Our understanding of galaxy formation comes mostly from two sources: sensitive observations at high angular resolution of the high-redshift Universe, where galaxies are observed to be forming, and detailed observations of individual stars and clouds in the Local Group, where telltale remnants from its formative time remain and similar processes operate at a low level today. The current conference focusses on key aspects of the Local Group, composed of the Milky Way, Andromeda and Triangulum Spiral Galaxies, the Large and Small Magellanic Cloud galaxies, numerous dwarf and irregular galaxies, and intergalactic gas. Topics include the halo and thick disk of the Milky Way with its first stars and stellar streams; the Milky Way bar, bulge and outer edge; interstellar dust and turbulence; star formation processes and stellar scattering in spiral arms; views through the infrared Eyes of the Spitzer Space Telescope; globular clusters; the Local Gould Belt; stellar metallicities and elemental abundances; the environment and black hole in the Milky Way nucleus; orbits of the Magellanic Clouds and galaxy dwarfs; interstellar dust and turbulence; the outer disks and halos of the Andromeda and Triangulum galaxies; ripples from a collision in Andromeda; and arcs of carbon stars in the Triangulum and intergalactic clouds. This volume also discusses surveys of planetary nebulae, galaxy morphology at low and high redshift, cosmic evolution of star and galaxy formation and gas accretion, Lyman alpha emitting galaxies, ultra-low surface brightness imaging, and more. Readers are given a clear and comprehensive view of this wide range of topics written by specialists in each field. This is the proceedings of an International Conference at the Seychelles archipelago in May 2014, on the occasion of the 60th birthday of David Block and the millionth (base two) birthday of Bruce Elmegreen.

This prize-winning thesis deals with the observation and modeling of the spectral evolution of blazars. Based on single-dish light curves, a model of shock-shock interaction is tested and confirmed using multi-frequency high resolution Very Long Baseline Observations. He presents state-of-the art numerical relativistic hydrodynamic simulations and the corresponding non-thermal emission is calculated (eRHD simulations). The author further presents new analysis techniques for VLBI observations that can be applied to numerous sources and provide reliable results including an error estimate using Monte Carlo simulations. He also develops an analytical shock model that can be applied quickly to other single dish observations. He shows how novel techniques of extraction of physical parameters from observations can be applied to other astrophysical sources and provide a link to a better understanding of the physical mechanism operating in blazar jets.

The novel understanding of the physical world that characterized the Scientific Revolution depended on a fundamental shift in the way its protagonists understood and described space. At the beginning of the seventeenth century, spatial phenomena were described in relation to a presupposed central point; by its end, space had become a centerless void in which phenomena could only be described by reference to arbitrary orientations. David Marshall Miller examines both the historical and philosophical aspects of this far-reaching development, including the rejection of the idea of heavenly spheres, the advent of rectilinear inertia, and the theoretical contributions of Copernicus, Gilbert, Kepler, Galileo, Descartes, and Newton. His rich study shows clearly how the centered Aristotelian cosmos became the oriented Newtonian universe, and will be of great interest to students and scholars of the history and philosophy of science.

This book describes how sand dunes work, why they are the way they are in different settings, and how they are being studied. Particular attention is paid to their formation and appearance elsewhere in the solar system. New developments in knowledge about dunes make for an interesting story – like the dunes themselves, dune science is dynamic – and the visual appeal of Aeolian geomorphology ensures that this is an attractive volume. The book is divided into 4 parts, the first of which introduces dunes as a planetary phenomenon, showing a landscape reflecting the balance of geological processes – volcanism, impact, tectonics, erosion, deposition of sediments. Dunes are then considered as emergent dynamical systems: the interaction of sand and wind conspires to generate very characteristic and reproducible shapes. Analogies are given with other emergent structures such as patterned ground before the influence of dunes on desert peoples and infrastructure is studied, together with their use as forensic climatological indicators. Dune Physics is looked at with regard to the mechanics of sand, the physics of wind, saltation – interaction of sand and air – dunes versus ripples and transverse Aeolian ridges, the classification of dune morphology and the sources and sinks of sand. Dune Trafficability considers soil mechanics, effects on mobility on Earth, Mars and elsewhere. In the second part, Earth, Mars, Titan and other moons and planets are examined, beginning with a survey of the major deserts and dunefields on Earth. The authors then turn to Mars and its environment, sediment type, dune stratigraphy, sediment source and sinks and the association of dunes with topographic features. Titan follows - its thick, cold atmosphere, methane dampness, low gravity, morphology – interaction with topography and the implications of dunes for climate and winds. Dunes elsewhere conclude this part. There are few dunefields on Venus, but there is a .possibility of Aeolian transport on Triton and volcanic-related windstreaks on Io.

