We examine the dark matter properties of nearby early-type galaxies using planetary nebulae (PNe) as mass probes. We have designed a specialised instrument, the Planetary Nebula Spectrograph (PN.S) operating at the William Herschel telescope, with the purpose of measuring PN velocities with best efficiency. The primary scientific objective of this custom-built instrument is the study of the PN kinematics in 12 ordinary round galaxies. Preliminary results showing a dearth of dark matter in ordinary galaxies (Romanowsky et al. 2003) are now confirmed by the first complete PN.S datasets. On the other hand early-type galaxies with a “regular” dark matter content are starting to be observed among the brighter PN.S target sample, thus confirming a correlation between the global dark-to-luminous mass virial ratio (fDM = MDMM*) and the galaxy luminosity and mass.

I review the current state of knowledge regarding disk accretion in young brown dwarfs (BDs), and the interaction of the disk with the central object. In particular, I discuss (1) observations of accretion/outflow phenomena in BDs; (2) techniques for measuring accretion rates (Ṁacc); (3) the dependence of Ṁacc on the central mass from stars to brown dwarfs; (4) the temporal evolution of Ṁacc; and (5) observations of variability in the accretion line profiles. I then examine the implications of these issues for the formation mechanism of BDs, and discuss new observations that can further constrain substellar origins.

The meeting started at 16h00. The president welcomed the 24 participants to the business meeting of Commission 27. After the approval of the agenda, she gave an overview of the activities of Commission 27 of the past three years.

We present results from a series of VLT/FORS narrow-band imaging and spectroscopic surveys of Wolf-Rayet (WR) stars in nearby spiral galaxies and compare observed populations in high- and low metallicity environments. The metal-rich galaxy M 83 is seen to host an exceptional WR content, with over 1000 WR stars being detected. N(WC)/N(WN) ~ 1.2 and late-type WC subtypes dominate the WC population. At low metallicity, ~100 stars has been identified within NGC 1313, with N(WC)/N(WN) ~ 0.5. In contrast to M83, the WC population of NGC 1313 comprises solely early subtypes plus a WO star (the first WO star to be identified beyond the Local Group). Consequently, the dominant WC subtype may serve as a crude metallicity diagnostic for WR galaxies.

In addition, the WR content of the blue compact dwarf galaxy NGC 3125 is examined. Previous UV and optical spectroscopic studies of knot A in NGC 3125 derive WR populations which differ by more than an order of magnitude. New VLT observations and archival HST spectroscopy reconcile this discrepancy via the use of LMC WR spectral templates and a reduced nebular-derived interstellar extinction. Empirical N(WR)/N(O) ratios for clusters within NGC 3125 are a factor of two higher than evolutionary synthesis predictions but are consistent with those observed for other young massive clusters.

We present images of a number of lenticular galaxies which appear to be undergoing evolutionary processes such as ram-pressure stripping or gravitational interactions, or possess features indicative of some evolutionary process in the recent past, such as fossil spiral arms, a polar ring-like structure, or a warped disk with box-peanut bulge. All the galaxies were originally identified on digitally co-added photographic plates or films from the UK Schmidt Telescope, showing that such material is still useful in spite of the modern digital surveys available. In some cases CCD follow up is presented.

Energetically eruptive events such as flares and coronal mass ejections (CMEs) are known to generate global waves, propagating over large distances, sometimes comparable to the solar radius. In this contribution EIT waves are modelled as waves propagating at a spherical density interface in the presence of a radially expanding magnetic field. The generation and propagation of EIT waves is studied numerically for coronal parameters. Simple equilibria allow the explanation of the coronal dimming caused by EIT waves as a region of rarified plasma created by a siphon flow.

The dissolution time (tdis) of clusters in a tidal field does not scale with the “classical” expression for the relaxation time. First, the scaling with N, and hence cluster mass, is shallower due to the finite escape time of stars. Secondly, the cluster half-mass radius is of little importance. This is due to a balance between the relative tidal field strength and internal relaxation, which have an opposite effect on tdis, but of similar magnitude. When external perturbations, such as encounters with giant molecular clouds (GMC) are important, tdis for an individual cluster depends strongly on radius. The mean dissolution time for a population of clusters, however, scales in the same way with mass as for the tidal field, due to the weak dependence of radius on mass. The environmental parameters that determine tdis are the tidal field strength and the density of molecular gas. We compare the empirically derived tdis of clusters in six galaxies to theoretical predictions and argue that encounters with GMCs are the dominant destruction mechanism. Finally, we discuss a number of pitfalls in the derivations of tdis from observations, such as incompleteness, with the cluster system of the SMC as particular example.

