Highlights of Astronomy as presented at the IAU XXVI General Assembly 2006

About this book

Recording the proceedings of the IAU XXVI General Assembly, this volume of the IAU Highlights of Astronomy covers virtually all aspects of modern astrophysics as discussed by 2400 participants from 73 countries. Notably, the common aspects of astrophysical phenomena known to exist in widely differing interstellar environments is thoroughly examined, providing fertile cross correlation from one specialisation to another. This text highlights the importance of the triennial IAU General Assemblies in bringing together the work of observers and theoreticians in widely different fields, but working towards a common goal: understanding the physics of the Universe. Together with the Proceedings of the IAU Symposia 235-240, this volume examines all of the astrophysics presented at the General Assembly.

Contents

Preface Karel A. van der Hucht; Part I. Invited Discourses: Part II. Joint Discussions: 1. Particle acceleration - from Solar System to AGN Marian Karlicky and John C. Brown; 2. Pulsar emission and related phenomena Werner Becker, Janusz A. Gil and Bronislaw Rudak; 3. Solar activity regions and magnetic structure Debi Prasad Choudhary and Michal Sobotka; 4. The ultraviolet universe: Stars from birth to death Ana I. Gomez de Castro and Martin A. Barstow; 5. Calibrating the top of the stellar M-L relationship Claus Leitherer, Anthony F. J. Moat and Joachim Puls; 6. Neutron stars and black holes in star clusters Frederic A. Rasio; 7. The Universe at z > 6 Daniel Schaerer and Andrea Ferrara; 8. Solar and stellar activity cycles Klaus G. Strassmeier and Alexander Kosovichev; 9. Supernovae: One millennium after SN 1006 P. Frank Winkler, Wolfgang Hillebrandt and Brian P. Schmidt; 10. Progress in planetary exploration missions Guy J. Consolmagno; 11. Pre-solar grains as astrophysical tools Anja C. Andersen and John C. Lattanzio; 12. Long wavelength astrophysics T. Joseph W. Lazio and Namir E. Kassim; 13. Exploiting large surveys for galactic astronomy Christopher J. Corbally, Coryn A. L. Bailer-Jones, Sunetra Giridhar and Thomas H. Lloyd Evans; 14. Modeling dense stellar systems Alison I. Sills, Ladislav Subr and Simon F. Portegies Zwart; 15. New cosmology results from the Spitzer Space Telescope George Helou and David T. Frayer; 16. Nomenclature, precession and new models in fundamental astronomy Nicole Capitaine, Jan Vondrak & James L. Hilton; 17. Highlights of recent progress in seismology of the Sun and Sun-like stars John W. Leibacher and Michael J. Thompson; Part III. Special Sessions: SpS 1. Large astronomical facilities of the next decade Gerard F. Gilmore and Richard T. Schilizzi; SpS 2. Innovation in teaching and learning astronomy methods Rosa M. Ros and Jay M. Pasachoff; SpS 3. The Virtual Observatory in action: New science, new technology and next-generation facilities Nicholas A. Walton, Andrew Lawrence & Roy Williams; SpS 5. Astronomy for the developing world John B. Hearnshaw and Peter Martinez; SpS 6. Astronomical data management Raymond P. Norris; SpS 7. Astronomy in Antarctica Michael G. Burton; Author index.

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