This volume contains the updated and expanded lecture notes of the 37th Saas-Fee Advanced Course organised by the Swiss Society for Astrophysics and Astronomy. It offers the most comprehensive and up to date review of one of the hottest research topics in astrophysics - how our Milky Way galaxy formed. Joss Bland-Hawthorn & Ken Freeman lectured on Near Field Cosmology - The Origin of the Galaxy and the Local Group. Francesca Matteucci's chapter is on Chemical evolution of the Milky Way and its Satellites. As designed by the SSAA, books in this series - and this one too - are targeted at graduate and PhD students and young researchers in astronomy, astrophysics and cosmology. Lecturers and researchers entering the field will also benefit from the book.

The search for gravitational radiation with optical interferometers is gaining momentum worldwide. Beside the VIRGO and GEO gravitational wave observatories in Europe and the two LIGOs in the United States, which have operated successfully during the past decade, further observatories are being completed (KAGRA in Japan) or planned (ILIGO in India). The sensitivity of the current observatories, although spectacular, has not allowed direct discovery of gravitational waves. The advanced detectors (Advanced LIGO and Advanced Virgo) at present in the development phase will improve sensitivity by a factor of 10, probing the universe up to 200 Mpc for signal from inspiraling binary compact stars. This book covers all experimental aspects of the search for gravitational radiation with optical interferometers. Every facet of the technological development underlying the evolution of advanced interferometers is thoroughly described, from configuration to optics and coatings and from thermal compensation to suspensions and controls. All key ingredients of an advanced detector are covered, including the solutions implemented in first-generation detectors, their limitations, and how to overcome them. Each issue is addressed with special reference to the solution adopted for Advanced VIRGO but constant attention is also paid to other strategies, in particular those chosen for Advanced LIGO.

The focus of this volume is research carried out as part of the program Mathematics of Planet Earth, which provides a platform to showcase the essential role of mathematics in addressing planetary problems and creating a context for mathematicians and applied scientists to foster mathematical and interdisciplinary developments that will be necessary to tackle a myriad of issues and meet future global challenges. Earth is a planet with dynamic processes in its mantle, oceans and atmosphere creating climate, causing natural disasters and influencing fundamental aspects of life and life-supporting systems. In addition to these natural processes, human activity has increased to the point where it influences the global climate, impacts the ability of the planet to feed itself and threatens the stability of these systems. Issues such as climate change, sustainability, man-made disasters, control of diseases and epidemics, management of resources, risk analysis and global integration have come to the fore. Written by specialists in several fields of mathematics and applied sciences, this book presents the proceedings of the International Conference and Advanced School Planet Earth, Mathematics of Energy and Climate Change held in Lisbon, Portugal, in March 2013, which was organized by the International Center of Mathematics (CIM) as a partner institution of the international program Mathematics of Planet Earth 2013. The book presents the state of the art in advanced research and ultimate techniques in modeling natural, economical and social phenomena. It constitutes a tool and a framework for researchers and graduate students, both in mathematics and applied sciences.

In this PhD thesis, which was nominated for publication in this series by the Astronomical Institute at Charles University, Prague, the author investigates the orbital evolution of an initially thin stellar disc around a supermassive black hole, considering various perturbative sources of gravity. His findings, obtained by both direct numerical N-body modelling and using standard perturbation methods, offer a viable theoretical explanation for the observed configuration of young stars in the Galactic Centre. This marks a significant contribution to a topic of great interest in contemporary astrophysics. The author also shows in his thesis that a secular instability (m = 1 mode) may occur in the embedding spherical cluster of old stars. This increases the richness of possible evolution scenarios of the embedding cluster and may lead to effective feeding of supermassive black holes through tidal disruption of stars on extremely eccentric orbits.

