful new insight on galaxy formation and evolution but will serve as a valuable benchmark for future high-z observations from large telescopes and space-based facilities.

Spectroscopic redshift surveys are an incredibly valuable tool in cosmology, allowing us to trace the distribution of galaxies as a function of distance and, thus, trace the evolution of structure formation in the Universe. However, estimating the redshifts from spectra with low signal-to-noise is difficult, and such data are often either discarded or require human classification of spectral lines to obtain the galaxy redshift. Darth Fader offers an automated method for estimating the redshifts of galaxies in the low signal-to-noise regime. Using a sophisticated, wavelet-based technique, galaxy spectra can be separated into continuum, line and noise components, and the lines can then be cross-correlated with template spectra in order to estimate the redshifts. Cross-matching of the identified lines then allows for a cleaning of the resulting catalogue, effectively removing the vast majority of erroneous redshift estimates and resulting in a highly pure, highly accurate redshift catalogue. Darth Fader allows us to effectively use low signal-to-noise galaxy spectra, and dramatically reduces the number of human hours required to do this, allowing spectroscopic surveys to probe deeper into the formation history of the Universe.

To analyze the SACY (Search for Associations Containing Young stars) survey we developed a method to find young associations and to define their high probability members. These bona fide members enable to obtain the kinematical and the physical properties of each association in a proper way. Recently we noted a concentration in the UV plane and we found a new association we are calling ASYA (All Sky Young Association) for its overall distribution in the sky with a total of 38 bonafide members and an estimated age of 110 Myr, the oldest young association found in the SACY survey. We present here its kinematical, space and Li distributions and its HR diagram.

Boulders are ubiquitous on the surfaces of asteroids and their spatial and size distributions provide information for the geological evolution and collisional history of parent bodies. We identify more than 200 boulders on near-Earth asteroid 4179 Toutatis based on images obtained by Chang'e-2 flyby. The cumulative boulder size frequency distribution (SFD) gives a power-index of −4.4 ± 0.1, which is clearly steeper than those of boulders on Itokawa and Eros, indicating much high degree of fragmentation. Correlation analyses with craters suggest that most boulders cannot solely be produced as products of cratering, but are probably survived fragments from the parent body of Toutatis, accreted after its breakup. Similar to Itokawa, Toutatis probably has a rubble-pile structure, but owns a different preservation state of boulders.

The morphological, spectroscopic and kinematical properties of the warm interstellar medium (wim) in early-type galaxies (ETGs) hold key observational constraints to nuclear activity and the buildup history of these massive quiescent systems. High-quality integral field spectroscopy (IFS) data with a wide spectral and spatial coverage, such as those from the CALIFA survey, offer a precious opportunity for advancing our understanding in this respect. We use deep IFS data from CALIFA (califa.caha.es) to study the wim over the entire extent and optical spectral range of 32 nearby ETGs. We find that all ETGs in our sample show faint (Hα equivalent width EW(Hα)∼0.5 … 2 Å) extranuclear nebular emission extending out to ≥2 Petrosian50 radii. Confirming and strengthening our conclusions in Papaderos et al. (2013, hereafter P13) we argue that ETGs span a broad continuous sequence with regard to the properties of their wim, and they can be roughly subdivided into two characteristic classes. The first one (type i) comprises ETGs with a nearly constant EW(Hα)∼1–3 Å in their extranuclear component, in quantitative agreement with (even though, no proof for) the hypothesis of photoionization by the post-AGB stellar component being the main driver of extended wim emission. The second class (type ii) consists of virtually wim-evacuated ETGs with a large Lyman continuum (Lyc) photon escape fraction and a very low (≤0.5 Å) EW(Hα) in their nuclear zone. These two ETG classes appear indistinguishable from one another by their LINER-specific emission-line ratios. Additionally, here we extend the classification by P13 by the class i+ which stands for a subset of type i ETGs with low-level star-forming activity in contiguous spiral-arm like features in their outermost periphery. These faint features, together with traces of localized star formation in several type i&i+ systems point to a non-negligible contribution from young massive stars to the global ionizing photon budget in ETGs.

Magnetic fields in the solar atmosphere provide the energy for most varieties of solar activity, including high-energy electromagnetic radiation, solar energetic particles, flares, and coronal mass ejections, as well as powering the solar wind. Despite the fundamental role of magnetic fields in solar and heliospheric physics, there exist only very limited measurements of the field above the base of the corona. What is needed are direct measurements of not only the strength and orientation of the magnetic field but also the signatures of wave motions in order to better understand coronal structure, solar activity, and the role of MHD waves in heating and accelerating the solar wind. Fortunately, the remote sensing instrumentation used to make magnetic field measurements is also well suited to measure the Doppler signature of waves in the solar structures. We present here a mission concept for the Waves And Magnetism In the Solar Atmosphere (WAMIS) experiment which is proposed for a NASA long-duration balloon flight.

We present a simple construction of spherical wavelets for the unit ball, which we label Radial 3D Needlets. We envisage an experimental framework where data are collected on concentric spheres with the same pixelization at different radial distances from the origin. The unit ball is hence viewed as a tensor product of the unit interval with the unit sphere: a set of eigenfunctions is therefore defined on the corresponding Laplacian operator. Wavelets are then constructed by a smooth convolution of the projectors defined by these eigenfunctions. Localization properties may be rigorously shown to hold in the real and harmonic domain, and an exact reconstruction formula holds; the system allows a very convenient computational implementation.