Here we discuss the effects of type-I migration of protoplanetary embryos on mass and semimajor axis distributions of extrasolar planets. We summarize the results of Ida & Lin (2008a, 2008b), in which Monte Carlo simulations with a deterministic planet-formation model were carried out. The strength of type-I migration regulates the distribution of extrasolar gas giant planets as well as terrestrial planets. To be consistent with the existing observational data of extrasolar gas giants, the type-I migration speed has to be an order of magnitude slower than that given by the linear theory. The introduction of type-I migration inhibits in situ formation of gas giants in habitable zones (HZs) and reduces the probability of passage of gas giants through HZs, both of which facilitate retention of terrestrial planets in HZs. We also point out that the effect of magneto-rotational instability (MRI) could lead to trapping of migrating protoplanetary embryos in the regions near an ice line in the disk and it significantly enhances formation/retention probability of gas giants against type-I migration.

TWA 5B is a brown dwarf companion of H=12 mag, 2″ off the ~5 mag brighter triple star CoD-33° 7795 (=TWA 5), a member of the TW Hydrae association of T Tauri stars at ~55 pc. This object is the first brown dwarf around a pre-main-sequence star (confirmed by common proper motion) ever found. In the last year we have newly reduced VLT NaCo data originally taken in 2003 and combined it with all the available astrometric data of the system to investigate possibly detectable orbital motion of the system. Indeed we were able to find linear orbital motion of the system combining data from HST, VLT and Gemini-North.

Bright Rimmed Clouds (BRCs) are clouds that have been compressed by an external ionization-shock front which focuses the neutral gas into compact globules. The boundary layer between the neutral gas and the gas ionized by the incident photons is often called “bright rim” but the clumps are sometimes classified also as speck globules or cometary globules depending on their appearance. Small globules with bright rims have been considered to be potential sites of star formation and have been studied in several individual regions. We present the first high resolution VLA observations of 20 of these BRCs, but only three detections were obtained. The low detection rate seems to support the idea that BRCs produce mostly low-luminosity objects, for which maser emission is weak and episodic, and that the embedded sources are in a more advanced evolutionary phase than class 0 objects.

While numerous studies have been aimed at understanding the properties of young brown dwarfs relatively little exploration of their potential as drivers of outflows has occurred. Forbidden emission lines are important probes of outflows from young stellar objects, as they trace the shocks which form as an outflow interacts with the ambient medium of its driving source. While forbidden emission was identified in the spectra of young brown dwarfs, indicating the presence of outflows, these lines were weak and confined to the brown dwarf continuum position. Hence their origin in an outflow could not be confirmed. Our approach to this problem, is to analyse the forbidden line regions of brown dwarfs using spectro-astrometry. Spectro-astrometry is a novel technique which allows the user to recover spatial information from a spectrum beyond the limitations of the seeing of the observation. Using this technique we have found two brown dwarf outflows to date. In this chapter we outline this technique, describe our results for the brown dwarfs ρ-Oph 102 and 2MASS1207-3932 and discuss our future plans.

We outline an approach devoted to the detection of low surface brightness galaxies on astronomical images. We use a multi-scale approach, take into account sources of incompleteness and check selection functions both analytically and with simulations.

In a variability survey of M81 using the Large Binocular Telescope we have discovered a peculiar eclipsing binary (MV ≃ −7.1) in the field of the dwarf galaxy Holmberg IX. It has a period of 271 days and the light curve is well-fit by an overcontact model in which both stars are overflowing their Roche lobes. It is composed of two yellow supergiants (V − I ≃ 1 mag, Teff = 4800 K), rather than the far more common red or blue supergiants. Such systems must be rare. While we failed to find any similar systems in the literature, we did, however note a second example. The SMC F0 supergiant R47 is a bright (MV ≃ −7.5) periodic variable whose All Sky Automated Survey (ASAS) light curve is well-fit as a contact binary with a 181 day period. We propose that these massive systems are the progenitors of supernovae like SN 2004et and SN 2006ov, which appeared to have yellow progenitors. The binary interactions (mass transfer, mass loss) limit the size of the supergiant to give it a higher surface temperature than an isolated star at the same core evolutionary stage.