Pulsar timing is a promising method for detecting gravitational waves in the nano-Hertz band. In his prize winning Ph.D. thesis Rutger van Haasteren deals with how one takes thousands of seemingly random timing residuals which are measured by pulsar observers, and extracts information about the presence and character of the gravitational waves in the nano-Hertz band that are washing over our Galaxy. The author presents a sophisticated mathematical algorithm that deals with this issue. His algorithm is probably the most well-developed of those that are currently in use in the Pulsar Timing Array community. In chapter 3, the gravitational-wave memory effect is described. This is one of the first descriptions of this interesting effect in relation with pulsar timing, which may become observable in future Pulsar Timing Array projects. The last part of the work is dedicated to an effort to combine the European pulsar timing data sets in order to search for gravitational waves. This study has placed the most stringent limit to date on the intensity of gravitational waves that are produced by pairs of supermassive black holes dancing around each other in distant galaxies, as well as those that may be produced by vibrating cosmic strings. Rutger van Haasteren has won the 2011 GWIC Thesis Prize of the Gravitational Wave International Community for his innovative work in various directions of the search for gravitational waves by pulsar timing. The work is presented in this Ph.D. thesis.

First published in 1857, this work comprises assorted noteworthy writings by the mathematician and astronomer Sir John Herschel (1792 1871), reflecting his diverse scientific and literary interests. It includes a piece on terrestrial magnetism, a review of William Whewell's writings on the history and philosophy of science, and several addresses to the Royal Astronomical Society. Of particular interest is Herschel's commentary on Adolphe Quetelet's work on probability, which advocated applying statistics and probability calculus to social and political questions. Herschel's article not only influenced the growth of social science in Britain, but also played an important role in James Clerk Maxwell's development of a statistical treatment of heat phenomena. Also included in this collection are Herschel's translations of poems by Schiller (accompanied by the original German) as well as examples of his own verse. In an intriguing appendix, Herschel outlines a method for compiling vocabularies of indigenous peoples."

This book provides a theoretical and observational overview of the state of the art of gamma-ray astrophysics, and their impact and connection with the physics of cosmic rays and neutrinos. With the aim of shedding new and fresh light on the problem of the nature of the gamma-ray sources, particularly those yet unidentified, this book summarizes contributions to a workshop that continues today.

Where do most stars (and the planetary systems that surround them) in the Milky Way form? What determines whether a young star cluster remains bound (such as an open or globular cluster), or disperses to join the field stars in the disc of the Galaxy? These questions not only impact understanding of the origins of stars and planetary systems like our own (and the potential for life to emerge that they represent), but also galaxy formation and evolution, and ultimately the story of star formation over cosmic time in the Universe. This volume will help readers understand our current views concerning the answers to these questions as well as frame new questions that will be answered by the European Space Agency's Gaia satellite that was launched in late 2013. The book contains the elaborated notes of lectures given at the 42nd Saas-Fee Advanced Course "Dynamics of Young Star Clusters & Associations" by Cathie Clarke (University of Cambridge) who presents the theory of star formation and dynamical evolution of stellar systems, Robert Mathieu (University of Wisconsin) who discusses the kinematics of star clusters and associations, and I. Neill Reid (S pace Telescope Science Institute) who provides an overview of the stellar populations in the Milky Way and speculates on from whence came the Sun. As part of the Saas-Fee Advanced Course Series, the book offers an in-depth introduction to the field serving as a starting point for Ph.D. research and as a reference work for professional astrophysicists.

This book reviews the phenomenology displayed by relativistic jets as well as the most recent theoretical efforts to understand the physical mechanisms at their origin. Relativistic jets have been observed and studied in Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN) for about half a century and are believed to be fueled by accretion onto a supermassive black hole at the center of the host galaxy. Since the first discovery of relativistic jets associated with so-called "micro-quasars" much more recently, it has seemed clear that much of the physics governing the relativistic outflows in stellar X-ray binaries harboring black holes and in AGN must be common, but acting on very different spatial and temporal scales. With new observational and theoretical results piling up every day, this book attempts to synthesize a consistent, unified physical picture of the formation and disruption of jets in accreting black-hole systems. The chapters in this book offer overviews accessible not only to specialists but also to graduate students and astrophysicists working in other areas. Covered topics comprise Relativistic jets in stellar systems Launching of AGN jets Parsec-scale AGN jets Kiloparsec-scale AGN jets Black hole magnetospheres Theory of relativistic jets The structure and dynamics of the inner accretion disk The origin of the jet magnetic field X-ray observations, phenomenology, and connection with theory