The Kepler photometer was launched in March 2009 initiating NASA's search for Earth-size planets orbiting in the habitable zone of their star. After three years of science operations, Kepler has proven to be a veritable cornucopia of science results, both for exoplanets and for astrophysics. The phenomenal photometric precision and continuous observations required in order to identify small, rocky transiting planets enables the study of a large range of phenomena contributing to stellar variability for many thousands of solar-like stars in Kepler's field of view in exquisite detail. These effects range from <1 ppm acoustic oscillations on timescales from a few minutes and longward, to flares on timescales of hours, to spot-induced modulation on timescales of days to weeks to activity cycles on timescales of months to years. Recent improvements to the science pipeline have greatly enhanced Kepler's ability to reject instrumental signatures while better preserving intrinsic stellar variability, opening up the timescales for study well beyond 10 days. We give an overview of the stellar variability we see across the full range of spectral types observed by Kepler, from the cool, small red M stars to the hot, large late A stars, both in terms of amplitude as well as timescale. We also present a picture of what the extended mission will likely bring to the field of stellar variability as we progress from a 3.5 year mission to a 7.5+ year mission.

This paper presents analysis of the rotational parameters of Toutatis based on the observational results from Chang'e-2's close flyby. The 3-D shape model derived from ground-based radar observation is used to calculate the 3-1-3 Euler angles at the flyby epoch, which are evaluated to be −20.1° ± 1°, 27.6° ± 1° and 42.2° ± 1°. The large amplitude of Toutatis' tumbling attitude is demonstrated to be the result of the large deviation of the angular momentum axis and the rotational axis. Two rotational periods are evaluated to be 5.38±0.03 days for rotation about the long axis and 7.40±0.03 days for precession of the long axis about the angular momentum vector based on Fourier analysis. These results provide a further understanding of rotational state of Toutatis.

In this work we study the stellar-dynamical hardening of unequal mass massive black hole (MBH) binaries in the central regions of galactic nuclei. We present a comprehensive set of direct N-body simulations of the problem, varying both the total mass and the mass ratio of the MBH binary. Our initial model starts as an axisymmetric, rotating galactic nucleus, to describe the situation right after the galaxies have merged, but the black holes are still unbound to each other. We confirm that results presented in earlier works (Berczik et al. 2006; Khan et al. 2013; Wang et al. 2014) about the solution of the “last parsec problem” (sufficiently fast black hole coalescence for black hole growth in cosmological context) are robust for both for the case of unequal black hole masses and large particle numbers. The MBH binary hardening rate depends on the reduced mass ratio through a single parameter function, which quantitatively quite well agrees with standard 3 body scattering theory (see e.g., Hills 1983). Based on our results we conclude that MBH binaries at high redshifts are expected to merge with a factor of ~ 2 more efficiently, which is important to determine the possible overall gravitational wave signals. However, we have not yet fully covered all the possible parameter space, in particular with respect to the preceding of the galaxy mergers, which may lead to a wider variety of initial models, such as initially more oblate and / or even significantly triaxial galactic nuclei. Our N-body simulations were carried out on a new special supercomputers using the hardware acceleration with graphic processing units (GPUs).

The Sydney–AAO Multi-object Integral field spectrograph (SAMI) Galaxy Survey is an ongoing project to obtain spatially resolved spectroscopic observations of ~3400 galaxies by mid-2016. To date, a total of ~1000 galaxies have been observed, making the SAMI Galaxy Survey the largest integral field survey in existence. In July 2014 the early data release for the SAMI galaxy Survey occurred, with over 100 galaxies available to the community. The richness of the SAMI dataset allows a vast array of science. We highlight some of the early science results from the project, including the discovery and analysis of galactic winds, the distribution of fast and slow rotating early type galaxies, and the unification of galaxy scaling relations.

IAU Commission 6 “Astronomical Telegrams” had a single business meeting during the Beijing General Assembly of the IAU. It took place on Friday, August 24, 2012. The meeting was attended by five C6 members (N. N. Samus; D. W. E. Green; S. Nakano; J. Ticha; and H. Yamaoka). Also present was Prof. F. Genova as a representative of the IAU Division B. She told the audience about the current restructuring of IAU Commissions and Divisions and consequences for the future of C6.

Stellar evolution models are a cornerstone of young star astrophysics, which necessitates that they yield accurate and reliable predictions of stellar properties. Here, I review the current performance of stellar evolution models against young astrophysical benchmarks and highlight recent progress incorporating non-standard physics, such as magnetic field and starspots, to explain observed deficiencies. While addition of these physical processes leads to improved agreement between models and observations, there are several fundamental limitations in our understanding about how these physical processes operate. These limitations inhibit our ability to form a coherent picture of the essential physics needed to accurately compute young stellar models, but provide rich avenues for further exploration.

We present a multifrequency analysis of the variability in the flat-spectrum radio quasar 3C 279 from 2008 to 2014. Our multiwavelength dataset includes gamma-ray data from Fermi/LAT (Abdo et al. 2009), observations in 1mm from SMA (Gurwell et al. 2007), Near Infrared from OAGH (Carramiñana & Carrasco 2009) and SMARTS (Bonning et al. 2012); optical V band from the Steward Observatory (Smith et al. 2009) and SMARTS; optical spectra from OAGH (Patiño-Álvarez et al. 2013) and the Steward Observatory; and polarization spectra from the Steward Observatory. The light curves are shown in Fig. 1. Six out of seven optical activity periods identified within our dataset show clear counterparts in mm, NIR and gamma-rays, however, the late 2011 - early 2012 optical flare does not have a counterpart in the GeV regime. In this contribution, we discuss the flaring evolution of 3C 279 and speculate about the production of the anomalous activity period.