The president of the Commission welcomed the participants in the business meeting and provided an overview of the activities carried out during the past triennium 2002-2005. A good number of meetings have been held during this period on close binaries, about two per year, including both classical and interacting systems. One specific Symposium at the General Assembly in Prague, devoted to binary stars as astrophysical tools, showed the vitality of the field and the trend of cooperation between scientists studying close binaries and those specialized in visual double stars. The study of very low-mass binaries, including those containing planet-sized components also received much attention as well as the analysis of massive objects in nearby galaxies.

An original way of application of drift-scan imaging – electronic tracing technique for observation of the fast moving asteroids is presented in this contribution.

We have carried out a kinematical and stellar population analysis of the double-barred galaxy NGC357 to provide a more complete characterization of these systems and their role in the formation of galaxy bulges. We clearly identify the presence of the inner bar in the radial velocity and velocity dispersion profiles. The age, metallicity and [Mg/Fe] abundance ratio estimates are very similar to those of ellipticals of equivalent central σ. The [Mg/Fe] value for the bulge of this galaxy suggests formation timescales shorter than 1Gyr.

Massive star clusters in the Magellanic Clouds are observed to follow a striking trend in size with age – older clusters exhibit a much greater spread in core radius than do younger clusters, which are generally compact. We present results from realistic N-body modelling of massive star clusters, aimed at investigating a dynamical origin for the radius-age trend. We find that stellar-mass black holes, formed as remnants of the most massive stars in a cluster, can constitute a dynamically important population. If retained, these objects rapidly form a dense core where interactions are common, resulting in the scattering of black holes into the cluster halo, and the ejection of black holes from the cluster. These processes heat the stellar component, resulting in prolonged core expansion of a magnitude matching the observations. Core expansion at early times does not result from the action of black holes, but can be reproduced by the effects of rapid mass-loss due to stellar evolution in a primordially mass segregated cluster.

Our understanding of fundamental processes in the solar corona has been greatly progressed based on the space observations of SMM, Yohkoh, Compton GRO, SOHO, TRACE, RHESSI, and STEREO. We observe now acoustic waves, MHD oscillations, turbulence-related line broadening, magnetic configurations related to reconnection processes, and radiation from high-energy particles on a routine basis. We review a number of key observations in EUV, soft X-rays, and hard X-rays that innovated our physical understanding of the solar corona, in terms of hydrodynamics, MHD, plasma heating, and particle acceleration processes.

A flare of OH maser emission was discovered in W75N in 2000. Its location was determined with the VLBA to be within 110 AU from one of the ultra-compact HII regions, VLA2. The flare consisted of several maser spots. Four of the spots were found to form Zeeman pairs, all of them with a magnetic field strength of about 40 mG. This is the highest ever magnetic field strength found in OH masers, an order of magnitude higher than in typical OH masers. We discuss the possible source for the enhanced magnetic field and its relation to the flare event.

Terrestrial planets form in a series of dynamical steps from the solid component of circumstellar disks. First, km-sized planetesimals form likely via a combination of sticky collisions, turbulent concentration of solids, and gravitational collapse from micron-sized dust grains in the thin disk midplane. Second, planetesimals coalesce to form Moon- to Mars-sized protoplanets, also called “planetary embryos”. Finally, full-sized terrestrial planets accrete from protoplanets and planetesimals. This final stage of accretion lasts about 10-100 Myr and is strongly affected by gravitational perturbations from any gas giant planets, which are constrained to form more quickly, during the 1-10 Myr lifetime of the gaseous component of the disk. It is during this final stage that the bulk compositions and volatile (e.g., water) contents of terrestrial planets are set, depending on their feeding zones and the amount of radial mixing that occurs. The main factors that influence terrestrial planet formation are the mass and surface density profile of the disk, and the perturbations from giant planets and binary companions if they exist. Simple accretion models predicts that low-mass stars should form small, dry planets in their habitable zones. The migration of a giant planet through a disk of rocky bodies does not completely impede terrestrial planet growth. Rather, “hot Jupiter” systems are likely to also contain exterior, very water-rich Earth-like planets, and also “hot Earths”, very close-in rocky planets. Roughly one third of the known systems of extra-solar (giant) planets could allow a terrestrial planet to form in the habitable zone.