This thesis discusses the evolution of galaxies through the study of the morphology, kinematics, and star formation properties of a sample of nearby galaxies. The main body of the thesis describes the kinematic observations with the GHaFAS Fabry-Perot instrument on the William Herschel Telescope of a sample of 29 spiral galaxies. The work is closely related to the Spitzer Survey of Stellar Structure in Galaxies, and uses the mid-infrared data of that survey to determine key parameters of the galaxies studied. From these data, important results are obtained on streaming and other non-circular motions in galaxies, on the distribution and rates of star formation, and on how correlations of these parameters and of the rotation curve shape with basic galaxy parameters yield clues on the evolutionary processes taking place in disk galaxies.

These pages present a collection of recent papers primarily documenting the nascent science of neutrino geophysics. Most of the papers followed from talks given at Neutrino Sciences 2005: Neutrino Geophysics held at the University of Hawaii in December 2005. Several papers were solicited later in an effort to make the collection as comprehensive as possible. Every paper was scrutinized by an external reviewer to assure the quality of scientific content.

Understanding the stars is the bedrock of modern astrophysics. Stars are the source of life. The chemical enrichment of our Milky Way and of the Universe withallelementsheavierthanlithiumoriginatesintheinteriorsofstars.Stars arethe tracersofthe dynamics ofthe Universe,gravitationallyimplying much more than meets the eye. Stars ionize the interstellar medium and re-ionized the early intergalactic medium. Understanding stellar structure and evolution is fundamental. While stellar structure and evolution are understood in general terms, we lack important physical ingredients, despite extensive research during recent decades.Classicalspectroscopy,photometry,astrometryandinterferometryof stars have traditionally been used as observational constraints to deduce the internal stellar physics. Unfortunately, these types of observations only allow the tuning of the basic common physics laws under stellar conditions with relatively poor precision. The situation is even more worrisome for unknown aspects of the physics and dynamics in stars. These are usually dealt with by using parameterised descriptions of, e.g., the treatments of convection, rotation,angularmomentumtransport,theequationofstate,atomicdi?usion andsettlingofelements,magneto-hydrodynamicalprocesses,andmore.There is a dearth of observational constraints on these processes, thus solar values areoftenassignedtothem.Yetitishardtoimaginethatonesetofparameters is appropriate for the vast range of stars.

The discovery of a gradual acceleration in the moon's mean motion by Edmond Halley in the last decade of the seventeenth century led to a revival of interest in reports of astronomical observations from antiquity. These observations provided the only means to study the moon's 'secular acceleration', as this newly-discovered acceleration became known. This book contains the first detailed study of the use of ancient and medieval astronomical observations in order to investigate the moon's secular acceleration from its discovery by Halley to the establishment of the magnitude of the acceleration by Richard Dunthorne, Tobias Mayer and Jerome Lalande in the 1740s and 1750s. Making extensive use of previously unstudied manuscripts, this work shows how different astronomers used the same small body of preserved ancient observations in different ways in their work on the secular acceleration. In addition, this work looks at the wider context of the study of the moon's secular acceleration, including its use in debates of biblical chronology, whether the heavens were made up of aether, and the use of astronomy in determining geographical longitude. It also discusses wider issues of the perceptions and knowledge of ancient and medieval astronomy in the early-modern period. This book will be of interest to historians of astronomy, astronomers and historians of the ancient world.

These proceedings collect the selected contributions of participants of the First Karl Schwarzschild Meeting on Gravitational Physics, held in Frankfurt, Germany to celebrate the 140th anniversary of Schwarzschild's birth. They are grouped into 4 main themes: I. The Life and Work of Karl Schwarzschild; II. Black Holes in Classical General Relativity, Numerical Relativity, Astrophysics, Cosmology, and Alternative Theories of Gravity; III. Black Holes in Quantum Gravity and String Theory; IV. Other Topics in Contemporary Gravitation. Inspired by the foundational principle ``By acknowledging the past, we open a route to the future", the week-long meeting, envisioned as a forum for exchange between scientists from all locations and levels of education, drew participants from 15 countries across 4 continents. In addition to plenary talks from leading researchers, a special focus on young talent was provided, a feature underlined by the Springer Prize for the best student and junior presentations.

In this updated second edition renowned amateur comet-searcher David H. Levy expands on his work about the intricate relationship between the night sky and the works of English Literature. This revised and expanded text includes new sections on Alfred Lord Tennyson and Gerald Manley Hopkins (both amateur astronomers), extending the time period analyzed in the first edition from early modern literature to encompass the Victorian age. Although the sky enters into much of literature through the ages, British authors offer an especially fertile connection to the heavens, and Levy links the works of seminal authors from Shakespeare on to specific celestial events and scientific advances. From the impact of comets and supernovae to eclipses, Levy's ultimate goal in this book is to inspire his readers to do the same thing as their ancestors did so long ago-look up and appreciate the stars. His insights in this revised book spread farther and wider than ever before in this learned and enchanting tour of the skies.

This book is the result of a working group sponsored by ISSI in Bern, which was initially created to study possible ways to calibrate a Far Ultraviolet (FUV) instrument after launch. In most cases, ultraviolet instruments are well calibrated on the ground, but unfortunately, optics and detectors in the FUV are very sensitive to contaminants and it is very challenging to prevent contamination before and during the test and launch sequences of a space mission. Therefore, ground calibrations need to be confirmed after launch and it is necessary to keep track of the temporal evolution of the sensitivity of the instrument during the mission. The studies presented here cover various fields of FUV spectroscopy, including a catalog of stellar spectra, datasets of Moon Irradiance, observations of comets and measurements of the interplanetary background. Detailed modelling of the interplanetary background is presented as well. This work also includes comparisons of older datasets with current ones. This raises the question of the consistency of the existing datasets. Previous experiments have been calibrated independently and comparison of the datasets may lead to inconsistencies. The authors have tried to check that possibility in the datasets and when relevant suggest a correction factor for the corresponding data.

In this fascinating journey to the edge of science, Vidal takes on big philosophical questions: Does our universe have a beginning and an end or is it cyclic? Are we alone in the universe? What is the role of intelligent life, if any, in cosmic evolution? Grounded in science and committed to philosophical rigor, this book presents an evolutionary worldview where the rise of intelligent life is not an accident, but may well be the key to unlocking the universe's deepest mysteries. Vidal shows how the fine-tuning controversy can be advanced with computer simulations. He also explores whether natural or artificial selection could hold on a cosmic scale. In perhaps his boldest hypothesis, he argues that signs of advanced extraterrestrial civilizations are already present in our astrophysical data. His conclusions invite us to see the meaning of life, evolution and intelligence from a novel cosmological framework that should stir debate for years to come.

Stars are Small Dark-Coloured Things That Live in Holes in the Ground.- Shrouds of the Night - Galaxies and Rene Magritte.- Twin Masks of Spiral Structure? A Local Perspective.- The Mask of Complexity in Disk Galaxies.- Cosmic Magnetic Fields - An Overview.- The Gaseous Halo Mask.- Molecular Gas Properties of Galaxies: The SMA CO(2-1) B0DEGA Legacy Project.- The DiVA's Mask: Iconifying Galaxies and Revealing HI Anomalies.- Enigmatic Masks of Cosmic Dust: Lessons from Nearby Galaxies Through the Eyes of the Spitzer Space Telescope.- The Large Magellanic Cloud: A Power Spectral Analysis of Spitzer Images.- Light Cores Behind Dark Masks.- Globalization, Open Access Publishing, and the Disappearance of Print: Threat or Opportunity?.- Super Star Clusters and Supernovae in Interacting LIRGs Unmasked by NIR Adaptive Optics.- Structure, Mass, and Stability of Galactic Disks.- What Can the Radial Surface Brightness Profiles of Galaxy Discs Tell Us About Their Evolution?.- The Complex Interplay of Dust and Star Light in Spiral Galaxy Discs.- Galaxy Morphology Revealed By SDSS: Blue Elliptical Galaxies.- Rings and Bars: Unmasking Secular Evolution of Galaxies.- Bars and Bulges Through Masks of Time.- Tidal Trails and Mass-Segregated Isothermal Clusters.- Stellar Debris Streams: New Probes of Galactic Structure and Formation.- Chemical Enrichment in Galaxies: Constraints on Nucleogenesis and Galaxy Evolution.- Chemodynamical Simulations of Galaxies.- Elemental Abundance Patterns of Disk Substructure.- Searching for Structures and Streams in the Extended Solar Neighbourhood with RAVE.- On the Age-Metallicity-Velocity Relation in the Nearby Disk Using the RAVE Survey.- The HERMES Project: Reconstructing Galaxy Formation.- Stellar Halos: Unmasking a Galaxy's History.- The Outer Halos of Elliptical Galaxies.- Galaxies: Lighthouses in the Shoals of Dark Halos.- Dark Haloes as Seen with Gravitational Lensing.- Behind the Mask: Resolving the Core-Cusp Problem in Spiral Galaxies.- A GALAXY BASELINE: Multiwavelength Study of a Sample of the Most Isolated Galaxies in the Local Universe.- Diffuse Light and Galaxy Interactions in the Core of Nearby Clusters.- Feedback in Star and Galaxy Formation.- When Bad Masks Turn Good.- Spitzer's View of Galaxies in the High-Redshift Universe.- Bandshifting and Other Masks of the Clumpy Populations in High-Redshift Galaxies.- Supernovae, Dust, and Cosmology.

Rotation is ubiquitous at each step of stellar evolution, from star formation to the final stages, and it affects the course of evolution, the timescales and nucleosynthesis. Stellar rotation is also an essential prerequisite for the occurrence of Gamma-Ray Bursts. In this book the author thoroughly examines the basic mechanical and thermal effects of rotation, their influence on mass loss by stellar winds, the effects of differential rotation and its associated instabilities, the relation with magnetic fields and the evolution of the internal and surface rotation. Further, he discusses the numerous observational signatures of rotational effects obtained from spectroscopy and interferometric observations, as well as from chemical abundance determinations, helioseismology and asteroseismology, etc. On an introductory level, this book presents in a didactical way the basic concepts of stellar structure and evolution in "track 1" chapters. The other more specialized chapters form an advanced course on the graduate level and will further serve as a valuable reference work for professional astrophysicists.

In this book the applicability and the utility of two statistical approaches for understanding dark energy and dark matter with gravitational lensing measurement are introduced. For cosmological constraints on the nature of dark energy, morphological statistics called Minkowski functionals (MFs) to extract the non-Gaussian information of gravitational lensing are studied. Measuring lensing MFs from the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope Lensing survey (CFHTLenS), the author clearly shows that MFs can be powerful statistics beyond the conventional approach with the two-point correlation function. Combined with the two-point correlation function, MFs can constrain the equation of state of dark energy with a precision level of approximately 3-4 % in upcoming surveys with sky coverage of 20,000 square degrees. On the topic of dark matter, the author studied the cross-correlation of gravitational lensing and the extragalactic gamma-ray background (EGB). Dark matter annihilation is among the potential contributors to the EGB. The cross-correlation is a powerful probe of signatures of dark matter annihilation, because both cosmic shear and gamma-ray emission originate directly from the same dark matter distribution in the universe. The first measurement of the cross-correlation using a real data set obtained from CFHTLenS and the Fermi Large Area Telescope was performed. Comparing the result with theoretical predictions, an independent constraint was placed on dark matter annihilation. Future lensing surveys will be useful to constrain on the canonical value of annihilation cross section for a wide range of mass of dark matter annihilation. Future lensing surveys will be useful to constrain on the canonical value of annihilation cross section for a wide range of mass of dark matter.

This review gathers astronomers, geologists, biologists, and chemists around a common question: how did life emerge on Earth? The ultimate goal is to probe an even more demanding question: is life universal? This not-so linear account highlights problems, gaps, and controversies. Discussion covers the formation of the solar system; the building of a habitable planet; prebiotic chemistry, biochemistry, and the emergence of life; the early Earth environment, and much more.